JuMuV: [You move] Youth research workshop and fieldwork

Project Number: AUT2

Country: Austria

Institutions/Departments: University of Vienna, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

URL: https://www.sparklingscience.at/

Publication/Material:

STREISSLER, A. (2015): Junior Citizen Scientists in Action. In: UMWELTDACHVERBAND (Hg.): BNW Reloaded - Jahrbuch zur BNE, FORUM Umweltbildung, Wien, S. 33-38.

STREISSLER, A./ROSSMANITH, N. (2011): Attempting to increase pupils´ agency through anthropologically oriented research. Paper for conference "Schooling in Anthropology: Learning the "Modern Way"", Department of Anthropology and the Centre for Child-Focused Anthropological Research (C-FAR), Brunel University, 06.11.2011.

Teaching material for research in social science learning: https://www.sparklingscience.at/_Resources/Persistent/15f3e8c26c286769adabc3afd138bd5496729e9a/JuMuW_Unterrichtsmaterialien.pdf

Project leader and contact person: Thomas Fillitz, Anna Streissler

Duration: 01.02.2011 – 30.04.2013

Short Description:

This interdisciplinary research project, focusing on intercultural learning in multicultural lifeworlds, was carried out by anthropologists from the University of Vienna, in cooperation with educational specialists, secondary school teachers and 13 year-old students in two secondary school classes in Vienna, Austria. The aim was to work with understandings of cultural diversity by familiarising students with anthropological concepts and approaches and carrying out mini-field-projects. JuMuv’s three phases were spread out over two semesters. Phase one: Social anthropologists, education specialists and secondary school teachers designed a didactic concept - a Youth Research Workshop - to further student competences in relation to cultural heterogeneity. Phase two: A Youth Research Workshop was held where anthropologists taught core anthropological conceptualizations (a.o. gender, age, lifeworld, power) and trained pupils in research techniques (interviewing, participant observation, visual techniques), and scientific methods. Following this, students created, designed and carried out fieldwork on topics concerning their daily lives. Working alone or in small groups, students wrote short ethnographies, depicting their lives and understandings of Viennese youth culture. During the second semester, students presented their work at a junior researchers’ congress, held by the University of Vienna This field exercise and ethnographic write-up allowed teachers and students to gain more in depth knowledge of the students’ lifeworlds. Phase three: Researchers and teachers collaborated to integrate insights and findings from the project into school curriculum by developing learning material for pupils aged 10 to 14, and mainly for the subjects of German, Geography and Mathematics (see Publication 3).

Implementation: Research project carried out, findings disseminated in journal article, conference paper and on government website.

Target Group(s), age & context: Teachers and secondary school students, age 13, in urban secondary schools.

Approach/Method: Workshop, participatory fieldwork plus write-up, students as cultural experts.

Type: Workshop

Funding: Sparkling Science - A programme of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (AUSTRIA).

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.