Cooperative Learning within Educational Networks: Perspectives for

Cooperative Learning within Educational Networks: Perspectives for Good
Educational Governance and Public Value
Gudrun Marci-Boehncke, Technical University of Dortmund
Abstract
It was the ancient roman philosopher Seneca (epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 106, 11-1262
p. Chr.) who pointed out in his letter to Lucilius that unfortunately in schools of his time the
adequate sight for the meaning of learning was lost. “Not vitae, sed scolae discimus” he
stated with regret. Similar to this it is todays’ famous American media scholar Henry Jenkins
who underlines with continuing optimism the chances and potentials of convergence culture
that unfortunately hasn’t been established sufficiently as a teaching principle in schools and
university yet. “The skills, practices, and dispositions students are encouraged to develop,
are filtered through a system designed for an outdated world” (Jenkins, 2013), he worries. So
what education obviously needs, is an active link between the digitized behaviors of
nowadays learners and their living environment. To connect both, it becomes necessary that
institutions e.g. schools, libraries and other leisure facilities work together more closely using
the digital networks and language of pupils and students of today. But how could this be
organized?
Although official references as EU High Level Report of Experts on Literacy (2012) clearly
postulate joint efforts with the objective of promotion in a reading and media education by
different educational and non-educational institutions, at least in Germany. This is currently
still not a regular educational practice. One reason for this might be a missing link in local
educational governance. Financial resources, different ministerial responsibilities and
administrative languages as well as a lacking knowledge of a common purpose, may limit
effective public cooperation. But even with low budgets it is possible to develop local
cooperative networks that have a shared aim of creating public value and that can thereby
establish a win-win-situation for institutions and actors. Sometimes it demands new
perspectives for one’s own competencies and new strategies of collaboration. Good
Educational Governance within local education oriented networks seems to be a fragile
construction that demands bottom-up development rather than top-down structures of
management (Kussau 2007, S. 288-290).
The contributions start (1) with an outline of current demands in the field of reading- and
media literacy along the individual’s educational acquirement from early childhood to
university level followed by (2) a discussion about possible partnerships in local educational
networks, their institutions’ specific interests and potentials. Finally (3) problems and
principles of good educational governance within those networks are identified and
developed in order to excavate the potentials especially for academic teaching and students
practice.
Keywords
Educational Governance, local educational networks, digital literacy, reading literacy, media
education, academic teaching
References
Arnold, Rolf/Gieseke, Wiltrud/Zeuner, Christine (Hrsg.) (2009): Bildungsberatung im Dialog. Bd. III.
Referenzmodelle. Baltmannsweiler
Bos, Wilfried / Eickelmann, Birgit / Gerick, Julia / Goldhammer, Frank / Schaumburg, Heike /
Schwippert, Knut/Senkbeil, Martin/ Schulz-Zander, Renate/Wendt, Heike (Hrsg.) ICILS 2013.
Computer- und informationsbezogene Kompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schülern in der 8.
Jahrgangsstufe
im
internationalen
Vergleich.
Münster.
http://ifsdortmund.de/assets/files/icils2013/ICILS_2013_Berichtsband.pdf
EU
High
Level
Group
of
Experts
on
Literacy
(2012):
http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/school/doc/literacy-report_en.pdf
Final
Report.
Heimbach-Steins, M., Kruip, G. (Hrsg.) (2011): Kooperative Bildungsverantwortung. Sozialehtische
und pädagogische Perspektiven auf „Educational Governance“. Bielefeld
Jenkins, Henry/ Ford, Sam/Green, Joshua (Ed.) (2013a): Creating Value and Meaning in a
Networked Culture. New York/London
Jenkins, Henry/Kelly, Wyn et. al. (2013): Reading in a Participatory Culture. Remixing Moby-Dick
in the English Classroom. New York/London
Krotz, Friedrich (2001): Die Mediatisierung kommunikativen Handelns. Der Wandel von Alltag und
sozialen Beziehungen, Kultur und Gesellschaft durch die Medien. Opladen
Kussau, Jürgen (2007): Dimensionen der Koordination: Hierarchische Beobachtungen in einer
antagonistischen Kooperationsbeziehung. In: Kussau, Jürgen/Brüsemeister, Thomas (Hrsg.):
Governance, Schule und Politik. Zwischen Antagonismus und Kooperation. Wiesbaden
Marci-Boehncke, G., Rath, M. (2013): Kinder – Medien – Bildung. Eine Studie zu
Medienkompetenz und vernetzter Educational Governance in der Frühen Bildung. München.
Marci-Boehncke, Gudrun (in Druck): Gemeinsam verantworten – gemeinsam gestalten:
Medienerziehung in Bildungsnetzwerken. In: BZgA Werksattbuch 2015
Moore, Mark H. (1995): Creating Public Value. Strategic Management in Government.
London/Cambridge
OECD (2014a): Education at a Glance
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag_highlights-2014-en
2014:
Highlights.
OECD
Publishing.
Gudrun Marci-Boehncke is professor of New German Literature and Media at the Technical
University of Dortmund and coordinator of the Research Group Youth – Media – Education. Her
areas of interest cover reading and media literacy and education, educational governance,
teachers and librarians education and qualitative empirical research methodology.

Download Report