Beside the kind of research in pedagogy which is founded in governmental theories, cognitive sciences and psychometrics, there is another strong movement in pedagogy that models processes of Bildung and education by referring to anthropological, cultural and esthetical theories (cp. Mollenhauer & Wulf 1996, Liebau 1992, Zirfas 2007, Kraus 2008, Steinnes 2012; „Rat für kulturelle Bildung“ 2012 et al.). In these approaches it is recognized that not only well-articulated and -intended, but also non-discursive communication and interaction play a major role in the processes of learning and Bildung. Instead of focusing only on well-directed pedagogical impulses, the heterogeneous contextual influences on human behaviour as well as corporal, spatial and material aspects of learning settings etc. get in sight.

It came out that in order to figure such aspects out, there is a special need to reflect on practices and to find inventive ways for an empirical exploration of them (Wulf 2004, Althans et al. 2007, Nentwig-Gesemann 2001, Herbert 2011, Bergstedt 2012, Kraus 2012; network “Tacit Dimensions in Pedagogy” et al.). In these contexts, creativity and innovation is rather attributed to practices than to (new) schedules, models, plans, techniques etc.

The two main directions in general pedagogy also characterize the research in the field of media education. On one hand, there is a broad research working with cognitivistic models. On the other hand, there is a more principal research on the various impacts of diverse environmental factors on social life and on the individuals, and new media is regarded as only one of these.

Then, in terms of media literacy (on a first glance) also unfamiliar phenomena and concepts may get in sight. This is e.g. the case, when the bodily origin of experiences and insights is emphasized, by taking over e.g. a phenomenological perspective (Meyer-Drawe 1996, Herczeg & Winkler 2004, Friesen 2009 et al.). According to the phenomenological approach “learning retreats into darkness” (Meyer-Drawe 2008). Anyway, learning, also learning with new media is figured out here as a responsive process between world and self, as embodiment, mimesis, multimodal transformation, displacement etc.

In our symposium we will work out some of the implications of the interpretation of media in educational settings, which take the impacts of its heterogeneous contexts into account. By doing this we will then also ask how our insights can be retransferred into Educational Sciences in general.