The current issue of the magazine "Forschung und Lehre: alles was die Wissenschaft bewegt" focuses on democracy. It contains an interview with Prof Dr Oeftering in which he discusses the topic of the issue in greater depth and explains the central importance of political education for democracy. Further information can be found here.

Oeftering, T.: Critical support and co-design. On the importance of civic education for democracy. Interview, in: Forschung & Lehre, H. 8/24, pp. 572-574.

"In 2016, the Lower Saxony state parliament decided to reestablish the Lower Saxony State Centre for Political Education and at the same time established an evaluation after five years. The Political Education/Political Didactics working group at the University of Oldenburg, headed by Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering, was commissioned with this evaluation. In their final report, Antje Gansewig and Tonio Oeftering present a fundamentally positive assessment, point out opportunities for development, recommend strengthening the state centre and emphasise the importance of further, more in-depth studies to record the effects and achievement of objectives."

Gansewig, A.; Oeftereing, T.: Final report on the scientific evaluation of the Lower Saxony State Centre for Political Education. Available online at https://transfer-politische-bildung.de/transfermaterial/datenbank/#/d224

In June 2024, Prof. Dr Tonio Oeftering was appointed to the advisory board of the Fachstelle politische Bilung. The Fachstelle is a project of Transfer für Bildung e.V. and is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education. It deals with the concrete practice of political education and has set itself the goal of creating a knowledge hub in which knowledge on political education is structured, analysed and linked in a sustainable way. In addition, the knowledge is to be prepared for further specialist debates and as suggestions for practice. Further information can be found here.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the promulgation of the German constitution, Prof Dr Tonio Oftering has written a guest article on the topic of human dignity in times of mutually destructive crises. He looks at current challenges, particularly in the university context.

You can access the full article here.

On 21 May, Dr Alexander Gantschow will present his habilitation project "'Citizen Existence and Political Order' - Existential Discussions in the Service of Political Education and Self-Education". If you are interested, you are welcome to take part in this colloquium of the Political Education/Political Didactics working group.

On 21 May 2024 from 16:15-17:45

In room A6 4-411

Click here for the full flyer.

Political education is unwaveringly committed to optimism. One's own practice only makes sense with a hopeful view of the future. Scenario techniques, simulation and simulation games are therefore geared towards utopias and not dystopias. After all, nobody wants to talk about or even plan doom (Neupert-Doppler, 2023). A look at the past also clearly teaches us that, however hopeless the situation, there have always been ways out. So: keep on hoping! But does that still apply to the present? There is reason to doubt it. Because at the beginning of the third millennium, the impression is spreading that the future really is at stake this time. The present is described as a multiple crisis, a meta-crisis or even a new age (Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantagocene, "Chthulucene" (Haraway, 2018) or other -ocene). It is not aberrations or extraordinary external events that have brought about the current situation. Rather, it is our own "imperial way of life" (Brand & Wissen, 2017) that is fuelling a "collapsology" (Servigne & Stevens, 2020). [...]

If the "future viability of liberal-democratic politics" becomes fragile in the post-apocalypse and we experience a "twilight of democracy" (Selk, 2023) - how will questions of democratic theory shift? Is it still about the legitimisation of political decisions or already about the question of the form in which communities can still articulate themselves democratically? 

What points of orientation arise for a post-apocalyptic social analysis that is orientated towards a "Sociology of Futurelessness" (Tutton, 2023)? 

How could previous concepts and basic terms of political education be reconsidered or even replaced in a post-apocalyptic situation? What new orientations will become relevant (e.g. "adaptation" (Staab, 2022), "resilience" (Schröder, 2024))?

Do the classic educational and explanatory formats of political education not enable and accelerate what they want to prevent? Are they even becoming a tragic practice?

Is the talk of crises and, in particular, the figure of the search for solutions still meaningful at all? How to deal with the abyss? 

Does the orientation towards spaces of possibility with its simulation games and scenarios end up serving an imperial regime of reflection and modalisation (cf. Soltro, 2022) that stabilises the post-apocalypse? 

How can political education be conceptualised beyond problem-solving learning (for example in forms of "edgeworking" (Hentschel, 2023))?

The conference will be organised as a face-to-face event. A publication with the most important results of the conference is planned. For presentation proposals on the above or other questions, please send an abstract (approx. 2,500 characters including references and spaces) by 1 June 2024 at the latest to: postapokalypse2024@uni-oldenburg.de.

Review of: Gantschow, A./Meyer-Heidemann, C. (eds.): Civic education and freedom order. Civic education as republic-orientated practice. Frankfurt, 2023. in: Gesellschaft-wirtschaft-Politik (GWP), H. 3/2023, p. 387.
https://www.budrich-journals.de/index.php/gwp

On the occasion of the Day of German Unity, Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering talks in an interview about democracy as a way of life and when universities should position themselves socio-politically:
https://uol.de/aktuelles/artikel /fuer-demokratie-einstehen-8379

On 25 August 2023, Prof. Dr Tonio Oeftering presented Minister Falko Mohrs with the final report of the project "Scientific Evaluation of the Lower Saxony State Centre for Political Education" at the Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) in Hanover. The project was funded by the MWK and carried out by Dr Antje Gansewig and Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering between October 2022 and August 2023.

