Conference Agenda

While, in retrospect, the discourses on the necessity of media education and inclusion in schools were discussed separately for a long time, more and more initiatives, both in politics and academia, have been advocating the joint treatment of both topics in recent years. In its 2017 paper on education in the digital world, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (Kultusministerkonferenz) assigned schools in particular the task of enabling students to participate in society with the help of media education (cf. Kultusministerkonferenz 2017, p. 10).

The expert group on inclusive media education of the Society for Media Education and Communication Culture (Gesellschaft für Medienpädagogik und Kommunikationskultur e.V.) took up this petition in 2018 and emphasized that, in enabling the promotion of media skills, particular attention must be paid to people who are affected by experiences of marginalization (cf. Fachgruppe Inklusive Medienbildung 2018, pp. 1-2). In the international discourse, too, the need for digital inclusion has been mentioned for some time within the discussion about the digital divide and inequality. While the term was often equated with equal access to the Internet in particular (cf. Nemer 2015), the discourse increasingly addresses ideas for promoting social participation through the development of skills and competencies in the context of digital technologies and empowerment (cf. Reisdorf, Rhinesmith 2020, p. 134).

Similar ideas can be found in the Handbuch Inklusion und Medienbildung (Bosse, Schluchter, Zorn 2019) and are detailed and justified within the concept of Inclusive Media Education (2019). The theoretical basis of this concept is the understanding of education according to Benjamin Jörissen and Winfried Marotzki (2009), which describes it as a process not only of learning, but also of reflection and change (cf. Zorn, Schluchter, Bosse 2019, p. 23). However, there is no deeper theoretical discussion of Jörissen and Marotzki's understanding of (media) education in the context of inclusion. Instead, the focus of the article shifts to the media literacy discourse. This is justified by the fact that media literacy is not only seen as a prerequisite for the self-determined use of digital media, but also promotes education and individual opportunities (cf. ibid., p. 24). However, when looking at the current discourse around inclusive media education, it becomes apparent that this shift in focus carries the risk of shortening the potentials of inclusive media education (Kamin, Bartolles 2022). For example, recent reviews on the state of research in this field show that mainly the potentials of digital media as didactic tools for compensating deficits are discussed and researched (cf. Mertens et al. 2022; Quenzer-Alfred et. al., in press).

In addition, the fact that the concept of inclusive media education has not yet been grounded in educational theory shows that questions remain about the fit of Jörissen and Marotzki's understanding of media education in the context of inclusion. For example, the theory of structural media education (Strukturale Medienbildung) does address social negotiation processes, in that education is also understood as a question of participation opportunities and the ability to articulate and recognize articulations (cf. Jörissen, Marotzki 2009, p. 38). However, the focus remains primarily on the structural and material "Objektebene" (Marotzki 2007, p. 139) of digital media by examining medial structures for their educational potentials. An examination of the connection between (medial) articulations and the process of education remains on a rudimentary level. Thus, not only the question of the suitability of Jörissen's and Marotzki's understanding of education in the context of inclusive media education remains open, but also the question of the educational-theoretical foundation of the concept of inclusive media education in general.