Educational media 4.0? An analysis of the changes of production and media knowledge in the field of educational media
Final Report Abstract
With a discourse theoretical framework, “EdTech 4.0?” analysed (i) the forms of knowledge and (ii) the practices of educational media production within economic education. Drawing on document analysis, interviews and field analysis, the project investigated these two questions in relation to two sets of actors: Germany’s major educational publishing houses and independent providers of complementary educational materials. Key findings include the following: Firstly, the research identifies a pervasive orientation towards shaping students as homo oeconomicus across both sets of educational materials: the (digital) textbooks and the complementary media. Young people are addressed as entrepreneurs of their selves, with a start-up mindset positioned as desirable. Classical economic positions dominate, relegating alternative discourses such as social economics to the periphery. This hegemonic discourse is construed through the materials’ contents, their multimodal design and, crucially, the underlying technical infrastructures. By largely omitting conflictual positions, the materials reinforce neoclassical economic paradigms, and do not serve to support students’ critical engagement or reflective inquiry. Secondly, the study sheds light on the divergent responses of the actors to the transformative forces of digitalization and evolving governance structures. While the newly emergent actors, such as foundations and for-profit organisations, adapt to the current landscape, traditional educational media publishing houses struggle to reconcile digital innovation with their expertise in print-centric approaches. This tension has set a cycle of activity in motion, in which the publishing houses trial and discard diverse strategies for innovation. Nevertheless, their position as globally leading publishers of print textbooks remains stable. The findings underscore the potential impact of economic education on society. The study elucidates the evolving power dynamics within public education, outlining the emergent roles of old and new stakeholders in shaping pedagogical discourse and practice. The project identifies implications of this type of economic education for educational systems in a digitally networked world.
Publications
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Die ambivalente Pluralisierung ‚ökonomischer Bildung‘ im Kontext der Digitalisierung. In A. Heinemann, Y. Karakaşoğlu, T. Linnemann, N. Rose, & T. Sturm (Hrsg.), Entgrenzungen: Beiträge zum 28. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft (S. 159-169)
Karcher, M., Ntonti, A., Trupp, J. & Voss, C.
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Bildungsmedien 4.0? Eine Analyse zu den Veränderungen von Produktion und Vermittlungswissen im Feld der Bildungsmedien. Jahresbericht des Leibniz-Instituts für Bildungsmedien
Trupp, J. & Macgilchrist, F.
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„Bringen digitale Medien mehr Gerechtigkeit?“ Ethik Heute, 29. Mai
Felicitas Macgilchrist
