G+Media: The Mediatization of Gender and Diversity in Early Language and Literacy Education

• Applicant: Dr. Christine Ott
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning ; Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics ; Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 543585283

In deeply mediatized societies, even the youngest children routinely use different media (e.g., books, tablets, smartphones), media types and formats (e.g., picture books, reading apps for preschoolers). Yet, socio-cultural and socio-political implications for educational equity deriving from mediatization processes in the educational field have only recently attracted increased attention. The G+Media network will contribute to recent theories in these fields, focusing on inequalities related to gender that are encoded into media routinely used for language and literacy education. We aim to increase our understanding of media-related and media-specific practices of dealing with gender in relation to other diversity dimensions (e.g., ethnicity, class, age) in the development and use of educational media for early language and literacy education. In a broad interdisciplinary exchange, the network creates theoretical and methodological foundations for educational research that reflects on media and materiality in order to make such practices of dealing with gender and diversity in development and use of educational media (e.g. in programming language learning applications). For example, it compiles instruments that can be used to investigate the influence of educational media on gender-specific self-concepts when learning to read. The network also contributes to the improvement of educational practice by developing suggestions on how educators can be sensitized to possible disadvantage structures, including digital educational media, in order to move closer to the goal of educational equality.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Dietha Koster