Expectations of Cross-Sector Collaboration in Cultural and Arts Education

Abstract

The promotion of dialogues between youth and older adults in the field of cultural education remains one of the most important educational policy tasks in Germany. After all, intergenerational, cultural projects can make an important contribution to reducing ageism, promoting personal development, and dealing with social challenges. Close collaboration between actors from different sectors (school, cultural associations, administration, etc.) is needed to secure such programmes. However, this presupposes that the expectations that the involved actors have regarding the collaboration are transparently examined, discussed and adjusted within the collaborative network in advance. Therefore, the aim is to identify initial indications of different expectations of collaboration between actors from various sectors. In order to answer the research question, 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted in combination with ego-centred network maps in six German municipalities with actors from different fields (schools, administration, cultural associations, etc.). The data were then interpreted using qualitative content analysis. Our results show that actors participate with expectations ranging from different degrees of closeness and distance to the other involved actors. These results allow the first systematisation of individual expectations of actors at the beginning of a collaboration.