Prof. Dr. Felicitas Macgilchrist
Prof. Dr. Felicitas Macgilchrist
Felicitas Macgilchrist is Professor of Digital Education and Schooling. Her research and teaching explores the cultural politics of educational technology, with a focus on critical, ethnographic and speculative approaches. She is especially interested in how technical infrastructures for schools are designed, and the sociopolitical, ethical and pedagogical dimensions of these designs.
Her research projects on the critical study of education and technology include the ethnographic study of digital practices in schools (LernDiWa), cultural critique of „AI“ and schooling (Re:Lab), critical utopian approaches to education (ETIC), and the transformation of epistemic practices in the edtech industry (BM4). She is project lead on the international joint project, Reconfigurations of Educational In/Edualities in a Digital World (RED), co-editor of Learning, Media and Technology and founder of Palgrave Studies in Educational Media. She occasionally advises local, regional and national governments as well as the EU and UNESCO on issues related to digital education and educational technology (edtech), including "AI".
Curriculum vitae
| Since 2023 | Professor of Digital Education and Schooling [Digitale Bildung in der Schule], Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany |
| Founder and Curator of the Re:Lab, the Praxis Lab for Rethinking EdTech Futures | |
| 2019 – 2023 | Department Head, Media|Transformation [Mediale Transformationen], Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsmedien | Georg-Eckert-Institute (GEI), Braunschweig, Germany |
| Founder and Head of The Basement. The Georg-Eckert-Institute’s Digital Lab | |
| Co-Founder and Deputy Speaker of the Leibniz ScienceCampus—Postdigital Participation—Braunschweig | |
| 2016 – 2023 | Professor of Media Research with a Focus on Educational Media [Medienforschung mit dem Schwerpunkt Bildungsmedien], Institute for Educational Science, University of Göttingen, Germany |
| 2016 | Habilitation, Education, TU Braunschweig, Germany |
| 2016 | Visiting Scholar, University of Birmingham, UK |
| 2015 – 2018 | Department Head, Textbooks as Media, GEI |
| 2013 – 2017 | Junior Research Group Leader, GEI |
| 2012 – 2013 | Maternity leave |
| 2011 | Visiting Scholar, Gent University, Belgium |
| 2009 – 2012 | Research Fellow (Postdoc), GEI |
| 2009 | Dr. phil., Cultural Sciences, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany |
| 2006 – 2007 | Head of Languages, Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany |
| 2004 – 2005 | Visiting Scholar, New York University, USA |
| 2003 – 2009 | PhD candidate, DFG Graduate School “Representation – Rhetoric – Knowledge”, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany |
| 2003 | MA Education (Applied Linguistics), Open University, UK |
| 1998 – 2004 | Teacher, trainer and teacher trainer for English as a Foreign Language, various language institutes and universities in Germany, Russia, Vietnam and the UK |
| 1998 | RSA/Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in Language Teaching to Adults), International House, Newcastle, UK |
| 1997 | BSc (Honours) Psychology, University of Edinburgh, UK |
Research Interests
- Digital education: What kinds of futures are, for instance, imagined by today's edtech, educational policy or educational practices? Are educational institutions changing as they use new technologies and data infrastructures? If so, how?
- Education, technology and inequality: How is technology - from blackboards to "AI" - entangled with inequality in education? How are educational stakeholders engaging with technology and inequality? Where can we find design justice in edtech?
- Qualitative and post-qualitative inquiry: How do discourse studies, ethnography, speculative methods, critical data studies, and design research help us to explore education? How can we mobilise cultural theory, political theory and media theory in educational science? How can a critical utopian approach contribute to theorising education?
Lectures
Summer term 2025
10.11.601
Medienbildung und Digitalisierung
Not yet completed thesis topics
Master's degree
- KI und GrundschuleStatus: assigned, Contact: Prof. Dr. Felicitas Macgilchrist
Publications
Recent publications in the field of critical studies of education and technology, e.g. on design justice, planetary futures, AI/datafication, postdigital participation, and digital practices in schools can be found here: https://uol.de/en/educational-sciences/digital-education-and-schooling/publications
A full list of publications can be found here, with approx. 100 publications on technology, education and media discourse:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felicitas-Macgilchrist
Research projects
Current projects
- Re:Lab, Praxis Lab for Reimagining EdTech Futures, funded by the Niedersachsen Ministry of Science and Culture ("Chairs of Digitalisation" (1,616,000 EUR) (2024-2029)
- Reconfigurations of Educational In/Equality in a Digital World (RED), funded by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (1,487,000 EUR) (2020-2024).
