ECER Best Poster Award 2022

Mario Mallwitz

• 2015-2018: Bachelor of Arts (Elementary Education)
• 2018-2019: Work and Travel
• 2019-2021: Master of Education (Elementary Education)
• 2021 – today: Research associate in the project “Periphere Regionen, Teilhabe und Schule” (Rural Areas, Participation and School) at the Institute of Education at Osnabrueck University
• Visiting the ECER for the first time
• Research interests: Gender & Queer Studies, school development

Sonja Nonte

• Since 2020: Professor for research methods and school development at the Institute of Education at Osnabrueck University
• Research interests: school effectiveness and school development; cultural education and participation; gender disparities and fair comparisons in empirical educational research
• Visiting ECER for the fifth time (first was 2009 in Vienna)

Potentials of Schools for Enabling Cultural Participation in Rural Areas Under the Impact of the Covid 19 Pandemic
The poster provides insights into the results of a project on cultural education in rural areas. The research was conducted in a rural region in the middle of Germany. Over the past two years, we conducted standardized interviews with school administrators and cultural professionals to find out more about the potentials and challenges of cultural education in rural areas. Even before the pandemic, the variety of cultural offerings in this peripheral area was severely limited. Here, in addition to cultural actors such as music organizations or private individuals, schools often take on the role of cultural mediators - in some cases beyond their own circle of actors. The schools benefit from this, as they can make their profile here in particular - also in the competition for students. Local cultural providers also need to do a lot of work with young people in order to survive. This shows the potential for cooperation between schools and music clubs as well as private providers. The poster now shows what (new) challenges there are to be met, especially as a result of the pandemic, and what additional resources are needed for this. It becomes clear that cultural offerings were hardly in the focus of the public during the pandemic and that many providers of cultural activities were on the edge of extinction. At schools, too, the range of cultural activities on offer was and is (and has been) severely limited. From the point of view of a school administrator, it is particularly important to emphasize that schools should not only focus on closing the gaps in learning, but that cultural activities in particular should provide much-needed opportunities for social interaction, for personal well-being and for coming to terms with the pandemic.

You can view Mario and Sonja's poster here