Poetic and aesthetic forms of resistance amongst marginalised communities in Germany

Educational scientist Prof. Dr Alisha M.B. Heinemann (University of Bremen) and art educator Prof. Dr Michaela Kaiser (University of Oldenburg) are investigating poetic and audiovisual forms of expression amongst marginalised groups in Germany. They are particularly interested in how affected communities process experiences of racism and ableism through poetic and aesthetic means – for example, in poems, spoken word performances, and audio and video installations on social media. The aim is to highlight the potential of media-based educational spaces as places of resistance, hope and the imagination of alternative futures. As part of a joint study, an archive of texts and images on this topic is to be compiled and published.

Project leaders: Prof. Dr Alisha M.B. Heinemann (UHB) and Prof. Dr Michaela Kaiser (UOL).
Duration: 1 April 2026 – 31 March 2027

Achievement: A social practice in Primary School Classroom. An International Comparative Analysis on Germany and Italy (together with Prof'in Dr Simone Seitz, FU Bolzano, Italy) (DFG, project number: 543490985, 2025-2028): The project analyses international comparative (Italy-Germany) teaching discourses on ability norms and mission statements of teaching performance. Firstly, educational policy discourses on mission statements of achievement and ability norms in Germany and Italy are examined using discourse analysis and, secondly, ethnographic studies in primary school lessons in the two national education systems are implemented in order to draw conclusions about the importance of political systems and educational policy agendas for the promotion and recognition or standardisation of achievement in primary school lessons. Research into the practices of doing and making ability is embedded in the discourses of research on inclusion/exclusion.

From Image to Platform (DigiProSMK@UOL, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, FKZ: 01JA23K04C, 2023–2026)

The DigiPro@UOL project, based in Oldenburg, investigates the media-cultural conditions of professional teaching practice at the intersection of diversification and discipline in (art) education contexts involving images and learning, particularly with regard to visual practices and mass media in the digital age (https://digiprosmk.de/verbund/; https://lernen.digital/verbuende/digiprosmk/).

Sub-project 1, ‘From Image to Platform’ (in collaboration with Marion Seiler), analyses the Google Arts and Culture platform with regard to the role and hegemony of algorithms in the canonisation of art-related bodies of knowledge and practices. Google Arts and Culture is mapped as a virtual, algorithmically organised space, and algorithmic practices of editing and canonising artistic works and their mediation are examined in order to trace post-digital image spaces in their practices, which are on the one hand diversifying and on the other hand simultaneously disciplining and exclusionary. The project focuses on investigating the disciplining and exclusionary, yet simultaneously inclusive, effects of algorithmically organised art-historical ‘repositories’ and their significance for use in art education.

Environmental Anxiety, DigiProSMK@UOL, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2023–2026

The DigiPro@UOL project, based in Oldenburg, investigates the digital cultural conditions of professional teaching practice in (art) education contexts, particularly in the post-digital age (https://digiprosmk.de/verbund/; https://lernen.digital/verbuende/digiprosmk/). The ‘Ecological Unease’ social virtual reality space, launched in September 2024 as part of the ‘Art Education and Digitality’ professional development programme ( KOL.2439.N02), encourages participants to engage with selected artistic and art-educational VR perspectives within teaching and learning contexts. Three artists and an art educator have developed their own scenic spaces for the social VR environment, dedicated to (un)disciplined plants amidst endangered ecosystems. The tour of the VR space begins with the lecture-performance *Alaria* (2024) by art educator Chantal Küng; after which participating visitors experience adapted versions of the VR artworks *Blooming Love* (2020) by Daniel Hengst, *Stranger to the Trees* (2020) by Kat Austen and *Metamorphosis* (2022) by Du Zhang.

The Social VR space ‘Ecological Anxiety’ is an example of an interdisciplinary and experimental professional development programme for art teachers, which not only draws attention to the vegetal dimensions of the climate crisis but also addresses emotions and potential for action. The aim of the social VR setting is – building on existing research approaches from art education, visual culture studies, art education and plant research – to develop a praxeological perspective on post-digital visualities, modes of perception and ways of acting (Kramer/Idel/Schierz 2018; Schütze 2020; Rafael 2022; Lübke/Schmidt-Wetzel 2024) and to deepen the significance of art education research in the Anthropocene (Huber 2023; Holz 2023; Wagner 2024). Implications for the professionalisation and further education of art teachers are derived from the findings.

Performance makes school (scientific monitoring of performance-enhancing mission statement development and network formation at Paderborn University, 2018-2023, FKZ: 01JW1801L)

With the sub-project "Development of school mission statements with a focus on performance-enhancing school development and the establishment of cooperative network structures", the sub-project focuses on the internal school process of developing mission statements and shaping school cultures that take up the reflection of ability norms and performance differences as the basis for pedagogical action. The participating project schools are continuously supported and scientifically monitored in these processes. Adaptive formats of academic school support and mission statement development are developed, trialled and scientifically evaluated. In addition to the conceptualisation and review of school support models, the aim is to identify the conditions for success that will flow back into the schools during the course of the process and be rolled out across the school system as the initiative progresses. Link to the project

Biography-oriented and cross-phase teacher training in Oldenburg (OLE+) (sub-project of the Quality Initiative for Teacher Training at the UOL, BMBF)

Focus on the curricular integration of elements of ‘reflective practice’; existing theory-practice spaces form the core of development and serve as the starting point for the expansion of corresponding teaching and learning formats in co-operation with non-university, out-of-school learning venues such as museums. These are investigated through an iterative process, and the findings are incorporated into teaching formats.

• Politicisation of art mediators in the field of tension between positioning and subjectivation. A praxeological reconstruction of professionalisation processes, Nina Ahokas
• "Unheard voices, damaged landscapes. Critical aesthetic education in the GDR" (working title), Dr Ulrike Gerhardt
• Historical curriculum research in the school subject of art, Dr Alexander Henschel
• Abilities in art lessons - an ethnographic study on un/doing dis/ability in the social practice of art lessons at primary schools (working title)Séneca Jurado van Bürck
• Google Arts and Culture in the field of tension between diversifying and disciplining art education (working title), Marion Seiler
• Art reports as a cultural and press-political instrument of power in the Nazi era - Examination of the coverage of the "Great German Art Exhibition" in Munich from 1937 to 1943 in the "Frankfurter Zeitung and Handelsblatt", Wiebke Trunk
• Professional biographies of art teachers with regard to their understanding of performance (orders) in art teaching (working title)Marielouise Schild