Educational film practice in Austria

The moving image has challenged and modified established notions and procedures of education until today, with film being used in a variety of educational contexts after World War I. Yet, there is no comprehensive research on educational film in Austria so far. This project aims to fill that gap, investigating the history of educational usage of film in Austria between 1918 and the late 1960s. The examined uses range from classroom projections and screenings for popular education to academic teaching and occupational training. The object of research is educational film as a practice. This concept of practice encompasses not only the screened films, but also the institutions that commissioned and distributed them, the legal provisions enacted to regulate use of films in educational contexts, and the venues and set-ups of screenings. Educational screenings could take place in classrooms or commercial cinemas, in lecture halls or factory assembly rooms. The set-ups could include accompanying lectures by educators, tasks for the audiences, or the halting of a film strip in mid-projection. We use the concept of dispositif to describe how these different elements interacted with each other and with a screenings intended goal(s). The main thesis of the research project is that educational film practice materializes in the linkage between institutional policies, screening situations and the form, style, and content of the films screened. This emphasis on practice is still rare in film studies and has implications for empirical research (combining films with printed documents, like instruction leaflets and lecture scripts, that have been traditionally stored in other repositories), as well as interpretation of the collected information (stressing how a films meaning was affected by screening circumstances). Research will be divided into two consecutive phases: In the first two years of the project, comprehensive research will be conducted in order to systematically collect data on the institutions, individuals, regulations, and venues involved and assess extant prints of educational films shown and/or produced in Austria within our timeframe. A database and media collection holding all gathered data and (intellectual property rights permitting) media objects will be published online open-access at the end of the project. In the third year, representative case studies are more thoroughly researched and analyzed. Apart from the database and media collection and the dissemination of results in peer- reviewed publications and academic conferences, we are also planning an educational outreach program, discussing our results on the history of educational film in Austria with educators, high school students and stakeholders in popular education. As the moving image keeps challenging ideas of instruction and pedagogyin the form of online how-tos and explainer videos, for instancewe expect our results to be instructive for the present day as well.

As the extensive use of video in distance teaching during the Covid crisis proved, the moving image is a widely used tool in education. But how has the medium of film come to be accepted and promoted as a teaching aid? And how has this informed and challenged both procedures of education and our understanding of motion pictures? The project "Educational film practices in Austria" tackled these questions by going back and investigating the history of the use of film in educational settings in Austria between 1918 and 1970. The examined uses range from classroom projections and matinees for popular education to academic teaching, occupational training and consultation. The subject of our research was educational film as a set of practices. This understanding of practices includes not only the films being projected, but also the institutions that commissioned and distributed them, the legal provisions enacted to regulate use of films in educational contexts, and the venues and set-ups of screenings. Educational screenings could take place in classrooms or commercial cinemas, in lecture halls or inns. The set-ups could include accompanying lectures by educators, tasks for the audiences, or alternation between film and slide projection. We use the term "dispositif" (French for 'set-up') to describe how these different elements interacted with each other and with the intended goals of a performance and collaboratively produced its meaning. According to our central thesis, the practices of educational film take on concrete forms in the linkage between institutional policies, educational techniques, screening situations and the formats, styles and content of the films shown. This attention to practice had implications for empirical research: We combined films with their supporting materials which have traditionally been kept elsewhere. Our interpretation of the data also acknowledged that a film's meaning depends heavily on outside factors of its screening. Research results can be explored on the open-access "Lehrfilmpraktiken Database and Media Collection" (https://www.lehrfilmpraktiken.at) which is the most comprehensive resource to date on the history of educational film in Austria. It features information on people and organizations and on hundreds of films from the history of educational film in Austria. Selected media objects (over 380 texts, 38 films, 20 image series) can be viewed on the site. It also features 19 case studies that highlight the political, cultural and pedagogical contexts of these films and their usage. Scholarly articles develop some of these issues in more detail. As part of the project, we also discussed our findings with high school students and teachers. Both the differences and the similarities and echoes to current debates about and uses of video and film in education and instruction make our research findings instructive for an understanding of our current media environments.