Cultural Talks ‘ – From the intercultural Karl May effect to post-colonial reflection
Project Number: G6
Country: Germany
Institutions/Departments: Cooperation between 3 research centres in Heidelberg: Heidelberg School of Education, Institute of Ethnology (University of Heidelberg) and the Heidelberg Centre for Migration Research and Transcultural Pedagogy (College of Education) // Kooperation zwischen 3 Forschungsstellen in Heidelberg: Heidelberg School of Education, Institut für Ethnologie (Universität Heidelberg) und das Heidelberger Zentrum für Migrationsforschung und Transkulturelle Pädagogik (Pädagogische Hochschule)
Publication/Material: Part of the current teacher-training curriculum in Heidelberg
Project leader and contact person: Dr. Stefan Müller-Mathis (Heidelberg School of Education), Partner: Dr. Anita Galuschek (Universität Heidelberg); Sylvia Selke (PH Heidelberg)
Duration: since 2017
Short Description:
The aim of the project is to work on conceptual materials for innovative teacher training in the area of inclusion and migration and to develop concrete examples for teaching design. The teaching and training materials designed address the questions: 1) How do we perceive other people and which images of ourselves come to light; 2) How do others represent us and how are all participants involved in the processes of post-colonial knowledge?
The project draws on postcolonial reflexivity, which is a special feature of cultural studies research. How knowledge about 'others' is generated and how this knowledge is embedded in globally unequal conditions is a central interest in transcultural studies. If culturalisations are questioned here, some learning and educational offers contain modes of reflection with which simplified explanations of human behaviour are formed by recourse to the concept of culture; as the project title alludes to, an "intercultural Karl May effect" arises (Jammal 2009). In contrast, a critical pedagogy is developing that wants to discuss the encounter with 'foreign culture' rather than the history of seizure. The teaching and training materials developed were incorporated into the areas of inclusion and migration of the Heidelberg teachers' training. On the one hand, representations of 'indigenous populations' in educational media were discussed against the background of the claim to decolonize knowledge. This made it possible to think about materials that promote dialogue, reciprocity and multi-perspectivity. On the other hand, the "DeinBlick-MeinBlick" booklets created a graphic narrative that presents different perspectives on self-perception, external perception and the world in which we live. In this way, learners can reflect on structures in which the self living in the living world always creates and reassembles new points of reference. Students tested and evaluated the conceived materials. They got to know multi-perspectivity as a scientific and didactic principle and questioned (powerful) social and pedagogical representational practices.
Implementation: since 2017, implemented in teacher training curriculum
Target Group(s), age & context: Pedagogy students, pre-service teachers, teacher raining education
Approach/Method: Creating teaching materials (for example “MeinBlick-deinBlick”-Hefte / “my gaze – your gaze”
Type: Teacher Training
Funding: PLACE project (SS 2017, second phase) = “Partizipation Langfristig Absichern, Chancen Erweitern” / “Securing long-term participation, expanding opportunities” - funded by the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg, Germany
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.