Session Information
17 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session
General Poster Session
Contribution
This project analyses videos of classroom observations in history and civics courses in the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) from the 1970s to the 1990s. Building upon extant research on civics courses in the GDR that has relied upon written sources (such as curricula, textbooks, lesson plans, teaching aids and educational policy materials), my research introduces video recordings of classroom interactions in order to enhance our understanding of pedagogical aims and practices in both halves of Cold War Germany.
I begin this analysis by considering how teachers and students work together to create a specific classroom environment. Then, I consider the role of videotaped classroom observations for teacher education purposes versus these videos’ importance for contemporary scholarly research. To be sure, these videotaped lessons do not portray a distortion-free “reality”, but can and do convey a general picture of an ideal lesson as conceived of by educational experts at the time. Indeed, it becomes possible to analyze structures and processes of communication and instruction in these subjects.
This study distinguishes between the actions as they take place in front of the camera and the action of the camera itself; for example, the ways in which the camera draws attention to some aspects of the lesson while disregarding others, or the effects of a particular camera angle. Second, the context of each recording must be taken into account. Is it a recording of a student teacher, or are we observing a more experienced teacher trying out a new didactical concept? Is the lesson an example of best practices, or does it highlight typical classroom problems? With these sorts of questions in mind, the results of this research project will contribute to the literature on theory versus practice in educational settings.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
- Akademie der Pädagogischen Wissenschaften der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (1982) (Ed.): Erhöhung der geistigen Aktivität aller Schüler im Unterricht. Berlin (East). - Behrmann, Günter C./ Jeismann, Karl-Ernst/ Süssmuth, Hans (1978) (Eds.): Geschichte und Politik. Didaktische Grundlegung eines kooperativen Unterrichts. Paderborn. - Benner, Dietrich/ Merkens, Hans/ Gatzemann, Thomas (1996) (Eds.): Pädagogische Eigenlogiken im Transformationsprozeß von SBZ, DDR und neuen Ländern. Berlin. - Benner, Dietrich/ Merkens, Hans/ Schmidt, Folker (1996) (Hg.): Bildung und Schule im Transformationsprozeß von SBZ, DDR und neuen Ländern. Untersuchungen zu Kontinuität und Wandel. Berlin. - Blessing, Benita/ Grammes, Tilman/ Schluß, Henning (2012): Civics courses in the German Democratic Republic: A Case Study in the History of Curriculum end Educational Research. In: JSSE 11/2, 85-105. - Breit, Gotthard/ Schiele, Siegfried (1998) (Hg.): Handlungsorientierung im Politikunterricht. Schwalbach/Ts. - Erickson, Frederick (1992): Ethnographic Microanalysis of Interaction. In: LeCompte, Margaret/ Millroy, Wendy L./ Preissle, Judith (Eds.): The Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education. San Diego, London, 202-225. - Fuhrmann, Elisabeth (1982): Problemlösen im Unterricht. Berlin (East). - Gagel, Walter (1995): Geschichte der politischen Bildung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945-1989. Opladen. - Grammes, Tilman/ Schluß, Henning/ Vogler, Hans-Joachim (2006): Staatsbürgerkunde in der DDR. Ein Dokumentenband. Wiesbaden. - Jehle, May/ Schluß, Henning (2013) (Eds.): Videodokumentation von Unterricht. Historische und vergleichende Zugänge zu einer Quellengattung der Unterrichtsforschung. Wiesbaden (in print). - Reichertz, Jo/ Englert, Carina Jasmin (2011): Einführung in die qualitative Videoanalyse. Eine hermeneutisch-wissenssoziologische Fallanalyse. Wiesbaden. - Schluß, Henning (2001): Intentionen und Legitimationsstrategien staatsbürgerlicher Erziehung und politischer Bildung. In: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 6, 47. Jg., 869-879. - Schluß, Henning/ Crivellari, Fabio (2007): Videodokumentation von Unterricht in der DDR als Quelle. Ergebnisse eines DFG-Projekts zur medialen Unterrichtsforschung. In: Pädagogische Rundschau 4, 61. Jg., 437-452. (Reprinted in: Jehle / Schluß 2013) - Uffelmann, Uwe (1990): Problemorientierter Geschichtsunterricht. Grundlegung und Konkretion. Villingen-Schwenningen.
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