What can the humanities learn from learners?- Towards student-infused teaching and research

Increasingly, heterogeneous class make-ups, particularly in international and interdisciplinary study programmes, challenge canonical knowledges and expectation horizons of expert teachers. Even on Master’s level, a common knowledge base and experience background cannot be taken for granted which makes it difficult to assess and establish a shared starting point. If teachers pre-assume a common knowledge base and simply conduct business as usual, students are likely to find the content irrelevant to their lives and career aspirations and will quickly lose interest.
Instead of taking an elite approach of “survival of the fittest” and blaming students and their assumed incapabilities to keep up, teachers might find it more fruitful to centre on these heterogeneous cultures and backgrounds by adjusting their teaching content. This enables them to “meet students at their level,” but moreover, helps teachers to conceive of knowledge diversity as a resource and an asset not only for the(ir) learning process but also for shaping research questions in their discipline.
This seminar opens a space to discuss questions of knowledge canon and knowledge diversity as a resource. It then provides hands-on exercises and examples for assessing heterogeneous understandings and potential adjustment of fixed and foundational teaching elements with a focus on disciplines of the humanities. In the concluding part, participants will reflect on the validity, usefulness, and sustainability of transferring a student-infused approach into research.