ABSTRACT
Fairy-tale pedagogy, or as the Germans put it, Märchenpädagogik, refers to fairy-tale instruction, that is how to best teach both with and about fairy tales. In other words, fairy-tale pedagogy comprises two crucial aspects: first, the use of the fairy tale as a tool to support instruction in a discipline other than fairy-tale studies, and, second, the critical teaching of the form and its history. The goal of this chapter is not only to provide an overview of the employment of fairy tales as pedagogical instruments throughout different stages of history but also to debunk the prevailing myth that fairy tales as educational means are only tied to children and that their pedagogical use limits itself to Kindergarten and primary school settings. The seminal importance of exposing this myth is clear to scholars in the field yet needs to be reiterated to a wider public.
