Dr. Christine Becks (née Salmen) / www.photo-simonis.com

Dr. Christine Becks (neé Salmen) is a postdoctoral researcher with the Research Group Education Research at the Institute for Education at the University Duisburg-Essen. Together with Dr. Laura Beckmann she heads the research area for „Context-sensitive research and development of the school system“.

Research interests: Applied Phenomenology for schooling and education research; Internationally comparative, historical work on German-speaking and US scholarly exchanges on purposes of public schooling, school and education reform; Aims and limits of school reforms; relations of schooling to its community.

Bildungswissenschaften

Raum
S06 S06 B48

Funktionen

Qualification

 

Ph.D., Education, University of Vienna – Graduated with honors, 2021

Emphasis: International comparative and historical schooling and education research

Title: The evidence of evidence-based policy: The case of No Child Left Behind – grade: excellent

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Stefan T. Hopmann

Reviewers and examiners: Dean Prof. Dr. Peter Hlebowitsh, School of Education, University of Alabama and

Prof. Dr. Dennis Shirley, Lynch School of Education, Boston College

Chair and examiner: Prof. Dr. Daniel Tröhler, Department of Education, University of Vienna

 

M.A., Teaching English, Psychology and Philosophy, University of Veinna

Emphasis: Cultural Studies and Applied Linguistics

Title: 'With liberty and justice for all' – Systemic Issues in American Higher Education

 

faculty positions

since June 2022: Postdoctoral Researcher

Head of Research Area: Context-sensitive research and development of the school system

Research group: Education Research (Prof. Dr. Isabel van Ackeren-Mindl)

University Duisburg-Essen, Germany

2019-2022: Senior Lecturer und Researcher, English Department, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien

Curricular Development and Teaching

2015-2019: University Assistant (Pre-doc)

Education Research and Theory (Prof. Dr. Henning Schluß)

Department of Education

University of Vienna, Austria

2012-2022: External lecturer

Centre for Teacher Education, University of Vienna

Institute for General Pedagogy and Vocational Pedagogy, Technical University Darmstadt

Department for English and American Studies, University Vienna

University of Applied Sciences WKO Vienna, University of Applied Sciences IMC Krems

University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria in Wels, University of Applied Sciences Burgenland in Eisenstadt

2009-2015: Teacher for English as a Second Language, Psychology, Philosophy, Phönix Private High School, Vienna

2006-2007: Language Assistant, Webster University, St. Louis, USA

 

Service

Non-tenured faculty representative in hiring commission for a professorship, University Duisburg-Essen, 2024

President (des.) of the Society for the Study of Curriculum History, 2024-2026

Editorial Board Member, Journal of Curriculum Studies

Representative of the non-tenured faculty, Education, University Duisburg-Essen, 2023-

Doctoral student representative, Education Doctorate, University of Vienna, 2016-2021

Curriculum commission for BA Education, University of Vienna, 2018-2019

Curriculum commission for MA Management, University of Applied Sciences IMC Krems, 2017

 

Organizing

Organizer: Transatlantic Roundtables of Education, Associated Conference to the AERA, Philadelphia, April 2024

Chair: Roundtable with German and U.S. scholars, Associated conference to AERA, Philadelphia, 2024

Workshop “Abstract writing as a tool for research and teaching”, Interdisziplinäry Center for Education Research, University Duisburg-Essen, 26 October 2023

Chair: Roundtable with German and U.S. scholars, International Cooperation in Education Conference, Associated conference to AERA, Chicago, 2023

Futures at the Intersection of Technology, Language, and Society, University of Applied Sciences Technikum, Vienna, 2 March 2020

Research methods workshop for doctoral students, University of Vienna, January 2017, July 2017, November 2018

 

Memberships

German Educational Research Association (DGfE)

American Educational Research Association (AERA): Divisions F, L, Politics of Education (SIG)

Society for the Study of Curriculum History (SSCH)

British Education Research Association (BERA)

Center for Teacher Education (ZLB), University Duisburg-Essen

Interdisziplinary Center for Education Research (IZfB), University Duisburg-Essen

 

Reviewing

Journal for Curriculum Studies (JCS), since 2016

Society for the Study of Curriculum History (SSCH), since 2023

American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual onference, since 2018

BA and MA theses, University Duisburg-Essen, since Juni 2022

BA and MA theses, University of Vienna, University of Applied Sciences IMC Krems and Technikum, 2016-2022

*peer reviewed

 

Becks, C. & Becks, S. (2025). Constructions of the Grammar of Schooling. A systematic literature review. xxx.

Becks, C., Farwick, S., van Ackeren-Mindl, I. (2024). Expert Policy Advice in Germany. The Standing Scientific Commission on Education Policy. In: C. Skerritt (Ed.). Policy Advice and Policy Making in Education: Perspectives on Past and Present Procedures. Bloomsbury. Accepted contribution.

Becks, C., Proskawetz, F. S., Schabinger, A. & Sorg, C. (2024). Erfahrungs- und Austauschräume für Schulleitungen gestalten: Erkenntnisse für Schulentwicklung in sozialräumlich herausfordernden Lagen in der Metropolregion Ruhrgebiet. [Creating spaces for collaboration, experience and exchange: Insights for school development in schools serving disadvantaged communities in the Ruhr metropolitan region.] Accepted contribution.

Proskawetz, F. S., Farwick, S. & Becks, C. (2024). Zusammenarbeit von Praxis und Forschung: Welche Erwartungen haben Schulen an sozialräumlich benachteiligten Standorten in der Metropolregion Ruhr an bildungswissenschaftliche Kooperationen? [Research-pratice cooperations: What expectations do schools serving disadvantaged communities in the Ruhr metropolitan region have of educational science cooperation?] Accepted contribution.

Czaja, S., Proskawetz, F. S., Becks, C., Klein, D. & I. van Ackeren-Mindl. (2024). Train the Leader: Schulentwicklung an sozialräumlich benachteiligten Standorten durch designbasierte Qualifizierung von schulischen Führungskräften befördern. Erste Ergebnisse der SchuMaS Werkstatt “Schulentwicklung im Kontext”. [Train the Leader: School development in schools serving disadvantaged communities with designbased qualification of school leaders. First results of the SchuMaS Workshop “School development in context”.] Accepted contribution.

*Becks, C. (2023). Schooling as community service. Schule und Sozialraum in der U.S.-amerikanischen Tradition. [Schooling and its socio-geographical context in the U.S. tradition] In M. Forell, G. Bellenberg, L. Gerhards & L. Schleenbecker (Hrsg.) Schule als Sozialraum im Sozialraum. Theoretische und empirische Erkundung sozialräumlicher Dimensionen von Schule. Waxmann. DOI: 10.31244/9783830997122

Becks, C., Göttlicher, W., Erhardt, S. (2023). Schule in den ersten drei Dekaden nach dem Fall des Eisernen Vorhangs. Bilanzen und Perspektiven. [Schooling in the first three decades after the Fall of the Iron Curtain. Conclusions and perspectives] In W. Göttlicher & T. Janik (Ed.), Politische Zäsur und Wandel des Bildungssystems. [Political turning point and change in education systems] pp. 251-268. Lit Verlag.

Klein, E. D. & Becks, C. (2022). Mit Visionen und Zielen den richtigen Weg finden. Ergänzendes Arbeitsmaterial. [Visions and goals for school development. Supplemental working material] In: Schule macht stark – Inhaltscluster Schulentwicklung & Führung (Hrsg.): Kursmaterialien Virtueller SchuMaS-Raum „Schulentwicklung im Kontext“. Essen: Universität Duisburg-Essen.

*Becks, C. (2022). J. F. Herbart on the Art of Teaching: Bildsamkeit and Pedagogical Tact. Curriculum History, 2.

Wala, T. & Salmen, C. (2022). Entrepreneurship Education and Innovation Transfer Through Student Practice Projects. In Mobility for Smart Cities and Regional Development-Challenges for Higher Education: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2021), Volume 2, 858-868). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Salmen, C. (2021). Erzählungen vom Umbruch in Rumänien 1989. [Narrative constructions of Romania’s Revolution in 1989.] In H. Schluß, H. Holzapfel, C. Andersen & Heinz Ganser (Eds.), The Fall of the Iron Curtain 1989 and its consequences. Europäische Perspektiven. Lit Verlag.

Salmen, C. (2020). Do No Harm: A commentary on the outrage over a teacher evaluation app. Voices, 274, 14-16.

Salmen, C. (2020). With Humility and Courage: Educational Scholarship as Intellectual Endeavor. International Journal for the Historiography of Education, 10(1), 97-99.

Salmen, C. (2019). The Problem with Evidence: Public Schooling is about a Place, its History, and the Lifeworlds of those involved. Journal of Academic Perspectives, 3.

Salmen, C. & Becks, S. (2018). Happily Standardized Every After? Pedagogical Alternatives to Standardizing Exams. Independence 74, 19-23. Vienna: International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.

Schluß, H., Willems, F., Salmen, C. (2018). Measuring Religious Competence. In Schweitzer, F., Borschki, R. (Eds.) Researching Religious Education: Classroom Processes and Outcomes. Münster: Waxmann.

Schluß, H. & Salmen, C. (2016). Teaching and Learning about Religion between Religious Plurality and Secularism. In: Aslan, E. Ebrahim, R. Hermansen, M. (Ed.): Islam, Religions, and Pluralism in Europe. Springer VS. 115-126.

Schluß, H. & Salmen, C. (2015). Religious Matters as a Mere Possibility for Educational Research. International Journal for the Historiography of Education, 5(2), 223 - 226.

Winter, R., Margolis-Balk, S., Weeks, G. (2007). Vienna’s Conscience. Close-ups and conversations after Hitler. Reedy Press. (Translator)

The phenomenological interview as existential communication: Researching and teaching the multiple realities of education.

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), 12 April 2024, Philadelphia

‘It’s personal’: School leaders’ and superintendents’ meaning-making of accountability policy in Alabama.

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), 12 April 2024, Philadelphia

Seeing the big picture: A transatlantic exchange on research across places, contexts and time.

Transatlantic Roundtables in Education, 12 April 2024, Associated Conference of the AERA Annual Conference, Philadelphia, 2024

From Vienna’s Conscience to HateBrakers: How Richard Winter’s inquiry into Austria’s National Socialist past 50 years after the Anschluss 1938 launched a contemporary curriculum for reconciliation.

Society for the Study of Curriculum History, Annual Conference, 11 April 2024, Philadelphia (affiliated conference to the AERA)

Symposium: Systematizing cries of crisis that similarly drive school reform and obscure its lasting transformations: patterns & progress.

29th Congress of The German Educational Research Association (GERA), 10-13 March 2024, Halle an der Saale, Germany

From the grammar of schooling to the grammar of teaching. Cross-contextual analyses of teaching. (co-author: Dr. Stefan Becks)

29th Congress of The German Educational Research Association (GERA), 10-13 March 2024, Halle an der Saale, Germany

Eliciting Education Experience. Researching the Multiple Realities of School Reform and Schooling.

British Educational Research Association (BERA), 12-14 September 2023, Aston University, Birmingham, UK

Eliciting Experience. An Applied Phenomenology Approach to Researching the Multiple Realities of School Reform and Schooling.

European Educational Research Association (ECER), 21-25 August 2023, University of Glasgow, Scotland

Visions and goals for school development for school leaders. (co-speakers: Franziska Proskawetz (UDE), Dr. Susanne Czaja (TU Dortmund))

Keynote and workshop for school leaders in the context of Schule Macht Stark (SchuMaS), Bavarian Network Conference (2 May 2023) and Rhineland-Palatinate (3 May 2023)

Choice cases and broader patterns of national school reforms after the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. (co-author: Dr. Wilfried Göttlicher)

Society for the Study of Curriculum History, Annual Conference, 12 April 2023, Chicago

A transatlantic exchange about approaches, advances and multiple-reality perspectives on improving public schooling.

Invited Roundtable with German and U.S. scholars, International Cooperation in Education Conference (associated conference to AERA annual conference, 14 March 2023, Chicago

Dropout prevention through a phenomenological approach using Learning Analytics. (co-author: Stefan Becks)

International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association (HETL) Conference, 12-14 June 2023, University of Aberdeen, UK

The structure of experiencing education: A phenomenological approach to interviews.

Society for Empirical Educational Research (GEBF) annual conference, 29 February - 2 March 2023, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany

German Didaktik and U.S. Curriculum Traditions: Transatlantic Dialogues on The Art of Education. (co-instructor: Stefan Becks)

Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Workshop, 18 April 2022, online

30 years after the Fall of the Iron Curtain: Collected histories of liberation, family and satire.

Organization for Education History, 1-2 October 2021, online

History of ideas and recent developments in so-called evidence-based policy, accountability and PISA.

Workshop "Political change in school systems. Three decades after the Fall of the Iron Curtain: Results and perspectives", 10 June 2021, online, Masaryk University, Brno, online

J. F. Herbart's teaching for morality: A history of ideas.

Society of the Study of Curriculum History Conference, 7. April 2021, online

Holding Education Research Accountable: Proxy-indicators of A Place Called School

EARLI SIG17 Conference, 9 September 2020, University of Vienna - online due to Covid 19

J. F. Herbart on the Art of Teching: Bildsamkeit and Pedagogical Tact in Education

Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of Curriculum History, 24 June 2020 - online due to Covid 19

“Tot inainte, mandru pionier!” - Romania’s 1989 Revolution

International Symposium "The Fall of the Iron Curtain 1989", 2-3 November 2019, University of Vienna

Tracing Education Pathways Demographically? Schooling Trajectories and Societal Dividing Lines in European Cities.

Division Conference: Educational Research and Planning, German Education Research Association, 16-18 September 2019, University Münster, Germany

Exploring Social Relationships in "a mixed way": Mixed Structural Analysis. (authors: Schoonenboom/Froehlich)

American Educational Research Association, Annual Conference, 6-9 April 2019, Toronto, CAN

No-size-fits-all-accountability: How public schooling is about a place, its history, and the lifeworlds of those involved. (ppt)

American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, Annual Conference, 3-5 April 2019, Toronto, CAN

"The problem with evidence is…" - How public schooling is about a place, its history, and the lifeworlds of those involved.

Oxford Education Research Symposium, 20-22 March 2019, University of Oxford, UK

Research is More than Methods: Lessons in English Abstract Writing. (ppt)

Dies Didacticus Professional Development Day, 8 March 2019, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems

Continuing Conversations in Education Policy: How Curriculum and Didaktik Still Enrich Each Other. (ppt)

Curriculum and Didaktik Symposium, 13 September 2018, University of Alabama, USA

Teaching Managers how to do Mixed Methods Research? An Empirical Approach. (ppt)

Mixed Methods International Research Association Annual Conference, 22-25 August 2018, University of Vienna

Accountability Beyond Test Scores: Creating Indicators for the Quality of Schooling from Education Theory. (ppt)

Kaleidoscope, Graduate Student Conference, 24-25 May 2018, Cambridge University, UK

The US as an Example of Comparative Analyses of Education Systems.

Social Ministry of Austria Professional Development Day, 19 April 2018, Social Ministry of Austria

Methods for Methods? A Student-Centered Approach to Teaching Research Methodologies. (ppt)

Dies Didacticus Professional Development Day, 7 March 2018, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems

Curriculum Studies

School reform research and practices as a new form of school reform; relation between education policy to histories and contexts of those addressed; nature and use of so-called research evidence for practice, history and future of the Didaktik and Curriculum transatlantic exchange of education traditions and theories about public schooling

Foundations

Comparative analyses of societal, political, philosophical, historical and cultural contexts that construe and construct the meanings of public schooling and education for different people, over time and in different spaces

School and Education Research

Public schooling and teaching as situated, emerging and contingent endeavor for the people it stands to serve; multiple realities of schooling and education

