ANGEL_PPT_Navigating_Differences_04.06.2025_Sonja.pdf

This presentation was part of the symposium “Navigating Difference(s): Empirical Findings on Global Learning from North & South” at the ANGEL Conference 2025 in Berlin. It explores how “difference” is constructed and negotiated within global learning contexts, drawing on theoretical perspectives by Derrida, Hall, and Castro Varela/Dhawan. Based on empirical research on international volunteering programmes, the presentation analyses how narratives of solidarity intersect with global hierarchies and postcolonial continuities.

1. S. 1ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
ANGEL Conference 2025
Berlin, June 05th –06th 2025
NavigatingDifference(s)
within Volunteering in the Global South
Sonja Richter, Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg

2. S. 2ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
01
02
Design
Aim, Methods, Main Findings
03
Key Insights on ‘Difference’
Patterns of Construction and De-Construction
Implications for Global Education and Learning
Context: Volunteering in the Global South
Global Learning within Power Imbalances
04

3. S. 3ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Context: Volunteering in the
Global South
Global Learning within Power Imbalances
01

4. S. 4ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Global Learning within Power Imbalances
01 Volunteering in the Global South
e.g. International Volunteering
Young adults from the Global North live and work in Global South countries
limited in time to ‘help and learn’ (BMZ 2014)
Particularities
▪Asymmetric power structures on individual and institutional levels
▪Unfamiliar situations in everyday life that need to be dealt with
▪Economic and epistemic imbalances
▪Explicit learning goals: demand and pressure for (Global) Learning
(Richter 2009)
→Learning within individual and institutional relationships
→Experience-based learning processes
Difference-inducing
Pedagogical Concepts

5. S. 5ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Design
Aim, Methods, Results02

6. S. 6ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
‘The Quality of Learning within
Volunteering in the Global South’
02 Empirical Study: Design
Aim of study:
Generate deep insights into the ‘quality’ and patterns of learningin
difference-based settings within the dichotomizing contextof Global
South –Global North
Howcan
‘Relocation’
enhance Global
Learning?

7. S. 7ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
‘SELF’
‘THE
OTHER’
02 Empirical Study: Design
What is happening here?
‘TheQuality of Learning within
Volunteering in the Global South’

8. S. 8ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Methodological Approach
02 Empirical Study: Methods
Data Corpus:
▪20 narrative, semi-structured interviewswith returned
volunteers (Schütze/Witzel)
▪Context material of volunteer programmes
Data Analysis:
▪Qualitative-interpretative content analysis (Mayring2014)
▪Re-construction of ‘Learning types’ within abductive
typification according toKluge (2000)

9. S. 9ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Several Layers of Results
02 Empirical Study: Findings
▪Four types of Learning Processes
▪Hypotheses on how learners (re-)construct
differences
▪Hypotheses on how learners de-construct
differences
Richter, Sonja (2018): Learning between the Self and Other. About the Quality of Learning Processes in Voluntary Services in the
Global South [original: Lernen zwischen Selbst und Fremd. Zur Qualität von Lernprozessen in Freiwilligendiensten im Globalen
Süden]. In: ZEP: Journal for International Educational Research and Development Education 41 (1), pp. 17-22.
Richter, Sonja (2020): Crisis-based Learning Processes in Development Volunteer Services: Failure as an opportunity for global
learning [Krisenhafte Lernprozesse im Entwicklungspolitischen Freiwilligendienst: Scheitern als Chance für Globales Lernen]. In:
Bonus et. al. (eds.): Entwicklungspolitische Freiwilligendienste im Fokus der Forschung: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH & Co.
KG, PP. 63-72.