Photo: Leon Schmalstieg

In July 2023, Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering joined the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Didactics of Democracy (IDD) at Leibniz Universität University of Hanover.

https://www.idd.uni-hannover.de/de/ (Homepage)

On 13 October 2021, the institute council elected a new institute director. Prof Dr Jannika Mattes was elected Director of the Institute of Social Sciences. The position of Deputy Director is held by Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering.

This edition of the hr2-kultur podcast Der Tag from 13 September 2021 focuses on the many factors that influence voting decisions. Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering contributes a political didactic contribution on the role, effect and influence of emotions in political education in view of the upcoming Bundestag elections.

Political education in "Corona times" and afterwards - problems and perspectives.

The "corona crisis" has also had a significant impact on the work of extracurricular political youth education/adult political education. What consequences this has had for the present and what can be expected for the future of their work was the subject of an online conference organised by the Working Group on Extracurricular Political Youth Education and Political Adult Education (AJEB) of the Society for Political Didactics and Political Youth and Adult Education (GPJE) on 18 March 2021. This statement summarises the most important results and demands of the conference.

Consequences for the civic education system

The system of extracurricular civic education has always been characterised by the precarious employment situation of many educators. As diverse as the system in Germany is, it has also become fragile. The coronavirus pandemic has put many freelancers in a situation that threatens their very existence. It is uncertain whether and how they will be able to continue working after the pandemic. There is a risk that a lot of expertise will be lost. There is also the fear that a general reduction in funding to cushion the economic damage caused by coronavirus is to be expected. It is therefore unclear what kind of funding will still be available for extracurricular civic education for future work (in presence).

Civic education institutions have different resources at their disposal to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, e.g. for the conversion of educational programmes to digital events. Here, the "large" institutions such as academies with a strong organisation behind them have an advantage over the small, local institutions. The latter can remain more "visible" to their participants and target groups and thus better ensure the continuity of their work, while small organisations often do not have the personnel, technical and financial resources to do so. In addition, conference centres with staff and running costs can no longer be maintained due to a lack of income and have to be closed. After the pandemic, the system of political youth and adult education could be considerably "thinned out" and less diverse than before. This would be a great loss for democracy and political culture.

Consequences for the design and content of civic education

The conference participants observed that civic education is once again being ascribed a firefighting function. The demand for certain programmes is increasing, e.g. to provide answers on how to deal with coronavirus deniers and conspiracy narrators. However, this does not secure long-term structures, even though this example clearly shows how necessary and relevant political education is.

In principle, digital offerings make it possible to maintain the work of political education and sometimes even expand the target group, for example by reducing the distance to the event location. So there is also potential here. However, it is also important to ask which groups are not reached by the establishment of digital programmes and are therefore excluded. It cannot be ruled out that the exclusively digital offerings will further increase the social inequality that has already been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Online events may have a greater reach in quantitative terms, but this also means that educators are "further away" from their target groups. Genuine encounters between people, fuelled by interaction, emotion and empathy, cannot be made possible in the digital world. Despite all the opportunities offered by digital formats, extracurricular civic education must be able to create programmes for all its target groups. The digital possibilities offer little didactic scope and variation for this. This means that "digital" in civic education can only be an addition and not a replacement.

The coronavirus crisis itself can be seen as a learning opportunity, as the pandemic has increased the need to deal with conspiracy narratives and the understanding of science, for example, as well as the need to promote an understanding of science and media literacy. However, there are also fundamental political questions that have arisen in the context of the pandemic and that need to be addressed by political education. For example, the questions of who makes generally binding decisions under these circumstances, with what legitimisation and in compliance with which procedures, how the sensitive relationship between freedom and security is balanced, etc.

The demands:

Overall, the question arises as to whether political education in the "post-corona era" and the expected structural change associated with it can offer a sufficiently large space to deal with and process the collective (and at the same time diverse) experiences of the global pandemic. The pandemic has shown the importance of political discourse in society (e.g. guaranteeing freedom or saving lives, legitimacy of procedures) and the extent to which trends towards solidarisation or desolidarisation are emerging. Strong extracurricular political education will therefore remain essential even after the pandemic. It follows from this:

- There must be more and increased lobbying for extracurricular civic education by civil society actors and educational institutions, but also by political actors who are involved in educational issues.

- Not only must existing structures be preserved, but secure employment conditions must be created for educators, especially for the "solo self-employed".

- The system of extracurricular political youth education/adult political education must be strengthened despite expected general austerity measures.

- Despite positive experiences with digital education programmes, face-to-face formats will remain central in the future. Direct encounters in educational institutions and conference centres are and will remain fundamental to effective political education.

