Research at the pulse of time
Research in didactics is located inbetween educational and subject-oriented research. Research in the field of Didactics of Civic/Social Science Education deals with the question, how people can gain knowledge in politics and society. As opposed to what many people think, developing or evaluating teaching methods is not exclusively - not even mainly - what didactics is concerned with. Instead, it is more about conditions that have to be fulfilled in order for the individual to be able to expose himself to political issues.
Questions we are currently dealing with are for example:
Do different target groups have different ways of approximating political issues? How can we achieve opportunities for everybody to engage in debates and conversations while living in a society characterized by heterogeneity and diversity? Which impact do popular media programs such as TV series (House of Cards, TWD, Homeland) have on our political views and ideas? How do we deal with right-wing movements in Civic/Social Science Education? and more
Focus Areas
At our chair we are especially devoted to the following research and working sections:
Inclusion and Civics/Social Science Education
Research on this topic is bundled under the roof of the Centre of Inlusive Civic Education, which was founded in cooperation with us. The core question we are dealing with in this context is: What could Civic/Social Science Education look like to actually reach everybody? Which opportunities are there for Civic Education in terms of professional education? Which kind of Civic Education is needed to address refugees, which concepts are there for Civic Education in a immigration society?
Cultural and Civics/Social Science Education
Here we are concerned with the question what Social Science Education can learn from the field of Cultural Studies, for example: How does politics work in museums? How can the relationship between politics and theatre be described? - also the other way around; how can the field of Cultural Studies benefit from Civics?
Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism as a challenge for Civic/Social Science Education
Located in Dresden, you cannot avoid dealing with the question of how Civic Education can and should be shaped in the context of right-wing populist movements such as Pegida - for more information take a look at our projects Starke Lehrer - Starke Schüler or "nach PEGIDA".
Media in Civics/Social Science Education
For many years one of our main focus areas has been the role of digital media. After dealing with civic education in social networks in the last couple of years, a current emphasis is in the section TV series.