Thinking Diversity with Animals. Adolescents’ Ideas of Diversity and Anthropomorphisms

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ulrich Gebhard
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 500049621

Summary of the reseach project “Thinking Diversity with Animals. Adolescents’ Ideas of Diversity and Anthropomorphisms”Animals seemingly represent nature. Yet, animal representation is necessarily caught up in anthropomorphic discourses. For example, the animal is always implicitly structured along the lines of human social categories such as race, gender, and sexuality. Thinking with Animals (Daston/Mitmann 2005) is common and this project aims to take it as a starting point and to provide a qualitative analysis on how adolescents think with animals about human diversity.The project investigates how anthropomorphic depictions of animals in biological learning environments as well as adolescents’ reflections on these depictions intersect with adolescents’ ideas of (human) diversity. It will collect everyday life ideas and myths of adolescents about diversity, that are connected to meaning transfers between humans and animals. The analysis will answer two main questions: Which biological knowledge, concepts, and theories about animals are entangled with everyday life ideas and myths about (human) gender, sexuality, and cultural diversity in pupil’s Thinking with Animals? Which meanings about diversity emerge, and how, when adolescents think with animals? Our project provides detailed insights into the formation, maintaining, and transformation of two categories of difference in biological learning situations: gender and cultural diversity/migration. At the same time, the project advances the research on functions and effects of anthropomorphisms. With respect to scientific literacy, the project also explores the potential of Thinking with Animals to reflect on social categories of difference, on processes of biologizing, and on the socio-cultural situatedness of biological knowledge production. These nexuses will be investigated in a zoological garden. Following guided tours in a zoological garden, adolescents will discuss diversity in small groups.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants