An Investigation into Practices of Developing, Mediating and Enacting the Curriculum

Felicitas Macgilchrist’s research project foregrounds the role played by globalization in contemporary society. It explores how formal education is dealing with this phenomenon, at the level of both content and practices. Since textbooks and other educational media remain an integral feature of school life, they provide an exemplary opportunity to investigate these two levels. Focusing in particular on the (social, cultural, ethnic, medial) diversity which constitutes globalization, this ethnographic discourse analysis proceeds through three phrases.

Research Focus

• Phase 1 traces the development of educational media in Germany (i.e., textbooks and the accompanying DVDs, CD-ROMs, online materials, etc.). Observation of production processes (planning, writing, negotiating, editing, marketing, etc.) is augmented by individual interviews.
• Phase 2 comprises content, semiotic and linguistic analysis of the selected media in their final published versions. This analysis is contextualised through the observations gathered during Phase 1, and ‘member-checking’ interviews with authors and editors.
• Phase 3 will then explore the use of these educational media in a small sample of schools by conducting (i) video-supported (ethnographic) observations of how teachers and students interact with the media, e.g., to what extent they adapt the articulated philosophies, methods, contents, etc., and (ii) interviews with students and teachers exploring how they relate to the materials.
  

Leading questions throughout the study are: To what extent and how are globalisation and diversification informing textbook production? And vice versa: to what extent and how are textbooks informing globalisation and diversification?

Integration in Existing Research

Much textbook research to date prioritises the content of the media. There is little research which expands the notion of ‘discourse’ to include meaning-making practices beyond the linguistic/semiotic. When studies do pay focused attention to daily interactional practices in schools, educational media play a marginal role. In addition, few studies show a commitment to listening to students’ opinions and reactions. Research on the production of educational media has largely focused on aspects of political economy or has been primarily based on interviews. This project thus ties in to current research by combining ethnographic and discourse theoretical approaches to conduct a sustained long-term study following textbooks and other media from their conception, through production and distribution, to their use in the classroom.

Objectives

• First, the project fills a gap in the research literature on education and globalization, by conceiving globalization not only as a factor leading to particular educational practices, but also as a consequence of educational practices.
• Second, the project extends content and discourse analytical research by adopting a broad definition of ‘discourse’. This enables the productive use of ethnographic methods to explore not only linguistic/semiotic content but also other practices.
• Thus, third, the project contributes to our awareness of how formal educational media operate within the complex nexus of relations (other media, peer groups, family, social networks, economies, local communities, etc.) forming the ways in which young people interact with diversity.

Methodology

Ethnographic discourse analysis is the primary approach used in this study. This entails (i) participant observation and extended qualitative interviews, (ii) computer-based writing process data, (iii) textual analysis of textbooks and other educational media, national and regional curricula, integration and educational policies.

Cooperation

Department of Comparative Cultural and Social Anthropology, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Werner Schiffauer)
NewsTalk&Text, University of Ghent (Geert Jacobs, Ellen Van Praet, Tom Van Hout)

Duration: January 2009 – December 2011

Publications

"Translating Globalization Theories into Educational Research: Thoughts on Recent Shifts in Holocaust Education." Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 32(1) (2011): 145-58. (With Barbara Christophe).

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