The editors and contributors share the assumption that the democratic transformation of socio-political systems follows, in addition to certain often significant, national or regional peculiarities, universal patterns and that consequently the modernisation of education systems after the end of authoritarian regimes produces common features and outcomes. Twelve or eight years respectively after the fundamental system changes in Germany and South Africa the editors and authors of this volume want to assess the available research results on topics of educational transformation in both countries and to develop possibly new international research perspectives.