University teacher education between heterogeneous cultures of disciplines and practical demands: A case based approach to interaction in university teaching

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Wernet
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 331229771

The research project aims at reconstructing the specific situation of university teacher education. On the basis of protocols of university teaching, we will analyze exemplarily the heterogeneous teaching cultures and the diversity of practical demands that characterize teacher education at university. At different universities, courses in mathematics, biology and German language and literature studies, in the respective didactics and in educational science preparing students to be teachers at secondary schools will be recorded and interpreted objective hermeneutically. We concentrate on teaching formats which rely on interactions between lecturers and students. These courses will be considered from the perspective as to which cultures of teaching and ways of dealing with the practical demands of teacher education students encounter. Our main hypothesis is that students are confronted with heterogeneous cultures of teaching in university teacher education. This heterogeneity is not only a consequence of the different disciplines students study but it also of the different forms how their practical demands are being met in their studies. We assume that there is a broad spectrum how university teaching reacts to the practical demands of teacher education ranging from claims to being very important for preparing students to being able to teach to different forms of rejections of any kind of practical demands. We aim at exemplarily reconstructing the heterogeneity of the different teaching cultures in university teacher education resulting from this situation.In addition to this interest in the specific problems of university teacher education, the project seeks to contribute to a general theory of university teaching. We expect that the planned reconstructions of interaction protocols will provide empirical insight into the constitution of university teaching. The project aims at empirically understanding the intrinsic logic of university teaching, especially in contrast to the intrinsic logic of school teaching.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants