The VignA South Africa Symposium on Vignette and Anecdote Research invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners from around the world to submit proposals for presentations at their upcoming event, hosted by the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The symposium will take place on October 24th and 25th, 2024, at University of Pretoria and will focus on the theme of "Crafting Transnational Dialogical Spaces in the Global North and the Global South."

Vignette and Anecdote research offers a unique approach to understanding complex social phenomena by providing rich and detailed snapshots of individual experiences, interactions, and cultural contexts. This symposium seeks to explore how vignette research can contribute to the exploration and construction of transnational dialogical spaces, particularly between the Global North and the Global South.

Hannah Bartels, member of the research unit University School ForUS at TU Dresden, will present her findings "Between research and practice: vignettes in the accompanying research of the Dresden University School".

Abstract: As an interface between school and educational research, the University School Dresden (USD) is a laboratory school located in the city of Dresden, Germany. Set up as a pilot project by the City of Dresden and Dresden University of Technology, the University School is developing, exploring, and scientifically evaluating innovative forms of teaching, learning and cooperation.
The University School develops organizational forms for interdisciplinary learning in mixed age classes, and promotes of self-regulation processes and individual development in cooperative learning processes (cf. Langner & Hess 2020). How this is achieved is being investigated as part of the accompanying research, among others through vignettes research. With the intend to make individual learning and development processes of pupils visible and thus accessible for scientific, pedagogical or professional consideration (vgl. Meyer-Drawe 2012, p. 18), a collection of vignettes has been written, capturing learning situations and student interactions at the University School.
The multi-perspective view on these vignettes by different groups of actors, such as researchers, students, teachers and learners, enables differentiated insights into learning and educational processes. The potential use of the vignette, both in research and in areas such as the professionalisation of learning guides and students (cf. Schratz et al. 2012; Paseka & Hinzke 2014; Agostini et al. 2023 and others) is presented in the lecture. It explains which theoretical frameworks are used in the accompanying research and how vignettes are used as impulse for research and school development processes at the USD.

About the University School Dresden

The University School Dresden is a joint project of the City of Dresden and TUD Dresden University of Technology. It is a free, public primary and secondary school funded by the city, where innovative teaching and learning approaches are tested under academic supervision. Furthermore, it serves as a training school for current and future teachers at TU Dresden. The ForUS Research Unit at TU Dresden supervises the school project.

• Read more about TU Dresden’s research project: https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/unischule
• Read more about the University School Dresden: http://universitaetsschule.org

You can take a glimpse into daily school life and the research project on various social media channels at @unischuleTUD. Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. News from the Dresden University School project is regularly published in the GSW newsletter.