Symposium: ,unterricht_kultur_theorie. Kulturvermittlung gemeinsam anders denken'

July 1-3, 2019, University of Göttingen

Organized by the French and English teaching departments, this symposium offered an opportunity for intense exchange on current questions related to teaching culture, both from a research and classroom perspective. The participants discussed concepts such as inter- and transcultural learning as well as symbolic competence, participation in cultural discourses, and global education. Reference theories from anthropology and cultural studies were examined regarding the potential of applying them to foreign language teaching to support non-essentializing, pluralist concepts of culture in schools and teacher education.
Two public keynotes with subsequent discussions in the Paulinerkirche opened the conference, attended by an audience of 170 listeners – including students, student teachers, and teachers from schools in Göttingen. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hallet from the University of Gießen discussed “Cultural learning in foreign language education: concepts and paradigms” and Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch from the University of California, Berkeley, presented on “Culture as symbolic power in foreign language education”. On the following two days, five panels with ten participants each discussed developments in culture education guided by the questions: Why do we teach culture in foreign language classes? How do we do it? And who does it, i.e. what is the role of the teacher? Furthermore, what should be covered and who are the subjects of learning and to be learned about?


Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch


Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hallet


Prof. Dr. Birgit Schädlich, Prof. Dr. Carola Surkamp and Dr. Lotta König