The educational dispositif: A smaller abstraction

Abstract

Introduction to special issue on audio-visual, educational media and their use in schools, universities, popular education or vocational training since the late-19th century. In recent years the growing body of work on the history of audio-visual educational media has intensified methodological efforts to grasp the interplay between institutional policies, screening situations, and the form, style, and content of the media employed in various educational situations. In particular, the (heuristic) concept of the dispositif has proved to be productive, because it allows to map these different elements in a large variety of performative educational situations and their pragmatic interrelations: expectations, requirements, and goals.