Self-image
Why John Dewey?
John Dewey was born in Vermont (USA) in 1859 and throughout his life advocated the democratization of all areas of life. Dewey's thinking was based on the central conviction that democracy does not work if it is only understood as a form of state and government and not as a way of life. For him, democracy is a unifying practice of human community that must be actively lived and cultivated. In Dewey's thinking, educational processes are the central starting point for sustainable democratization. In his work “Democracy and Education” (1916), Dewey makes clear the way in which education and democracy must be interwoven if a society is not “merely striving for its continued existence”, but for change for the better. He emphasizes the complexity of democratic educational practice, which is by no means only about teaching specific content, but also about a performative, sincere, democratic practice.
Understanding of democracy
The basic understanding of the John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy is based on the broad concept of democracy of its namesake and is supported by the central conviction that democracy does not work if it is understood merely as a form of state and government and not as a way of life and that educational processes are of central importance in this context. With Dewey, the research center assumes that democracy must be actively experienced in order to reach the lifeworlds of all subjects. This active experience must be as continuous and intensive as possible in the family, at school and in the wider community.
Perception of the target group and field of activities
The John Dewey Research Center has chosen the term “Didactics of Democracy” instead of the established term “Didactics of Civic Education”. While civic education is often discussed and thought of in terms of schools in academic debates, this is intended to visibly expand the scope of didactic considerations. The work of the research center will focus strongly on extracurricular youth and adult education in Saxony. At the same time, however, this conceptual accentuation is not intended to imply that civic education should not also be understood as work on democracy and that a sharp conceptual difference could arise between civic education on the one hand and democratic education on the other (cf. Autorengruppe Fachdidaktik 2015). As Dewey emphasized, civic education takes place in people's everyday lives and should not be reduced to intended processes of communicating politics.
Political understanding
The political is experienced in concrete life situations, in specific problems and in real conflicts. For this reason, people's political self-education can and must be read as processes of politicization and the subjectivation of people in which interests, values, recognition and resources are socially negotiated. Political and therefore democratic education - as political self-understanding and understanding of the world - takes place in the form of positioning within these social negotiation processes. Politics is not a purely rational act, but is linked to emotional components. Empathy, commitment and enthusiasm, but also annoyance, anger and disappointment are components of the political and are also processed sensually and physically (cf. Besand 2019). For this reason, civic education cannot focus exclusively on cognitive political analysis and judgment skills. It must be embedded in the milieus in which politics is experienced, conflicts are negotiated and crises are overcome. The work at the John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy takes this understanding into account.
Understanding of didactics
In this sense, civic education programs are not only understood to be programs for imparting political knowledge, but above all all those pedagogical and didactic processes that are aimed at supporting people in the development of self-determined political judgment and action on the basis of the free democratic basic order. The main objectives of civic education are to promote the motivation to participate in shaping political life, to promote the ability to position oneself politically, the ability to make political judgments, to have a tolerance of ambiguity and historical awareness and to acquire the tools for participation, involvement and deliberation of different opinions. Civic education is a process of education of maturity supported by subjects - and thus the addressees - that is oriented towards basic democratic values such as human dignity, justice, equality, peace, solidarity, emancipation and freedom. Civic education promotes the power to critically and reflectively assess political reality with regard to the implementation of democratic principles. It develops the skills for political participation and for shaping democratization processes. In contrast to other - especially historically known - forms of civic education (civics), civic education is therefore neither affirmative nor neutral.
Notion of Innovation
The John Dewey Research Centre for the Didactics of Democracy sees itself as an innovation center in the field of extracurricular political youth and adult education. It has the task of developing new didactic formats, methods and materials, either on its own or together with others, and bringing these to the field of action. These innovations should be suitable for opening up new target groups for civic education offers and bringing them into conversation with others. A particular strength of the John Dewey Research Centre lies in the (re)development of low-threshold, language-relieving and decentralized strategies, concepts and methods. The research center makes newly developed ideas and concepts available quickly and transparently to those active in the field of extracurricular political youth and adult education so that they can be taken up, tested or further developed. It sees itself as an incubator and supports and encourages third parties in the further development of ideas and their concrete implementation.
Understanding of consulting
Consulting can use various approaches, whereby the reason is always that actors in the field of civic education in Saxony express a need for didactic advice. On the one hand, it can be a matter of basic advice on goals and strategic orientation as well as on the choice of concepts, materials and methods. In this case, the John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy is available to provide expert knowledge based on academic findings and many years of conceptual work in various contexts. It supports the development of specific approaches by the relevant actors in a joint negotiation process and continuously incorporates research results and developments from the laboratory sector, insofar as the consulting participants decide to do so during the process. In this way, it implements innovation in the field. On the other hand, an actor-centered understanding of consulting consistently applies. Accordingly, the guidance can also be much more restrained in the sense of process moderation, in which only what the participants themselves perceive as relevant and want to consider is negotiated. In this case, the John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy does not act as an academic expert, but as a moderator who supports groups, institutions and initiatives in sharpening their own understanding and weighing up strategies. In a consultation process, the possible approaches can be adapted to the situation at any time.
Research/Understanding of sience
The John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy conducts research into the question of how extracurricular political youth and adult education can succeed in the face of current social and political challenges. It thus positions itself in the field of applied educational research. Educational research is fundamentally faced with the challenge that it is difficult to control the diverse influencing factors that affect educational processes. Highly standardized research methods reach their limits under these conditions. For this reason, the research center very consciously relies on participatory procedures in which the educational actors are deliberately involved in the research processes that are directed at them. In addition to participatory research, interaction analyses, mapping methods, ethnographic research and various elements of engineering research (design-based research) will be used in the research center. The John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy thus focuses on low-threshold access to the field of research and on pragmatic research methods geared towards practice and application. It not only involves practice partners in concrete research procedures, but also aims to communicate research results in a low-threshold and understandable way. With this in mind, the research center has set out to not only take research processes seriously, but also the challenges that arise in the context of subsequent science communication, and to develop new and appealing formats for this field.