Cultural Heritage and Education

The institutions belonging to the section collaborate with one another within a close network and focus on three key thematic areas.

In the first key area, the Potential of Education, the institutes specialising in education research take an interdisciplinary approach to examining comprehension and learning during all stages of life. They take into account both individual factors as well as familial and institutional conditions. Large-scale empirical studies make it possible to examine developmental processes across a subject’s entire lifetime. The data is scientifically prepared and made accessible by research data centres. Studies that take a more experimental approach allow for a detailed analysis of how humans process information when communicating and learning. Furthermore, the educational research institutes, infrastructure institutes and research museums work together to examine media and informal learning environments and develop new teaching formats. A wealth of new areas of research is also provided by the digital workplace and the so-called fourth industrial revolution, which are addressed by the institutes.

In the second key area, History as a Contemporary Resource, the institutes focusing on history, linguistics and cultural studies collaborate with the research museums to study historic change and the cultural dimensions of social spheres of knowledge and activity. The unique combination of archaeological, historic and linguistic expertise and the especially broad historic and spatial spectrum make it possible to examine human thinking, communication and design from the infancy of human history through to the present. At the heart of this key area are the processes and dynamics of change. For example, the research is in part dedicated to the change of cultural identities, forms of conflict, and the relationship between humans and the environment.

The third key area deals with the ques tion of how cultural heritage can be presented and represented in the digital age. The section does not view its research and information infrastructures merely as repositories of knowledge. Instead, these are intended to be vibrant hubs for dialogue firstly between the disciplines themselves and, secondly, between the spheres of research, media, politics and the general public. These infrastructures include major surveys such as the National Educational Panel Study, linguistic corpora, unique archive holdings and important collections. With their exhibitions, the section’s five research museums create informal learning spaces and make their research results accessible to the general public. Sustainable research data management guarantees the permanent digital availability of data, sources and objects. The institutes thereby shape new approaches in museum-based communication and the presentation of knowledge in educational science, linguistics, history and art history. Furthermore, they provide important impetus to the current discussions within the Digital Humanities.