Diverse individual biographies and the increasing pluralisation of living environments are naturally reflected in classrooms. These different life experiences present an ideal opportunity for students and pupils to constructively examine heterogeneity. The multimedia web-based platform 'Zwischentöne' (Nuances) supplies teaching materials for this end. The materials pick up on topical issues and on themes addressed in the curricula and in so doing, they aim to meaningfully fill any 'gaps' in the textbook material.
The materials encourage school students to develop an idea of diversity as a typical case of development within a society and aim to improve students’ knowledge and competencies in relation to political, historical, cultural and religious issues in pluralist societies. Achieving this aim entails not only providing information about diversity (with its historical, political and intersectional interdependencies), but also a sensitisation for diversity and discrimination as well as a fascilitation of critical self reflection.
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Web Platform
The web platform provides source material, didactically prepared teaching materials and lesson plans, which address and explore themes and perspectives relevant to schools in increasingly plural societies shaped by migration. The aim is to design examples of teaching units for secondary schools in the subjects history, politics/civics, ethics/religion and geography, through which general social, historical and political questions can be discussed from a range of perspectives.
Zwischentöne (Nuances) provides material on key aspects of diversity such as migration (and the experience of it), religion, racism, memory culture, gender and sexual orientation, disabilities and inclusion, as well as aging. The website highlights different forms of discrimination and options for addressing them as well as the global interdependence of the German history.
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Materials
The materials are intended to be a starting point for conversations addressing social diversity. They focus particularly on multimediality and reflect students’ day-to-day lives and surroundings; we expect this approach to encourage students to develop their own views on the issues discussed and take an active part in public debate. This should in turn develop students' media and negotiating skills.
The Zwischentöne team has long-standing relationships with a number of teacher training colleges and runs regular workshops where the material is presented directly to teachers, enabling online or face-to-face conversations. The experiences and suggestions collected at such events drive Zwischentöne forward and become part of its thematic and methodological development.
Zwischentöne (Nuances) values the inclusion of relevant perspectives related to each topic; this applies to the material used and the authors and educators involved, as well as reviewers; the aim being to avoid simply 'talking about' topics.
Within the framework of a European cooperative project called 'Reflections: Educating for critical thinking, inclusive societies and dynamic engagement', materials from Zwischentöne, and other projects, have been prepared for a wider European context, translated into six further languages and placed on the internet platform Eduskills+. Teaching materials and handouts are also being developed in the course of further partnerships with and support from bodies and organisations such as the Foreign Office, the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture, the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ), the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), the RISE project (jugendkulturelle Antworten auf islamistischen Terrorismus), ‘ufuq.de’- Civic Education and Prevention, and the Li, Hamburg.
The development of Zwischentöne was funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung from 2013 to 2016.
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Advisory Board
Zwischentöne benefits from the support and mentoring of an advisory board, whose members are Prof. Kerstin Pohl (Department of Political Science at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz); Prof. Christian Kuchler (Didactics of history, University of Augsburg), Prof. Elizabeta Jonuz (professor for social work at the Hochschule Hannover), Dr Birgit Wenzel (LISUM Berlin-Brandenburg; internet platform 'Lernen aus der Geschichte'), Dr Inga Niehaus (Niedersächsisches Landesinstitut für schulische Qualitätsentwicklung), Irene Appiah (Landesinstitut für Lehrerbildung und Schulentwicklung), Mark Zaurov (Interessensgemeinschaft Gehörloser Jüdischer Abstammung in Deutschland e.V.) and Meral El (former managing director of neue deutsche organisation e.V.).
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Training
