Children's living environments are changing. Global crises, technological developments and social transformation processes have a profound impact on the everyday lives of primary school children. Topics such as migration, climate change, digitalisation and questions about social inequality and personal health are shaping the world in which children live and, as a result, also shape subject lessons. What learning opportunities must be offered to children so that they can increasingly orientate themselves independently in this volatile world? And how must corresponding competences, knowledge and action requirements be differentiated?

Subject teaching is called upon to respond to these challenges. In particular, children from socially disadvantaged families, children with a history of immigration as part of their family biography and children with health challenges must be increasingly addressed and supported in the school context. Subject lessons can make an important contribution to participation and equal opportunities if they provide appropriate structures and content that can be connected to these lifeworlds - and remain so in the future.

In this context, the question arises as to the specific design of learning spaces. These are increasingly digitally characterised and thus open up innovative (learning) opportunities. Computing science education and computational thinking are becoming important skills for the future, but at the same time raise new questions about how media can be used in primary schools in a child-friendly, reflective and, above all, critical way.

In this area of tension, historical learning also takes on new facets: In a world with numerous ambiguities, it helps children to understand change, categorise crises and orientate themselves in the past, present and future.

These far-reaching changes call for a future-proof teacher training programme that prepares teachers professionally on the one hand and, on the other, sees them as part of the education system, which is affected to a large extent by social transformation processes. These are already taking place in children's lives.

The GDSU Conference 2027 invites you to discuss these open questions together. We are looking for theoretical, empirical and practical contributions that show how non-fiction lessons can be designed that focus on children in a world characterised by crises, technology and migration, among other things, and strengthen them for active and confident social participation.