Applied Phenomonology

Explicating the Multiple Realities (Alfred Schütz) of schooling and institutionalized education in view of dropout and reentry, the (un)intended effects of large-scale testing and non-linear pathways in education

Future Directions

Transatlantic exchanges between the Anglophone and the German-speaking world about education, schooling and school reform

Applied phenomenology for education research

Teaching as the profession of pedagogy: self-constructions of teachers as pedagogues, characteristics of an autonomous profession that is teaching

Resegregation and privatization of public schooling

Historiography of education policies for ongoing political education efforts, specifically accountability policy

Education trajectories of early school and college leavers, specifically the structure of their experience of education as an institution

Equitable access to public schooling and post-secondary education for minoritized communities, specifically in the contexts of athletics, disability, and early parenthood

Education

Pre-service practice seminar: What is the Art of Teaching? MA Teaching, University of Duisburg-Essen (Summer 2023, 2024)

International discussions on the quality of schooling: Schooling as community service? BA Teaching, University of Duisburg-Essen (Summer 2023)

What is the Art of Teaching? Considering audience and purpose in creating educative experiences. MA Teaching, University Duisburg-Essen (Winter 2022/23, 2023/24)

Research Methods Seminar: What is the Art of Teaching? MA Teaching, University of Vienna (Winter 2022/23, 2023-24)

International discussions about the quality of (public) schooling. BA Teaching, University of Duisburg-Essen (Winter 2022/23)

Wie hältst du es mit der Theorie? Bildungsreformforschung als kritische Freilegung eingeschriebener Bildungsbegriffe., BA/MA Pädagogik, TU Darmstadt (Februar 2021)

Trends, Limits, and Futures of Accountability in Public Schooling, BA Education capstone course, University of Vienna (Summer 2019)

Multiple Realities of Accountability School Reform, MA Education, University of Vienna (Winter 2018)

Using Evidence in Education Policy Research. A Critical Inquiriy, BA Education capstone course, University of Vienna (2018/19)

Puzzling Pieces of Education Reform: A Detective Approach to Researching Policy, MA Education, University of Vienna (Summer 2018)

Investigating the Evidence in Current Approaches to Reforming Education, MA Education, University of Vienna (Winter 2017)

Qualitative & Quantitative Methods, and Mixed!, MA Management, University of Applied Sciences, IMC Krems (Winter 2017)

The Use of Education Terminology in Political Discourses, MA Teacher/Education, Tech. University Darmstadt (Winter 2017)

Reading, Understanding, Discussing: Vantage Points of School Reform, BA Education, University of Vienna (Winter 2016, Summer 2017)

Teaching, Classroom, Self: Experimenting between Content and Learners, BA Teacher/Education, Tech. University Darmstadt (Winter 2016)

How School Reforms do (not?) reach the Core of Schooling, BA/MA Teacher/Education, Tech. University Darmstadt (Summer 2016)

 

English for specific purposes

Scientific English and Writing, BA Health Management, University of Applied Sciences, IMC Krems (Winter/Summer 2016 - 2020)

Scientific Technical English and Writing, BA Electronics, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Vienna (Winter 2019 - now)

Professional, Creative, Social Communication, various BA programs, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Vienna (Winter 2019 - now)

Ethics and Transhumanism, various BA programs, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Vienna (Winter 2019 - now)

English for Tourism, BA Tourism Management, University of Applied Sciences, IMC Krems (Summer 2016 - 2019)

International Management Issues, MA Management, University of Applied Sciences, IMC Krems (Winter 2016, 2017)

Intercultural Communication, BA Executive Management, University of Applied Sciences Vienna (Winter 2014, 2015 and 2016)

Financial English, BA Executive Management, University of Applied Sciences Vienna (Winter 2014 - 2018)

Presenting and Negotiating, BA Executive Management, University of Applied Sciences Vienna (Summer 2015 - 2018)

Integrated Language and Study Skills, BA English and American Studies, University of Vienna (Winter/Summer 2012 - 2016)