The Goethe-Institut, with German teachers around the world, faces the challenge that German language study materials (books, worksheets, tests) are often very traditional and stereotyped. They do not fully reflect the society that we are living in, but perpetuate harmful stereotypes and exclude marginalized groups of people.
Representation is relevant in the classroom: Who is shown in the pictures? Who is considered German? What is a “typisch Deutsch” person or family, who do they look like in the pictures? Do people feel represented in the books in terms of their background, gender, sexual orientation, or social class?
With this new project the Goethe-Institut in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK aims to make German teachers aware of biases in teaching materials and to raise awareness of diversity in the classroom.
The project aims
- to raise awareness among German teachers and students in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK
- to educate teachers to implement teaching methods that challenge discrimination
- to create and collect teaching materials and tools that represent the diverse societies of the German speaking countries.
In 2022, two Trainings were held for German language teachers by Josephine Apraku and Minna Maijala. The first training focused on raising awareness for diversity-sensitive teaching. In the second training, the participants analysed their own teaching materials from the perspective of diversity and inclusion. The experiences of the project will be taken up in a virtual conference for German language teachers on 23rd February 2023.
Contact
We appreciate your interest in the project and will be happy to answer your questions.
Sabine Brachmann-Bosse and Ulrike Eichstädt
bkd-helsinki@goethe.de