1 Professionalising the interface between schools and cultural education The postgraduate course Cultural Education in Schools at the Philipps University, Marburg (Germany) offers a new format for teacher training and school development Abstract The importance of cultural education in schooling has become increasingly important since the onbreak of the new millennium. It is evident that cultural education is not merely an optional extra within the educational process, but an essential element in helping children and adolescents to acquire universal values and learn social participation. 1 It is to be noted that cultural education also includes the fostering of intercultural awareness, but focuses primarily on the artistic and the aesthetic, which are promoted not only through engaging in various artistic fields (e.g. dance, drama, creative writing) but also by providing interaction with artists of all disciplines and exposure to various aesthetic research fields, like for example public spaces, cultural institutions or artists studios. Cultural education fosters an approach that is not necessarily conducive with traditional education and can often pose many different challenges for schools. If cultural education is to succeed, a professionalization of the interaction between those working in both fields is highly important. 2 It is essential that the different rationale of the participants, the fields of action and the institutions involved should all be taken into consideration, so that a mutually appreciative and synergistically cooperative creative field 3 can emerge. To this purpose the Philips University in Marburg established a post-graduate course in 2014 that seeks to effect a professionalization of participators on the joint interface between schools and cultural education and is a forerunner in its field. Along with the high-quality Master of Arts degree, the course offers school teachers, school directors and so-called external partners the opportunity to learn from and with one another. The scientific and theoretic structure of the course consists of: personal aesthetic experience in a biographical context (Module 1), an excursion into a new aesthetic field, working with artists (Module 2), work on the interface: from institutional structures, public relations, grant applications to establishing networks and System Leadership (Module 3), systematic approach to school development (Module 4), the development of individual projects (Module 5) scientific analysis within the framework of a master thesis (Module 6). 1 see.: German UNESCO-Commission (2010) : Kulturelle Bildung für Alle, Von Lissabon 2006 nach Seoul 2010, Bonn 2 This means teachers, school directors and artists as well as mediators (e.g. theater educationalists) employed by large instituions. 3 see. Burow, Olaf-Axel (2015): Team Flow; Gemeinsam wachsen im Kreativen Feld, Stuttgart
2 The three-part workshop offered requires a 90 min time slot. Part 1 - Christian Kammler, Armin Lohmann, Friederike Schönhuth, A presentation of the course content, structure, proposed strategic aims for school development. Cooperative network with the ALTANA Cultural Foundation. (25 min). Part 2 Marcus Kauer, Loreen Fajgel, Melanie Schaller The implementation of curriculum content in the context of school development and institutional adaption as viewed from a student perspective. KulturSchule Richtsberg School Marburg (Germany) Cooperation from the perspective of an external partner (20 min) Part 3 Christian Kammler, Loreen Fajgel, Marcus Kauer, Armin Lohmann, Melanie Schaller, Friederike Schönhuth Open discussion with workshop participants (90 min.) Cultural education as a driving factor in school development A profile of Philipps University, Marburg
3 The Philipps University is the oldest in Hessen. Steeped in tradition, it offers a broad range of courses in sixteen faculties, with numerous opportunities for combining subjects. The medical faculty has the largest number of enrolled students, but the university is also characterised by its humanities and natural sciences faculties and as well as many so-called small disciplines ranging from ancient oriental to religious studies. The university s 25,400 students and approximately 3,500 employees (including 357 professors and lecturers) are an important economic factor for the city of Marburg. The Philipps University successfully attracts students from across the country. Approximately half of the students are from Hessen and a third are local students. The Philipps University is committed to upholding the classical university system of offering a broad range of disciplines. The university is convinced that knowledge is not merely acquired within a single scientific discipline, but rather through interaction and the mutual methodical and thematic interconnection between disciplines and faculty cultures. This is why the university endeavours to not only provide optimal requirements for excellent research and teaching in the individual departments, but also to generate favourable conditions for interdisciplinary cooperation. The Philipps University understands a degree course particularly since the latest restructuring for successive study programmes as a educational phase in which qualitative and challenging professional training should be accompanied by the attainment of key qualifications, an extension of the educational horizon and the stimulation of discussion with other disciplines. The Phillips University offers shorter course durations in comparison with other German universities, but these fundamental concepts and principles are and will continue to be maintained in the future. Intensive quality assurance of the study courses will be upheld and executed as a common approach throughout the entire university. The university s success in research is well above average. Several faculties regularly attain top rankings in national performance evaluation, in external funding and reputation and university scientists have received countless awards. The university works in close cooperation with external teaching and research institutions, such as the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. The Philipps University establishes contacts between the humanities and social science faculties, the Natural and Medical Sciences An-Institute, the TransMit Centre and the Transfer Centre in central Hessen to different sectors. Numerous international partnerships and participation in exchange programmes for teachers and students, as well as the university s appeal to foreign students clearly attests to its established reputation within the international community. In the continuation of its tradition and further profile development the university pursues the following objectives: offering courses that promote scientific progress and practise-orientated training for students, that conform to international standards, include traditional as well as modern content and the opportunity to combine subjects; promoting internationally competitive research in all disciplines as well as forming competence clusters and priority areas from courses and faculties; reflecting the fundamental und the ethical implications of the sciences with the objective of interdisciplinary linking between teaching and research; guaranteeing favourable studies and research conditions for foreign students and scientists; opening the university by actively supporting the economic and social development of the city and the region;
4 combating discrimination and supporting equal opportunities for women in the sciences and the vocational field of higher education and assisting disabled students with support, advice and measures to promote their studies.
