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4.0 Intro

Two of the key methodological questions in cultural mediation relate to participation: how much participation is involved in a format and what forms of participation are expected of people. As this chapter will illustrate, the extent of participation permitted or desired in a cultural mediation project has many repercussions, affecting how participants and mediators interact and the content and structures of both cultural mediation and its host institutions. The choice of teaching and learning concepts defines another dimension of “how” cultural mediation is carried out. School teachers tend to systematically plan the use of a selection learning forms and concepts for the classroom in advance, with specific learning objectives in view. This is often not the case in cultural mediation settings, where the concepts and forms used tend to be selected on the basis of the mediator’s past experiences and dynamics created as projects unfold. Unsurprisingly, processes that take shape in this fashion tend to be less systematic and more open in terms of both objectives and outcomes. One need not see this as a disadvantage – on the contrary, it represents a characteristic feature and potential specific to cultural mediation. Nonetheless, certain conceptual approaches to teaching and learning appear to have particular relevance for cultural mediation: this chapter presents them in brief.