School Texts as Artefacts: Studying Anglophone Cultures Through the Lens of Educational Media

Kursbeschreibung / -kommentar

School texts are “cultural artefacts” (Foster and Crawford, 2006) that illuminate how a society envisions itself at a given time. They present an officially recognized version of knowledge – knowledge that is defined as true and important for future generations to acquire. School texts reveal what the people who write them and those who approve them consider important for children to learn and internalize – and they are assumed to have a fundamental impact on a child’s perception of the world. As such, school texts are a rich and fascinating text form, yet one that, thus far, has received little attention within the context of English studies.
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the history, theory, and methodology of international textbook research and to encourage them to critically analyze educational media of anglophone nations in their respective historical and cultural contexts. Employing an inquiry-based approach to learning, the course aims to enable students to carry out their own small research projects on chosen case studies, either in small groups or individually, that will be presented to the class at the end of the semester and, potentially, via an open-access publication format online.
This seminar uses blended learning techniques. Sessions in Potsdam meet on a biweekly basis. Students are required to complete online assignments every other week. A one-day excursion to the Georg Eckert Institute of International Textbook Research in Braunschweig – scheduled for Monday, January 6 (8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. including bus trip) – will be an integral part of the course and will allow students to carry out research at the institute’s library.