5 The post-professional Master s Programme Cultural Education in Schools Key features for the development of a career-integrated post-graduate Master s course as part of the WM³ initiative at Philipps University, Marburg Status as of 8th of December, 2012 1. The aims, content alignment and unique qualities of the course The post-graduate course Cultural Education in Schools seeks to contribute to school development and to strengthen the fields of aesthetic learning and aesthetic education in schools. The aim is to enable teachers to initiate, foster, accompany, analyse and consolidate independent processes of aesthetic learning in their own educational environment. The educational potential of an active and aesthetic engagement with the world is more farreaching than mere transfer effect : aesthetic activity provides children and adolescents with the opportunity to comprehend, explore and acquire clarity about things, as well being involved and creatively active and presenting something to an audience. By promoting aesthetic learning within cultural education this post-graduate course is supporting important developments and requirements in the educational environment: the revaluation and consolidation of cultural education and aesthetic research and teaching in the education of children and adolescents (as promoted by UNESCO, the Enquete Commission Culture in Germany and the Federal Association for Child and Youth Education (BKJ)); the development of school culture; image building for schools ( Kulturschulen ); shaping all-day school schedules; opening schools to external social fields (art, culture, participation in public cultural life and in innovative processes). The MA is planed and executed in close cooperation with ALTANA Cultural Foundation. The ALTANA Cultural Foundation has an extensive background and a high level of expertise in interdisciplinary cooperation with artists of all disciplines, the execution of innovative school projects as well as in cultural management. This collaboration between the Philipps University and the ALTANA Cultural Foundation ensures optimal conditions for initiating cultural education in school at a highly professional level. The MA offers a significant contribution to a sustainable anchoring of aesthetic educational processes in learning environments by filling previously void neuralgic points: the initiation of aesthetic educational processes from the roots that are developed, organised and carried by teachers and the whole school community in addition to pedagogical, collaborative projects with external cultural bodies (artists, institutions, foundations etc.) that originate in and are consciously initiated and managed by the schools. In light of the above and according to these objectives, the MA Cultural Education an Schools aims to impart the following capabilities:
6 basic skills in dealing with modes of aesthetic experience (awareness and expression on sensory, physical and emotional levels) basic skills in aesthetic practices (e.g. performance, improvisation and design) skills in the guidance of group-orientated processes (constructive relationship structure; the furthering of informal learning and creative processes in a group) mediation skills in aesthetic education (didactics) specialisation in selected artistic fields (theatre / dance / visual arts / language, narrative, prose / music / media [photography, video, film]) principles and networks of artistic work - dramatic composition - choreography - performance cultural management in schools - school development / fostering school culture / organisational consultancy - project management - public relations / fundraising This results in the following characteristics and unique attributes: a) The MA demonstrates a high practical relevance by: - the independent realisation of artistic experience and organisation - encounters with artists - project development in schools. b) The MA implements an innovative pedagogical concept ( explorative learning ). c) The MA offers and uses interdisciplinary cooperation with different cultural partners: Science (Pedagogic, Philosophy and Sociology of Aesthetics and Physical Education), Art (artists and institutions), cultural management and organisational development (cultural foundations, enterprises). d) The MA contributes to the implementation and the establishment of a new model of school development (from the roots in cooperation with external cultural foundations). e) The MA creates new possibilities for process-orientated research (in cooperation with the province and with cultural foundations ). All above mentioned points, and point d) in particular are unique features hitherto unrepresented in the field of further education.
7 Leader - Christian Kammler, leader of the Learning and Research Workshop at the Institute for School Education at Philipps University, Marburg and Managing Director of the MA Cultural Education in Schools. School developer and process mentor for cultural school development. Diverse scientific research in the field of cultural education. - Dr. Armin Lohmann, member of the core team of the MA Cultural Education in Schools at Philipps University, Marburg, former school director and Divisional Head of the Ministry of Culture in Lower Saxony. - Friederike Schönhuth, director of the education sector of the ALTANA Cultural Foundation, member of the core team in cooperation with Philipps University, Marburg and the ALTANA Cultural Foundation. Manager of the school development programme KulturTagJahr of the ALTANA Cultural Foundation. Students - Loreen Fajgel, student, WBM Cultural Education in Schools, choreographer and dancer; assistant director TIC theatre in Kassel, Germany. - Marcus Kauer, student, MA Cultural Education in Schools, Deputy Headmaster at the KulturSchule Richtsbergschule and KulturSchule coordinator. - Melanie Schaller, student at Philipps University, Marburg, assistant and executive coordinator for MA Cultural Education in Schools.