‘Believe it or not: You are tuned to Small FM!’: an evaluation of radio production teams at Freiburg schools

Abstract

The article presents the process and findings of a recently conducted exploratory study on two long-term school radio projects. Under the guidance of the author, students at the University of Education in Freiburg, Germany, set up radio production teams, one at a primary school and one at a modern secondary school. The objective was to find new ways of promoting the media competence of school students — who until then had very little experience with using media in creative ways. The research project investigated the motivation, aims, and expectations of the participants, the students' progress in the areas of media, linguistic, communicative and social competence, and the integration of the radio work into the regular curriculum. The article discusses the pedagogical and methodological approaches taken. Preliminary conclusions are drawn about the feasibility of sustained radio work in schools.

Keywords:

• school radio
• media competence
• empowerment
• media education
• Action Oriented Media Pedagogy (AOMP)
• longitudinal qualitative study