Education

For us, education is not a product but a continuous, self-determined, changing and holistic process. On the basis of this understanding of education, we would like to set ourselves goals which we strive for, but which should also be continuously questioned and updated.

We want to …

• promote taking responsibility for the environment and other people by ...
  • enabling self-efficacy and taking responsibility.
  • teaching/encouraging ecological sustainability.
• promote/encourage critical thinking by ...
  • educating ourselves across topics and subjects.
• live democratic values and teach maturity by ...
  • actively shaping society.
  • learning through interactions and encounters.
  • dealing openly, fairly and constructively even with controversial opinions.
• promote emancipation and justice by ...
  • making our educational offers open, fair and as accessible as possible for many people.
  • communicating at eye level and practising low-hierarchy structures.

How do we want to achieve this?

The self-organised tutorial and event programme is also available to interested parties outside the CA. It is intended to reflect the interests of the residents and to deal with current social challenges as well as to offer space for exchange. We strive for a differentiated view beyond our own life horizon, for example, to different scientific disciplines. Practical activities in our workshop play an important role as well.

Our aim is to promote self-determined learning through a variety of formats such as workshops, discussion groups and lectures, and to make people from different walks of life and disciplines heard.

Seminar rooms, workshops, the gatehouse (Pförtnerhäuschen) and the auditorium will also be available as venues for other groups. In this way, the CA will become an center of education, a meeting point for creativity and exchange that will be attractive beyond the district and neighbourhood it is located in.

The orientation year

A special feature of our educational concept is the orientation year, which is to start in October 2023: Between school and the next step in education (e.g. vocational training or university studies), young people living communally in the old building of the CA will be enabled to take part in a one-year interdisciplinary educational programme. The critical examination of different disciplines and topics will lay the foundation for a change of perspective and for interdisciplinary, collaborative work.

We can all understand that it can be very overwhelming to already make a plan for your (professional) life directly after school. The world is more complex and interconnected than ever before, and this does not make the decision for the next educational step any easier. It is precisely here that the CA forms a unique opportunity to connect diverse training and life models in a common creative space, where people with different levels and paths of training with diverse backgrounds have the chance to meet and exchange ideas. In combination with self-management, this forms a foundation for sustainable, opportunity-diverse and self-determined lives.

Practical skills and personal development are therefore promoted beyond academic content. Project-oriented learning - this is what the CA offers above all as a large, self-managed project in which everyone gets involved and takes responsibility. Our workshops and common spaces can be places where new cultural and practical hands-on initiatives arise. It should also and especially be about non-professional life issues and show possibilities for implementing alternative life plans.

This innovative concept fits perfectly into the motto “Wissen schafft Stadt” (knowledge-based urbanism) of the International Building Exhibition. For its future orientation and pilot character, the concept was selected in 2015 to be an IBA-Project.