250381 “Reading the Word, Reading the World” – Literature, Ethics, & Critical Pedagogy (BS) (WiSe 2026/2027)

This Master’s seminar invites students to contemplate challenges, possibilities, and complexities of personal, societal and ecological transformation, with specific attention to critical debates regarding educational roles of literature and art in contexts of histories of inclusion and exclusion. This examination centers on important questions concerning ethical relationships among self, others, and environment, as well as tensions between education as practices of freedom and as an instrument of domination. Within this framework, we will explore Paulo Freire’s theorization of critical literacy and critical pedagogy, and his emphasis on “reading the word and reading the world.” This theoretical analysis will take place in dialogue with other key philosophical and educational scholars, and with poetry, art, and media engaging with pasts and presents of violence, violation, and ecological destruction in Canada and globally. Additionally, we will examine select writings and art of Indigenous scholars in Canada regarding ethical relationality and imagination, cultural genocide, and decolonization.

While this course references Canadian histories of colonization and ecocide, and draws upon Indigenous wisdom, art, and storytelling in Canada, it takes place within a broader global perspective and broader critiques of modern pedagogical frameworks and their inherent power structures, as well as consideration of transformational educational possibilities. Students are expected to engage questions of ethics memory, aesthetics, power, and social change through their own educational biographies within histories of German culture, literature, art, and schooling, therewith fostering what Freire described as a “critical consciousness” regarding their future roles as educators. By bridging ethical and educational exploration with literary and aesthetic imagination, we will challenge perceived neutralities of schooling, investigating how inclusive and exclusive practices are woven into the very fabric of societal and educational hegemonies. And we will explore initiatives to examine counter-hegemonic practices of resistance and transformation through literature, art, and media. Ultimately, this course aims to equip possible future teachers with the analytical tools to transform classrooms into generative spaces of dialogue and social-ecological justice. This comparative and interdisciplinary approach encourages a profound re-evaluation of what it means to provide "education for all" in the face of histories of division and destruction, and explores avenues for hope and social change through literature and arts education.

Please note that Prof. Dr. Claudia Eppert’s stay at Bielefeld University is mainly financed by the International Guest Lecturer Program and in parts by the Faculty of Educational Science.

In dieser Veranstaltung findet ein Platzvergabeverfahren statt. Bitte informieren Sie sich hier über den Ablauf: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/erziehungswissenschaft/studium-und-lehre/studiendekanat/studienorganisation/platzvergabe/