Project Details
Projekt
Transferring current research findings concerning the economic development of China to the Geography classroom
Subject Area
Human Geography
Term
from 2019 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 418015093
The project objectives concern two levels, research and development. Firstly, the project aims to integrate research insights of DFG-projects carried out by economic geography to geography classrooms in Hessen, as a start. Within the frame of symbiotic teacher workshops, teachers, representatives of the educational administration, and applicants from economic geography and geographical subject-matter education as well as Chinese scientists develop professionally qualified and methodically innovative educational arrangements concerning different aspects of China’s economic situation. These foundations for teaching and learning are evaluated and disseminated. In order to increase the capacities to implement the lesson components, the development of teaching material within this study is combined with a multiplicator system and the transformation of professional beliefs of participating teachers. This is related to the striven for insights of the following second level of objectives. Accordingly, within the framework of empirical concomitant research and in the sense of implicit orientations, the teachers’ habitual orientations are focused upon. Following the concept of habitus and by employing reconstructive approaches, the aim is to consolidate the existing orientations, based on the topical context dealt with here, within a typology of geography teacher types. With the aid of the typology, it is possible to make statements concerning typical orientations of teachers and their subsequent approaches to realising similar subjects within their lessons. Based on this, the manner of transformation of the participating teachers’ orientations within the frame of a workshop lasting several months are reconstructed. It is examined longitudinally how the teachers‘ orientations regarding complexity as an integral aspect of geographic subject matter in general and within the context of Chinese economy in particular typically change in the course of time. Based on this, statements can be made regarding the associated consequences for a different adaptation of these subjects in the classroom and different strategies of planning and conducting of lessons. The insights concerning the transformation or, alternatively, the persistence of orientations that have been reconstructed by different types of teachers serve as a basis for adaptive measures and professionalisation. After all, dominant distances of knowledge and conceptions of an application-oriented perspective in school up to research perspectives in higher education with regard to the topical context of Chinese economy are highly relevant. Analysing these distances makes it possible to draw conclusions about requirements to a broad reception of the findings of scientific research at school.
DFG Programme
Research Grants (Transfer Project)
Application Partner
Hessische Lehrkräfteakademie
