Georg Eckert Institute

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Leibniz Institute for Educational Media

Seat of the Georg Eckert Institute
Founder(s)	Georg Eckert
Established	1951
Focus	Educational Media Research
President	Eckhardt Fuchs
Owner	Public
Slogan	We change perspectives
Formerly called	Georg Eckert Institute - Leibniz Institute for international Textbook Research
Location	Braunschweig , Lower Saxony , Germany
Website	http://www.gei.de/en/home.html

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI) (formerly: Georg Eckert Institute – Leibniz Institute for international Textbook Research) conducts research into textbooks and educational media, focusing on historical and cultural perspectives. It serves as the centre for textbook research to the Council of Europe. The appertaining research library provides the world’s largest collection of textbooks by their own account. The institute is a full member of the Leibniz Association since 2011.

History

The institute was named after the historian and educator Georg Eckert (1912-1974). He founded the International Institute for the Improvement of Textbooks in 1951, which was incorporated into the Kant Teacher Training College in Braunschweig under the name International Textbook Institute in 1953.

In June 1975 the Georg Eckert Institute became a registered public institution by resolution of Lower Saxony’s parliament.

Since October 2015 the institute is led by the historian Eckhardt Fuchs.

Tasks

According to law, the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research conducts “application-oriented, international and multidisciplinary textbook- and educational media research”, promotes “textbook- and educational media research by the provision of a research infrastructure”, provides a “public research library with an international oriented collection of schoolbooks”, promotes the “national and international network and exchange within the field of textbook- and educational media research”, serves as advisor and mediator in textbook affairs and publishes its research findings.

The research findings of the institute are published in a repository under open access license.

The Georg Eckert Institute supports the German-Czech, the German-Israeli and the German-Polish Textbook Commissions.

Since 2021 the Georg Eckert Institute, together with the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the didacta association, presents the “Textbook of the Year” award. Textbooks for primary schools, lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools are targeted in turn in a three-year cycle.

The Institute has also presented the biennial Georg Eckert Research award since 2010. The award is sponsored by the educational publisher Westermann and honours excellent academic works in the field of research into educational media. In 2014 the Georg Eckert Institute also introduced an award for young academics.

The Georg Eckert Institute has also been awarded. In 1985 it received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education for its work.

Mission Statement

As an academic institute in the field of education, the Georg Eckert Institute determined itself to advocate for open-mindedness, self-reflection, responsibility, democracy and international understanding in its mission statement. In its medium-term research programme, the institute chose the terms diversity, digitality and globality as primary concepts.

With its work, the institute aims to advance an understanding of the tensions between consideration of future challenges on the one hand and current social and educational policy challenges on the other. Textbooks and other educational media are analysed from a multidisciplinary perspective, taking into account multiple periods of time and regions of the world. In order to overcome stereotypes and enemy images and advocate diversity in educational media, the institutes gives textbook recommendations to policy makers and educators. An example of this is a guideline produced in cooperation with the UNESCO called “Designing textbook content inclusively: Focus on religion, gender and culture”.

Place of Residence

The Georg Eckert Institute resides in the Villa von Bülow since 1982. The mansion was designed and built by Carl Theodor Ottmer in 1839, as summer residence for Heinrich Georg Christian Friedrich von Bülow, President of the Chamber at the Duke of Braunschweig's court at that time. The building is an example of late classicism in Braunschweig.

In September 2017 the city government decided on expanding the main building with an additional office building. The foundation was laid in August 2018.

Head of the Institute

• Eckhardt Fuchs (since 2015)
• Simone Lässig (2006–2015)
• Falk Pingel (2005–2006)
• Wolfgang Höpken (2000–2005)
• Ursula A.J. Becher (1992–2000)
• Ernst Hinrichs (1984–1992)
• Karl-Ernst Jeismann (1978–1984)
• Wolfgang Jacobmeyer (1978)
• Siegfried Bachmann (1974/77–1978)
• Georg Eckert (1951–1974)

Departments

The Georg Eckert Institute is divided into five departments: The Research Library, the Digital Information and Research Infrastructures department, the two research departments Knowledge in Transition and Media | Transformation and the Administration.

The Research Library

The research library has a collection of 180.000 textbooks from over 175 countries and 9000 curricula for history, geography, social studies and politics, ethics and religion. Additionally there are around 80.000 volumes of academic literature related to textbook research and analysis. The inventory is captured electronically and publicly accessible.

Digital Information and Research Infrastructures

The department Digital Information and Research Infrastructures is responsible for the development and maintenance of digital infrastructures and tools for educational media research as well as the long-term archival and management of research findings.

Knowledge in Transition

Knowledge in Transition researches knowledge presented in educational media as an indicator and factor of social change. It regards textbooks and other educational media as an instrument through which societies attempt to pass what they consider to be relevant knowledge on to future generations. The analysis of societal (dis-)continuities are therefore the main focus of the department.

Media | Transformation

The department Media | Transformation researches the socio-political transitions that are induced by educational media and technologies used in school. It asks what schools do with media and what media do with schools. The researchers do so from national, international, transnational as well as historical and current perspectives.

Archaeological Excavations

During the building works for the Georg Eckert Institute’s new research library, builders discovered human remains, most likely attributable to the graveyard of the cloister that once occupied the site. Archaeologists documented the findings in close collaboration with the authorities for cultural heritage and monuments preservation in Lower Saxony and Braunschweig. The excavations revealed eight well-preserved skeletons of young men and a skullcap of an older male. According to the archaeologists and historians, the findings can be associated with the Battle of Ölper on August 1 1809 in which Frederick William, Duke of Brunwick-Wolfenbüttel, and his Black Brunswickers succeeded to withstand the superior troops of the Kingdom of Westphalia.

Publications

• Eckert. Die Schriftenreihe
• Eckert. Expertise
• Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society (JEMMS)
• Palgrave Studies in Educational Media (PSEM)
• Eckert.Bulletin
• Annual Report
• Textbooks between Tradition and Innovation. A Journey through the History of the Georg Eckert Institute

External links

• Homepage of the Institute

References

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