The project ‘New Humans? New Thinking? Quantum Technology as a Challenge for Education’ examines how quantum technology, as an emerging key technology, is mediated and discussed in schools and other educational contexts in Germany.
Quantum technology is viewed as an important driver and a significant element of changes within media and society, which will, in turn, materially shape educational processes and visions of the future. This project explores, therefore, the extent to which analogue and digital educational media address quantum technology, and the concepts of the world and of humans that they portray or question. The project also analyses how students are addressed as subjects through educational materials and whether those materials encourage or prevent participation, as well as examining the future visions that are communicated in the context of quantum technological developments.
The project firstly reconstructs public documents relevant to education in which quantum technology is defined and addressed as a highly relevant topic for education and media. Secondly, the project investigates how officials in education ministries perceive quantum technology as a medial/didactical challenge and/or opportunity. Thirdly, the project investigates selected digital and analogue educational media as central sites of knowledge production, structuring and interpretation of quantum technology, particularly with regard to their narrative framing and subjectivation. Furthermore, the project focusses on the question of whether educational media, in addition to simply transmitting content on quantum physics, also consider the mental space and ways of perceiving information that relate to interrelatedness, networking and openness.
-
Aims
The project aims to gain fundamental insights into the educational and cultural significance of quantum technology through the following:- Discourse analysis: Reconstructing discourses related to education on quantum technology as well as establishing the key participants and strategic educational references that are addressed in Germany (i.e. Stifterverband, Quantum Valley initiatives).
- Needs assessment: Analysing structural, content-related and pedagogical challenges, needs and transformative potential identified by education ministries when addressing quantum technology.
- Educational media analysis: Reconstructing new-world and human images that are inscribed as a translation of technological influence into selected digital formats, non-fiction books and physics textbooks for young people, including epistemologies of societal transformation and young people as ‘drivers of change’.
-
Methodology
The project is designed as a qualitative, empirically based foundation project and combines the following three methodological approaches:- A systematic evaluation of public documents and programmes (e.g., by ministries of education or initiatives from Quantum Valley) in order to assess quantum technology in the context of the school education sector.
- Conducting expert interviews with ministry officials responsible for education, in order to identify structural, content-related, and pedagogical challenges and potential.
- Examining the content, epistemic, and socio-ethical dimensions of selected digital formats, non-fiction books and physics textbooks for young people.
