"Pacemakers report": GDR pedagogical innovators and the collection of Pädagogische Lesungen, 1952-1989

• Published in: Paedagogica historica Vol. 58; no. 1; pp. 66 - 83
• Main Authors: Wähler, Josefine, Hanke, Maria-Annabel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Didacticism; Educational History; Educational Innovation; Foreign Countries; GDR; Indexing; Instructional Innovation; Lecture Method; Library Materials; materiality; pedagogical lecture; Pedagogy; Preservation; Public speaking; Teacher Education; Teacher Improvement; Teacher Qualifications; teacher training; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Theory Practice Relationship; East Germany
• ISSN: 0030-9230; 1477-674X
• DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2020.1796720

This article focuses on a library collection containing around 9,000 titles of Pädagogische Lesungen [Pedagogical Lectures] (PL), compiled and centrally awarded in the GDR from 1961 to 1989. This contribution gives an initial overview of the current state of research and a comprehensive description of the material diversity of the collection. Besides the historical specificity and heterogeneous composition of the unique material, the article also examines the function and use of the lectures within the centrally organised system of teacher training in the GDR. From an educational and contemporary educational perspective, the scientific utilisation of this multilayered source material is highly lucrative, since it can provide information on the (re)production, mediation and transformation of subject-specific content and school-specific knowledge. Professional debates reflected in those lectures provide valuable inspiration for research into the history and practice of subject teaching in the GDR, as well as for the professionalisation of teachers. In addition to questions concerning the relationship between theory and practice or terminology, the collection can also be used to trace the availability and emergence of new media and materials, which were reflected in the methodological-didactic design of subject teaching and also in the preparation of the PL themselves. Thus, the expansive material offers diverse approaches to research for a wide range of disciplines such as linguistics and cultural sciences, historical and political sciences, and information and media sciences as well as subject didactics.