Center for Didactics of Art and Interdisciplinary Education

Head: Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Mag. art. Ruth Mateus-Berr
The Art, Design, Textile Didactics programme scientifically examines all teaching and learning aspects of a respective discipline with a focus on the questions: Which specific disciplinary theories can be employed to didactically reconstruct learning processes in a meaningful way and how can effective learning situations be conceived? Pedagogical professionalism in art and design addresses what should be taught in a given discipline, to what end, and with which objectives in mind. Which image of the discipline, which perception of school, learning, youth, and society do we want to convey?

In this context Art, Design, Textile Didactics positions itself within the artistic disciplines as special sciences, a field that researches and structures the requirements, possibilities, consequences, and limits of teaching and learning in curricular or extracurricular fields of education in a theoretically comprehensive and practically relevant manner. Today teachers increasingly need theoretically founded reflective and constructive knowledge in order to fulfil the tasks and challenges of their practice and to make sound decisions and actions. Art, Design, Textile Didactics is conceived as an interdisciplinary communication platform between artistic and design disciplines, arts-based research, art and design pedagogy, art theory, cultural theory, design theory, architectural theory, philosophy, museum pedagogy, lifelong learning, pedagogy-related sciences, and other disciplines (for example, natural sciences).

In the realm of extracurricular fields of learning (museum pedagogy, social sphere, etc.) references are also made to neighbouring disciplines in theory, methodology, and research. The department develops and elaborates projects together with museums, cultural institutions, specialist disciplines in other universities, small-scale enterprises, and other organisations (such as the Science Center Network). Each respective field of study has its own didactic curriculum to cater to explicit transfer and translation processes. The department’s research and teaching is furthered through internal continuing education and presentations of the results at national and international conferences. It also conducts research projects in the fields of art, design, and education.