The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Member of the Leibniz Association
27.05.2016-28.05.2016, Braunschweig,
Closing Date: 24.03.2016
The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) is
organising a workshop on the subject of
Educational Films from a Historical Perspective to be held on the 27 and 28 May 2016 at the GEI in Braunschweig.
The aim of the workshop is to discuss, from an internationally comparative and transnational perspective, why, and how, educational films became to be used in schools as a ‘new ‘medium’ for teaching and learning in the Interwar years, and what impact they had. The guiding objectives are based on three central research questions.
Participants at the workshop will explore the complex conflicts between
the support and resistance expressed by a diverse range of political and
social interest groups towards the introduction of educational films in
schools in the 1920s. Prominent among these were debates among teachers
and also among education policy makers. These disputes were firmly rooted in the context of the larger discourse on educational reform and corresponding educational practices in the Interwar years. The workshop will also address whether, and if so to what extent, educational films changed the culture of learning and teaching. In terms of the sociological content of textbooks and educational films the discussion
will examine whether the films complemented traditional textbooks or
were a substitute for them. When comparing the old medium – the textbook
– with the new medium – the film – we must explore the specific influence of the individual educational media.
A comparison of the experiences of different countries should reveal
similarities and contrasts in the progress of this phenomenon and will
attempt to answer the question of whether the introduction of educational films into schools was indeed an international, or at least transnational, phenomenon, realised through numerous transnational agents. The workshop is therefore rooted within the research fields of comparative and transnational educational history.
In addition a methodological meeting will explore the extent to which an
analysis of medial and media-related aspects of knowledge building and
of the popularisation of knowledge and expertise would provide a methodological impetus to study the rhetorical, narrative and iconographic strategies behind sites of memory and the construction of knowledge.
We invite proposals for 20 minute presentations that engage with these
themes and other related topics.
The working language of our workshop will be English. Limited funding is
available to reimburse travel expenses and accommodation. Please indicate whether you require financial support to attend the workshop.
Please send a proposal of no more than 300 words, a short academic CV and information about your institutional affiliation including contact details (100 words), preferably in a single PDF or Word file, by 24 March 2016 to Eckhardt Fuchs (projekt-lehrfilm@gei.de). We will aim to
respond to your submission by 7 April 2016.