ComBiMe: Comics as Educational Media in the Federal Republic of Germany (1960s-1980s)

The project Comics as Educational Media in the Federal Republic of Germany (1960s-1980s) opens up a new field of research for (contemporary) historical research on education. Given the current expansion of comics in pedagogical practice, it examines comics as educational media in the Federal Republic of Germany from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s. The source material consists of printed sources such as monographs, brochures, magazine articles, educational plans and framework guidelines as well as archival sources from the educational policy and administration of the State of Hesse. These materials will be examined applying the method of historical discourse analysis. In the course, we will pursue four objectives. First, we will analyse the debate about comics in educational contexts. This centers around social negotiations about picture stories, their focal points and shifts as well as the actors involved. Second, the example of Hesse shall serve to examine the way in which these considerations were incorporated into the legal standardization of state-institutionalized (school) education such as framework guidelines or educational plans. Third, we will analyse causes, influencing factors and framework conditions for both the increasing and the decreasing boom of comics in educational contexts. To this end, fourth, we will take transnational interdependencies into account. (Picture: Jens Natter)

Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG), Individual Research Grant

Term: 2022-2025

Chair: Prof. Dr. Sylvia Kesper-Biermann

Team : Anna Strunk

Current News

Twitter

10.09.2023: Comics as Educational Media in the Federal Republic of Germany (1960s-1980s). Presentation by Anna Strunk at the 15th Forum of Young Historians of Education, Humboldt University Berlin.

11.-13.09.2023: "Visual Reflections of Freedom and Education. Friedrich Karl Waechters Anti-Struwwelpeter (1970)." Presentation by Sylvia Kesper-Biermann at the conference of the Section Historical Educational Research of the DGfE 2023 Freedom and Equality. Conflicts in the History of Education, Berlin.

Publications

Sylvia Kesper-Biermann: Geschichte des Comics und seiner (pädagogischen) Rezeption im deutschsprachigen Raum, in: Heinrich Ammerer/Markus Oppolzer (Hrsg.): Was kann der Comic für den Unterricht tatsächlich leisten? Fachdidaktische Perspektiven auf ein subversives Erzählmedium, Münster/New York 2022, S. 43-55, URL: https://www.waxmann.com/index.php?eID=download&buchnr=4623

Talks

10.09.2023: Comics as Educational Media in the Federal Republic of Germany (1960s-1980s). Presentation by Anna Strunk at the 15th Forum of Young Historians of Education, Humboldt University Berlin.

11.-13.09.2023: "Visual Reflections of Freedom and Education. Friedrich Karl Waechters Anti-Struwwelpeter (1970)." Presentation by Sylvia Kesper-Biermann at the conference of the Section Historical Educational Research of the DGfE 2023 Freedom and Equality. Conflicts in the History of Education, Berlin.

20.07.2023: Educational Reform Ideas and the Discussion on Comics as Educational Media in the Journal Jugendschriften-Warte (1960s to 1970s). Presentation by Sylvia Kesper-Biermann and Anna Strunk at the International Standing Conference for the History of Education, Budapest.

01.03.2023: Picturing religious diversity? Anne Frank in children's comic books. Presentation by Sylvia Kesper-Biermann at the conference "Picturing Otherness. A historical perspective on diversity in children's literature (20th-21st century)" at the University of Hamburg.

7-9.10.2022: I am for 'Martians' in German Textbooks" - A Revolution in Educational Media for DaF Teaching in the 1980s? Presentation by Sylvia Kesper-Biermann & Anna Strunk at the conference "Kontinuität und Wandel von Wissensbeständen in Bildungsmedien". Annual Conference of the International Society for Textbook and Educational Media Research e.V. in Würzburg.

30.09.2022: Comics and Education. Sylvia-Kesper-Biermann interviewed on NDR Kultur, programme "Journal".

30.08.-03.09. 2022: Comics as Educational Media: The Case of German Courses for Labour Migrants in West Germany, 1970s-1980s. Presentation by Sylvia Kesper-Biermann at the 43rd Meeting of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE): "Histories of Educational Technologies: Cultural and Social Dimensions of Educational Objects".