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- Convenor:
-
Johanna Kuehn
(Leipzig University)
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- Chair:
-
Lucilla Lepratti
(Leipzig University)
- Format:
- Lab
- Transfers:
- Closed for transfers
Short Abstract:
What are the boundaries of the classroom and what happens when we undo them? We want to explore practices that allow us to tear down the barriers between the world ‘out there’ and the classroom. This is an invitation to exchange, experiment and develop un/common approaches to teaching.
Long Abstract:
With the need to open spaces of discussion, debate and critical knowledge production and exchange, how do we make anthropological knowledge accessible and practicable? How do we make anthropological knowledge matter? In this lab we want to look at the classroom, a centre stage of anthropology - one often neglected amidst the increasing neoliberalisation of universities. What are the boundaries of the classroom and what happens when we undo them? Students and teachers, the main actors of the classroom, are both positioned intersectionally, as pedagogies of the oppressed teach us. We already act as public anthropologists in our everyday lives, what tools can we develop together to make the knowledge we produce accessible to the diverse publics? As researchers, teachers, writers, artists, activists we develop modes of knowledge production and exchange that we need to synergize and to apply in our everyday teaching and learning practice. While exploring new approaches and methods in anthropological teaching and learning, such as the use of social media or art, we want to develop practices that allow us to tear down the barriers between the world ‘out there’ and the classroom.
This lab (“Ideenwerkstatt”) is an invitation to exchange, experiment and develop un/common approaches to anthropological teaching that aim to transcend the boundaries of the discipline and the classroom. We invite contributions that explore ways of challenging the classroom/public divide. In the first session we will present and discuss these, and in the second session, we will apply some of the collected formats together.
Accepted contributions:
Session 1Contribution short abstract:
Transcending the physical and epistomelogical boundaries of the classroom, we promote a blended approach in Education for Sustainable Development: Virtual exchanges between students and Indigenous knowledge holders with outdoor learning exercises informed by indigenous cultural practices.
Contribution long abstract:
Achieving a just and sustainable future for every being on earth is the aim of the UNESCO programme Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). As for every aspect of education, this is also a task for schools and universities as institutions of formal education.
In this session, we would like to present a combined approach of including anthropological perspectives into the formal curriculum of German schools. The north rhine-westphalian ESD-programme ‘Schule der Zukunft’ (school of the future) that focusses on the implementation of ESD in all aspects of school life serves as a frame for different school activities.
One practical example is a school partnership between the Goethe School in Essen and the MaeYod School in Chiangmai Province which shows the action anthropological approach of INFOE. It brings indigenous perspectives into the classroom by virtually exchanging with indigenous knowledge holders who share their experiences on topics such as sustainability, resource management, climate change or community resilience and lets students (re)discover their relationships and connections to the topics of the curriculum beyond the cognitive and theoretical through outdoor exercises. This learning approach with ‘head, heart and hand’ is mutually beneficial: indigenous peoples are given a voice as authors, researchers, teachers, students, speakers and storytellers to share their views and concerns. In this way, their knowledge, cultural practices and strategies for preservation and transmission are valued and strengthened. Learners and teachers are encouraged to examine values and attitudes, broaden their perspectives and develop options for action facing multiple crises in the Anthropocene.
Contribution short abstract:
How do we make Anthropology more approachable for future students? – Conducting qualitative interviews and seeking solutions
Contribution long abstract:
As members of the student council for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Münster, our task and goal are to represent the students’ interests and requests. However, the engagement in class and the satisfaction with our curriculum and methods of teaching appear to be declining, creating organizational issues for our lecturers and complicating communal studying, which has been an ongoing problem for several semesters. Our goal with this paper is to present qualitative data from first and second semester students about the general satisfaction with the model of our bachelor’s degree program. We intend to carry out interviews and aim to include our students’ perspectives for a more approachable degree, shedding light on both the arising challenges and inspiring aspects of studying anthropology at our university. Furthermore, we seek to point out ideas and concepts that could pose a solution to the before mentioned issues with engagement in classes and that could additionally ease the cooperation between students and the institute for Ethnology itself.