"In the value pluralistic society, there is not a reasonably justifiable alternative to the life of the mature, self-determining and self-responsible person. [...] Maturity without moral orientation would merely be an undirected energy that brings about positive random effects or catastrophes" (Schiefele 1993: 177). In this context, the ideal of the self-determined person becomes the pedagogical imperative of (globalized) modernity (cf. Uhle 1995). However, individuals can only constitute themselves as persons in a differentiated society. At the same time, it is difficult to understand society as the (logical, not situational or ontogenetic) 'preceding', since it is unthinkable as an external entity for (all) individuals, but always only as realized by individuals. In realizing human activity as a common one, a certain sociality as well as certain persons or individuals are simultaneously produced, i.e. at the same time (re-)produced and changed. These intertwined processes can be described as individualization and collectivization. Assuming this entanglement, neither an absolutisation of autonomy ideals nor potentially appropriating collective ideals (or totalisations) is justifiable. This is associated with genuine ambivalences, e.g. a certain 'placelessness' of individuals due to the necessity of a release from particular ties, the necessity of a balance between appropriation and isolation and the tension between public spirit and competition, adaptation and deviation. The project investigates the processes of individualization and collectivization, described above on a general, societal level, in interactions within the organizational framework of school lessons through interpretative videographic research. Each lesson is observed as a culture of teaching and learning, which is always developed through interpersonal and object-related practices. With a view to the ethical ambivalences of individualization and collectivization processes mentioned above, it will be necessary to reflect on which methods and methodologies are suitable to make visible processes of bonding and release, self-determination and heteronomy, etc. The project takes place as an intercultural dialogue between German and Japanese researchers, which enables both a systematic alienation of one's own culturally grown ideas of individualisation and collectivization processes and an understanding based on the insights gained. The advantage of the comparison lies on two levels: First, with regard to the observed pedagogical practices and their socio-cultural embedding and becoming, a (higher) variance is achieved, which allows to question something "natural". Second, one's own scientific practice (e.g. cognitive orientations and methodology) is also deprived of its unquestionability. The comparison partner Japan also makes it possible to investigate how the pedagogical imperative shows in school culture of teaching and learning in a context that is not shaped by the Western modernity. In order to realize the goals of intercultural dialogue, videotaped lessons from Germany and Japan will be interpreted bilaterally in cooperation with Hiroshima University. Based on micro-analyses of the lesson-related interaction, relevant contextual information and documents will be included in the interpretation, which make the relationship between individualization and collectivization understandable on different levels against the background of culturally different receptions of modern pedagogy and didactics.