10. S. 10ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Key Insights on ‘Differences’
Patterns of Construction and
De-Construction
03

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03 Empirical Insights
The Cooking Cloth
* Auszugausden ErgebnisseneinerempirischenStudie, vlg. Richter, Sonja i.V.: Zur Qualitätvon
Lernprozessenin FreiwilligendienstenimGlobalenSüden.
DissertationsschriftUniversität Bamberg in Vorbereitung..
‘[...] so I bought myself a sporty travel bag like the
Cambodieshave, travelled on the buses with a small
bag, had my towel, which kind of looks like a cooking
cloth, and then I just tried to live like them.’
Sirko [101f] Volunteer in Cambodia

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Sirko [101f ] Volunteer in Cambodia
‘[...] so Ibought myself a sporty travel bag like the
Cambodieshave, travelled on the buses with a small
bag, had my towel, which kind of looks like a cooking
cloth, and then Ijust tried to live like them.’
Demarcation
Othering
03.01 Demarcation

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Sirko [101f ] Volunteer in Cambodia
‘[...] so I bought myself a sporty travel bag like the
Cambodieshave, travelled on the buses with a small
bag, had my towel, which kind of looks like a cooking
cloth, and then I just tried to live like them.’
Self-Projection
03.02 Self-Projection

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Sirko [101f ] Volunteer in Cambodia
‘[...] so I bought myself a sporty travel bag like the
Cambodieshave, travelled on the buses with a small
bag, had my towel, which kind of looks like a cooking
cloth, and then I just tried to live like them.’
Imitation
03.03 Imitation

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Krama
03.03 Imitation
Devaluati
on
Cooking
Cloth

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03 PostsituativeIntegration
•Long-term integration*
•Empirical visible throughout the cases
•time-delayed reflection: minutes, days,
years after the situation
How?
•Reflection process by using new and old
experiences that are connected to the
‘situation’
•Reflection process by having external input,
opinion, instruction
Central
processes
within
Global
Learning

17. S. 17ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Observed Patterns
[Selected]
Demarcation
Imitation
Postsituative Integration
Individual
Learning
capacity is
overstressed
Orientation
towards the
Known
Reflecting
difference
03Navigating Differences
Self-Projection
Aim for
Homogenenity

18. S. 18ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
Implications for Global
Education and Learning
04

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Use professional pedagogical support
Understand deconstruction as a longer-term process
De-geographizationof Global Learning
Global Learning:
Navigating Difference through
Deconstruction
Vgl. hierzuRichter (2018, 2020)
Create opportunities for Reflection & Re-contextualization

20. S. 20ANGEL Conference 2025 I Symposium ‘Navigating Difference(s) –Empirical Findings from Global North & Global South‘ I June 6th I Berlin
BMZ (2014): Guideline for the development volunteer service service "weltwärts". BMZ. Bonn.
Online verfügbar unter http://www.bmz.de/en/zentrales_downloadarchiv/wege_und_akteure/114-
foerderleitlinie-weltwaerts-en_140710.pdf.
GENE (2023): A Future we can all look forward to. The European Declaration 2050 on Global
Education and what it means.
Kluge, Susann (2000): Empirically Grounded Construction of Types and Typologies in Qualitative
Social Research. [14 paragraphs]. In: FQS Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung (1, Art. 14). Online
verfügbar unter http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0001145.
Mayring, P. (2014). Qualitative content analysis: Theoretical foundation, basic procedures and
software solution. Klagenfurt. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-395173
Richter, Sonja (2009): Globales Lernen in Entwicklungsländern. Erfahrungen und
Herausforderungen. Hamburg: Krämer (Hochschulpraxis - Erziehungswissenschaft, 10).
Richter, Sonja (2020): Krisenhafte Lernprozesse im Entwicklungspolitischen Freiwilligendienst:
Scheitern als Chance für Globales Lernen. In: Stephanie Bonus, Jörn Fischer, Christoph Gille,
Benjamin Haas, Sonja Richter und Jan Wenzel (Hg.): Entwicklungspolitische Freiwilligendienste
im Fokus der Forschung: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, S. 63–72.
Richter, Sonja (2018): Lernen zwischen Selbst und Fremd. Zur Qualität von Lernprozessen in
Freiwilligendiensten im Globalen Süden. In: ZEP: Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung
und Entwicklungspädagogik 41 (1), S. 17–22. DOI: 10.25656/01:18953.
Literature

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