Postal address: Historisches Institut Albertus-Magnus-Platz 50923 Köln
Office hours
In the lecture-free period arrangements for office hours by email
Areas of expertise
Inclusive history education
Historical learning and material culture
Professionalization of history teacher
Disability History
Recent Publications
Barsch, S. (2023): Diversitätssensibler Geschichtsunterricht. In: Fenn, M./ Zülsdorf-Kersting, M. (Ed.): Geschichtsdidaktik. Praxishandbuch für den Geschichtsunterricht. Berlin 2023.
Barsch, S./ Lienau, A. (2022): Fachliche Reflexionen im Geschichtsstudium durch Portfolioarbeit fördern? In: Die Materialwerkstatt. Zeitschrift für Konzepte und Arbeitsmaterialien für Lehrer*innenbildung und Unterricht 4 (2022) 3, 28–39. Online verfügbar.
Barsch, S./ Bösl, E./ Lingelbach, G./ Rössel, R. (Ed.): Disability History. Zeithistorische Forschungen/ Studies in Contemporary History, Online-Ausgabe, 22 (2022), H. 2, https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/2-2022.
Barsch, S. (Ed., 2022): Geschichtsdidaktische Perspektiven auf die Geschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts. Fachwissenschaft und Fachdidaktik im Dialog (=Think! Historically: Teaching History and the Dialogue of Disciplines, Bd. 3). Kiel. Online verfügbar.
Barsch, S. (Ed., 2021): Geschichtsdidaktische Perspektive auf die „Vormoderne“. Fachwissenschaft und Fachdidaktik im Dialog (=Think! Historically: Teaching History and the Dialogue of Disciplines, Bd. 1). Kiel. Online verfügbar.
A complete overview of the publications can be found here.
The Kiel-Munich collaborative project „Menschen mit Behinderungen in der DDR“, funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), started in fall 2018 and conducts basic research on the history of people with disabilities in the GDR.
Menschen mit geistigen Behinderungen als Akteure ihrer Geschichte: Teilhabeorientierte Praktiken einer Public Disability History (DFG)
Diversity is a conditional factor of school learning that must be addressed through pedagogical and subject didactic measures. One facet of school diversity is the linguistic prerequisites of the learners. Language sensitivity is therefore a key factor for successful teaching. Student teachers must be adequately prepared for this. The course concept, which is based on the principles of research-based learning, aims to expand the promotion of language-diagnostic competence of prospective history teachers and to innovate it more strongly in terms of its applied character. In the project, students develop, test and use diagnostic instruments for history teaching, which are published on an online platform. The focus on the diagnostics of linguistic action in history teaching requires an interdisciplinary cooperation between history and language didactics in this teaching project.
Vom Anthropozän erzählen – historische und narrative Kompetenzen in der Nachhaltigkeitsbildung (Initialförderung der Universität zu Köln) Mit Prof. Dr. Roman Bartosch (Didaktik: Literaturen und Kulturen der Anglophonen Welt) und Prof. Dr. Wiebke Dannecker (Didaktik der deutschen Literatu
Seed funding of the University of Cologne
(with Professor Sebastian Barsch, History Education (PI), and Professor Wiebke Dannecker, German Literature Pedagogy)
The project investigates the effectiveness of pedagogic measures in the context of sustainability education in the field of German, English, and History Education. It will focus on the extent to which both historical and narrative competencies are necessary for learners to grapple with the concept of the Anthropocene and what the investigators are calling (deep-)time awareness. The project includes the development of teaching materials in close collaboration with teachers and schools as well as an explorative study on assessment and evaluation.
LETHE: (e-)Learning the invisible history of Europe through material culture (Erasmus+)
The project LETHE is a cooperation project of the Department of Didactics of History with 9 other institutions from 9 different European countries. The aim of the project is to develop strategies and materials to give representation to invisible communities in history education.
In Greek mythology, Lethe was the name of one of the rivers of Hades. It was known as the River of Oblivion. The myth states that those who drank from it forgot everything they knew before. This metaphor represents some people's understanding of history. When talking about history, it seems that mankind drank from the river Lethe and forgot their own rich and diverse past: What is known about the history of women, children, homosexuals, migrants, the marginalized in general? In fact, very little. What can be done to reappraise their history in European classrooms?
The LETHE project wants to try to answer the questions raised. With the rise of far-right movements and hate crimes committed by them against minorities, the project takes on great contemporary relevance.
By exploring forgotten collectives, the project aims to bring into focus the role of traditionally invisible communities and show how they have shaped today's multicultural European identity. In doing so, the final product is aimed at primary and secondary history teachers and is intended to support them in realizing multiperspectivity and multiculturalism in their history teaching.