- More research is needed. After all, it is currently uncertain how structures will change under the current circumstances and how and under what conditions good political education will succeed.

- There must be a political and social consensus that the coronavirus crisis has shown how indispensable and "systemically relevant" extracurricular political youth education and political adult education are.

For the Working Group on Extracurricular Political Youth Education and Political Adult Education (AJEB): Prof. Dr Klaus-Peter Hufer, Prof. Dr Tonio Oeftering and Dr Julia Oppermann/ 03.05.2021

In the anthology "Positionen der politischen Bildung 3. Interviews zur außerschulischen Jugend- und zur Erwachsenenbildung", the question of what challenges contemporary political youth and adult education must face is explored.

Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering has been co-editor of the series "Erinnern und Lernen. Texts on human rights education" published by LIT Verlag

www.lit-verlag.de/publikationen/reihen/erinnern-und-lernen.-texte-zur-menschenrechtspaedagogik/

With "Political Education meets Cultural Education", the fifth volume in the series "Votum. Contributions to Political Education and Political Science" has now been published.

The volume "Hannah Arendt - Lectures on Political Education" is the result of a collaboration between Prof Dr Dirk Lange, Prof Dr Waltraud Meints-Stender and Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering.

Political education often leads a niche existence. Yet reunification in particular offers a good opportunity to highlight the achievements of democracy, says political education expert Tonio Oeftering on the occasion of 3 October.

Prof Dr Oeftering, we are celebrating 30 years of reunification in Germany these days. Why is it important that this topic takes centre stage in political education?

Reunification is a positive point of identification in our collective memory. After all, the peaceful revolution is one of the great achievements after the Second World War. Of course, this should not displace the negative fixed point of National Socialism - the experiences of the Nazi era are central to German history. But reunification is a positive history of democracy that shows what is possible when people take to the streets peacefully for their freedom and their rights. In politics lessons at schools or in extracurricular political education, reunification is also a learning opportunity for a practical comparison of systems. What kind of dictatorship was the GDR? What are the achievements of democracy and the rule of law that did not exist in the GDR? These are topics that we can take up on this occasion.

According to the recently published annual report on the state of German unity, satisfaction with democracy in Germany is still lower in the new Federal States than in the old Federal States. What could be the reason for this?

The reasons for these differences are complex. It may be due to the fact that the political cultures in East and West Germany have developed differently. In addition, although living conditions in both parts of Germany have harmonised, they still differ and East Germans, for example, are underrepresented in the management of companies or in leading political positions. In the East in particular, some people still feel like second-class citizens whose previous life experiences have been devalued. This has produced disappointments that have not been channelled into good paths. Many feel left behind.

Apparently, according to the report, there is also a lack of trust in politics, especially in the East...

There are certainly grounds for criticism. Politicians have a responsibility not to forget the people and to make policies that are trustworthy - precisely because many people feel left behind. What's more, forces such as the AfD or right-wing movements are deliberately trying to undermine trust in democracy and brand our government as dictatorial, for example. The choice of words, such as "old parties" or "lying press", harks back to National Socialist language. Democracy, as we achieved it in the years of reunification, is being discredited by people who have a deliberate strategy. But how do these groups operate? How do they speak and what are their real interests? The task of political education is to look at this and show the advantages of democracy.

Is much of what we are currently experiencing also due to a lack of education?

Yes, political education is often severely lacking - in both East and West Germany. But there is little knowledge in the East in particular, for example about the rule of law. And the GDR dictatorship is often trivialised. The fundamental problem is that political education has a niche existence. This is scandalous against the backdrop of right-wing populist and anti-democratic developments in society. In schools, political education is only minimally represented in the timetables, as studies by Bielefeld University regularly show in the "Political Education Ranking". In addition, politics is one of the subjects that is most often taught outside of the curriculum. And the situation is no better in extracurricular education - many programmes no longer exist because the institutions are struggling to survive. However, good political education requires a reliable and long-term structure. This is where aspirations and reality diverge. After all, the expectation of political education is that it turns young people into responsible citizens who can make informed decisions.

What needs to change here?

Not only should there be more lessons, but it is also important that teachers receive good, in-depth training. This doesn't just affect the politics teachers themselves, but actually all teachers - especially when it comes to democratic values and attitudes. In my opinion, teaching democracy is a task for the whole school. So we need good subject teaching, and at the same time the school as an institution is in demand. The anniversary of German reunification shows how urgent this is. We need political education in order to remember the success story of reunification and at the same time to be able to face the challenges arising from the unfinished tasks of reunification.

Interview: Constanze Böttcher

Source: University of Oldenburg: uol.de/aktuelles/artikel/eine-positive-demokratiegeschichte-4454

Protest and Participation" is the fourth volume in the series "Votum. Contributions to Political Education and Political Science" has now been published. This anthology was produced as documentation of the 2017 Münster Section Conference of the DVPW Political Science and Political Education Section in collaboration with Prof Dr Andrea Szukala (Münster) and Prof Dr Tonio Oeftering (Oldenburg).