This research unit facilitates activities and discussions among the educational anthropologists at DPU/AU as well as with international scholars within the field. Educational anthropology at DPU is one of the largest and most prominent environments worldwide and the unit aims to offer a vivid platform for further development of this field, nationally and internationally.
Educational anthropology is characterised by the use of ethnographic methods to explore how educational practices in particular locations both shape and are shaped by people’s everyday interactions and wider/translocal systems of meaning.
Taking a broad view of education to mean the formative processes of persons and social life in different settings, the unit draws critical inspiration from cross-cultural comparisons to explore the often mundane and implicit ways that differently positioned actors negotiate divergent meanings of taken-for-granted educational concepts and institutional practices.
In this way, the unit aims to contribute significant insights into the subtle everyday negotiations of educational values, norms and practices in particular locations and how they are contextualised within wider cultural, historical or political processes.
The unit’s research covers a range of fields, including formal education from preschool to higher education, as well as informal education, learning and socialisation in families, local communities, civic organisations and workplaces, in Denmark and beyond.
The unit encompasses research clusters around children, youth and families; technology, robotics and AI in education; higher education studies; mobility and migration; and diversity and ethnicity as well as studies on institutionalisation, leadership and governance; and language as a social practice.
The research unit facilitates various activities, including