- Bildungsmedien 4.0? Eine Analyse zu den Veränderungen von Produktion und Vermittlungswissen im Feld der Bildungsmedien, von der DFG gefördert (210,150 EUR) (2020-2024).
- Educational Ecosystems: Patterns, Practices and Services (EEPPS), funded by the Telekom Foundation (157,366 EUR) (2023-2025)
- Associated with Speculative Social Science Fiction of Digitalization in Higher Education in Finland.
Previous projects (selection)
- Education, Technology and Inequality after Corona: A Critical Utopian Approach (ETIC), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (“Corona Crisis and Beyond”) (120,000 EUR, of which 88,000 for local project) (2021-2023).
- FabLabs als Bildungs- und Lernorte zur Unterstutzung von Schulen: Schlussel fur eine Integration informeller, non-formaler und formaler Bildung (FaBuLoUS), funded by the BMBF (171,545 EUR for local project) (2020-2023).
- Lernkultur im digitalen Wandel. Ethnographische Studien zu Schule und Unterricht (LernDiWa), funded by the Niedersachsen Ministry of Science and Culture (250,000, of which 122,000 EUR for local project) (2019-2023).
- Leibniz WissenschaftsCampus—Postdigitale Partizipation —Braunschweig, funded by the Leibiz Association and the Niedersachsen Ministry of Science and Culture (Phase 1: 1,571,607 EUR, Phase II: 2,179,860 EUR) (2019-2023)
- The Basement: Das Digital Lab des Leibniz-Instituts für Bildungsmedien, Seed funding by the Niedersachsen Ministry of Science and Culture (247,734 EUR) (2019-2021)
- DATA For and In Education. The Construction of School in a Datafied Society (DATAFIED), funded by the BMBF (398.329 EUR for the local project) (2018-2023)
- Islamischer Religionsunterrricht: Aushandlung, Vermittlung und Aneignung eines neuen Faches (IRU-AVA), funded by the Niedersachsen Ministry of Science and Culture 250,000 EUR, of which 125,000 for local project) (2018-2023)
- globalDAS: Global Citizenship at German Schools Abroad, funded by the German Foreign Office (69,000 EUR) (2019-2021)
- digDAS: Digital Media at German Schools Abroad, funded by the German Foreign Office (166,988 EUR) (2016-2018)
- Memory Practices: Enacting and Contesting the Curriculum in Contemporary Classrooms, a junior research group, funded by the Leibniz Association (850,188 EUR) (2012-2017)
Academic service
- Since 2025: Vice Dean for Research, School of Educational and Social Sciences
- Since 2025: Member, examination committee, Master of Education, Primary, Haupt- and Realschule
- Since 2025: Deputy member, Teaching Council, Didaktisches Zentrum (DiZ)
- Since 2024: Central student advisor, BA Pädagogik und MA Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaft
- Since 2024: Co-Speaker, Sustainability working group (Media Education Division of the German Educational Research Association)
- Since 2024: Council member, Center for Migration and Cultural Studies (CMC)
- Since 2024: Member, Zentrum für Lehrkräftebildung – Didaktisches Zentrum (DiZ)
- Since 2024: Founding member, Center for Transformations and Sustainable Futures (TRUST)
- Since 2022: Advisory board member, Hagen University Press
- Since 2021: Co-Editor of Learning, Media and Technology
- Since 2021: Advisory board member, ZeMKI
- Since 2016: Co-Editor of Palgrave Studies in Educational Media
Previous academic service (selection)
- Member of the governing body of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media
- Co-Speaker, Leibniz WissenschaftsCampus – Postdigitale Partizipation – Braunschweig
- Founder and Head of The Basement – The Leibniz Institute for Educational Media’s Digital Lab
- Nominated member, Leibniz Strategy Forum on Digital Transformation
- Founding member and member of the advisory board, DiscourseNet, the International Association for Discourse Studies
- Co-Lead, Knowledge Exchange Group in the BMBF's Roadmap on Data Literacy and Data Culture