Antinomies of Inter- and Transcultural Learning

It is a difficult and certainly troubling insight that some of the goals or competences under discussion in the context of inter- and transcultural learning can and must be seen as having little in common. They can even be considered as conflicting, contradictory or mutually exclusive – one may only reflect on the discrepant expectations connected with the goal of “critical thinking” (with regard to other cultures) on the one hand and the idea of “emphatic understanding” (of other cultures) on the other (cf. Breithaupt 2017). Such jarring of oppositional phenomena in educational contexts can be explored with reference to Helsper’s discussion of how any kind of teaching or learning in today’s modern, differentiated society takes place within a matrix of oppositional concepts and objectives (cf. Helsper 2002, 2010, Schlömerkemper 2017). Specifically, Helsper uses the term “antinomies” to indicate that pedagogic practice always entails a choice between different options, each “hailing,” so to speak, to be given prominence and each encompassing a different range of specific teaching and learning goals, strategies, techniques and practical steps. This article will apply the concept of pedagogic antinomies to current challenges in the fields of inter- and transcultural teaching/learning

Internationalisierung der Lehramtsausbildung: Neue Optionen durch digitale Formate

In diesem Beitrag wird das Best-Practice-Beispiel eines Internationalisierungsprojekts skizziert, welches im Sinne des Change Managements neue digitale Optionen der Internationalisierung initiiert und gestaltet. Konkret beschrieben werden Rahmenbedingungen, Herausforderungen an Anpassungen und Veränderungen sowie strukturbildende Parameter eines Projekts, welches Lehramtsstudierenden ermöglicht, an ausgewählten Online-Seminaren ausländischer Hochschulen erste Erfahrungen im Bereich internationaler Lehramtsausbildung zu sammeln. Der Beitrag regt an zur Erprobung ähnlicher Optionen im Kontext digitaler, hybrider und analoger Lehr-Lern-Formate

"You ain’t seen nothing yet" – stehen literarische Kanonkonzepte und mit ihnen etablierte Lesarten und didaktische Verfahrensweisen im Englischunterricht vor einer grundsätzlichen Revision?

Der Autor skizziert Entwicklungen in der Literaturdidaktik des Faches Englisch seit den 1970er-Jahren und verdeutlicht, dass es eine längere Tradition der offenen Kritik an etablierten Kanones, Textvorgaben, Interpretationsansätzen und Unterrichtsverfahren gibt. Einflussreiche didaktische Richtungen aus Bereichen der race, class & gender studies werden aufgeführt, ebenso wie Dynamiken der Veränderung in theoretischen Konzepten, denen relativ statische Praktiken des Unterrichts gegenüberstehen. Gegenwärtige Ansätze einer kritisch-reflexiven Fremdsprachendidaktik werden entsprechend in bisherige Diskurslinien eingeordnet. Der Beitrag endet mit Überlegungen zu weiteren Herausforderungen an die Literaturdidaktik des Englischunterrichts: Diese ergeben sich aus stärker auf soziales Engagement setzenden Diskussionen, welche eine Umwertung und Neuorientierung im Sinne der Identitätspolitik und des ökologischen Bewusstseins fordern

Ecology, cultural awareness, anti-racism and critical thinking: integrating multiple perspectives in foreign language teaching

This paper aims at presenting a critical approach to teaching ecological, postcolonial and ethnic minority topics in the (foreign language) classroom, describing the need to interrelate these three issues in both research and teaching. It illustrates how Western utilitarian perspectives on both humans and nature must be counterbalanced with alternative stances, such as those provided by indigenous views of reciprocity. With regard to teaching scenarios, it suggests the use of multi-text selections in line with the principle of presenting multiple perspectives on global issues. It suggests that two seemingly contradictory teaching/learning objectives can be combined: bolstering up students’ empathetic skills in understanding ecological and interculturally relevant issues on the one hand and becoming critically aware of textual strategies employed to manipulate readers. We use the hitherto less frequently observed example of the demands of the Chilean indigenous minority of the Mapuche to illustrate how different positions published in the English language on the Internet can be used in the foreign language classroom to discuss the issues at stake here: the inextricable interrelatedness of ecological exploitation of natural resources with processes of sociocultural and economic marginalisation and oppression of ethnic minority groups and their worldviews across the globe.Este artículo busca presentar un acercamiento crítico al tratamiento de la ecología, el postcolonialismo, y las minorías étnicas en las clases de lenguas extranjeras, describiendo la necesidad de establecer una relación entre estas tres temáticas en la investigación y la docencia. Se muestra cómo las perspectivas utilitaristas occidentales sobre el ser humano y la naturaleza deben de contrarrestarse con imaginarios alternativos, como, por ejemplo, aquellos basados en perspectivas indígenas en torno a la reciprocidad. Respecto a los escenarios de enseñanza, se propone el uso de selecciones de textos múltiples, siguiendo el principio de la presentación de diversidad de perspectivas sobre temáticas globales. Así, dos objetivos de aprendizaje aparentemente contradictorios pueden ser combinados: fomentar, por un lado, las habilidades empáticas de los alumnos para comprender las problemáticas ecológicas e interculturales de mayor relevancia en la actualidad, mientras, por el otro lado, inspirar una conciencia crítica en torno a las estrategias textuales empleadas para manipular a los lectores. Nos apoyamos, así pues, en el ejemplo de las demandas de las comunidades Mapuche en Chile para demostrar cómo diferentes posiciones publicadas en internet, en inglés, pueden utilizarse en las aulas de lengua extranjera para discutir sus implicaciones. Estas son la relación intrínseca entre la explotación de recursos naturales con los procesos de marginalización sociocultural y económica, la opresión de grupos minoritarios y las cosmovisiones de los mismos desde perspectivas procedentes de varias partes del mundo

Interview_Prof. Dr. Laurenz Volkmann

Inhalt: Bedeutung und Interesse

The Climate Crisis in Foreign Language/Environmental Literacy Education: A Binational Virtual Exchange

[EN] This contribution provides a best-practice example or case study of a transatlantic online course focused on the integrative acquisition of environmental literacy, intercultural skills, and foreign language proficiency. Through binational and transdisciplinary group and class interactions, students from universities in Germany and the United States learned to identify and negotiate culturally and discipline-mediated perspectives on the more-than-human world. Discussing novels, films, media and cultural artifacts that centrally engage ecological themes, students learned to think of the relationship between nature and culture as deeply imbricated. If human culture is acknowledged as part of nature, and culture as a concept extends beyond the human sphere, intercultural competence as a skill or outcome acquires a new, added meaning. Intercultural competence then includes both the ability to negotiate differences between divergent human cultural viewpoints and practices (Byram 1997), as well as the ability to establish an egalitarian relationship with the nonhuman world that goes beyond anthropocentric extractivism.Fraunhofer, H.; Volkmann, L. (2022). The Climate Crisis in Foreign Language/Environmental Literacy Education: A Binational Virtual Exchange. En 8th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'22). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1231-1236. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd22.2022.146131231123