Kooperation "Meisterschule" (Cooperation "Master School")

Framework Conditions, Conditions for Success, and Effects of Intergenerational Theater Work in the Context of Higher Education

Project duration: 01/10/2023 - 31/12/2024

Principal investigator: Prof. Johanna Kaiser

Project staff: Dr. Nadin Tettschlag (research associate), Carolin Pieper (student assistant)

Partners:
Theater der Erfahrungen im NBHS e. V. 
Förderverein Theater der Erfahrungen e. V.

Abstract:
With her appointment to the professorship in Social Cultural Work with a focus on theater in 2008, a collaboration began that is unique in its continuity and constellation in the university landscape, the so-called “Meisterschule” (master school). It is unique in its continuity because it had good conditions for this thanks to the dual role of professor at ASH Berlin and director of the decentralized Theater der Erfahrungen. The collaboration is innovative in its constellation because it involves a theater with older people, thus ensuring an intergenerational orientation throughout.
 
What framework conditions and conditions for success contribute to the success of the cooperation? What effects can be seen as a result of the aesthetic educational processes? The qualitative research project pursued self-evaluation of the cooperation on the one hand and recorded effects in the context of social developments on the other. These were evaluated on the basis of current specialist discourse from cultural education research, theater pedagogy, and cultural geragogy, as well as social and organizational theory. This created a basis for the development of new participatory teaching/learning formats in an intergenerational context.
 
The results show that theater between generations breaks down prejudices by “bringing people together,” according to participants, and also promotes cohesion among students. In addition, the university sectors of teaching and transfer, or third mission, come together here, which can lead to new ways of thinking within university development. But where do actors reach their limits? What framework conditions need to be created so that cooperation between universities and the field of social cultural work can be realized in a sustainable manner? The final report shows …
… which formats of intergenerational university-practice cooperation have been developed and implemented since 2008....
… which structural challenges exist and how actors deal with them.
… how participants deal with experiences of difference in the “third space.”
Recommendations for action are intended to provide impetus for strengthening cooperation between social cultural work practice institutions and universities.

Funding: Förderverein Theater der Erfahrungen e. V. & Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin

Keywords: Soziale Kulturarbeit, Theater, Kulturelle Bildung, Transfer, Third Mission, Kooperation, Hochschulentwicklung

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