Building a better society through textbook research. The mission of the Georg Eckert Institute from the beginning up to the present day

For all the scholars in the field of textbook studies the Georg Eckert Institute is a very important point of reference. In fact, it is one of best known institutions devoted to research on textbooks and educational media. The Georg Eckert Institute (hereafter GEI) is a non-university academic centre, recognised at international level. GEI’s mission is to promote a better understanding of the past in nowadays society through the development and dissemination of research on textbooks and teaching materials, related to different countries and periods. In this direction, the Institute carries on a double mission, according to the heritage of its instigator, the Braunschweig historian Georg Eckert. On one hand, GEI proposes recommendations to policymakers and educational practitioners on how textbooks might be used to deal with the complexity of our society. On the other, GEI promotes multidisciplinary and transnational research activities on textbooks and educational media, with the purpose to explore their diverse meanings and uses in the past as well as today. This article aims to reconstruct GEI’s history and its actual mission, drawn up to academic literature and official documents. Particular attentions will be paid to GEI’s research tools and facilities, as well as on the projects supported by the Institute in recent years.