Accompanying Research Project: A Community School Campus (2024-2026)

The accompanying scientific research team consists of Prof. Dr. Isabell van Ackeren-Mindl,  Rukiye Ateş, Dr. Laura Beckmann, Dr. Christine Becks (University of Duisburg-Essen in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Kathrin Racherbäumer  (University of Siegen). The multi-perspective, interdisciplinary team combines expertise from educational science and research, elementary education, criminology, social science and pedagogical school practice, thus enabling a holistic view and support of the transformation processes from various scientific and practice-oriented perspectives.

The aim of the accompanying scientific research is to systematically monitor and analyze school and teaching development processes based on the model of Research-Practice-Partnerships (RPP) as a long-term collaboration between researchers, in-school and out-of-school practitioners and educational administrators who jointly dedicate themselves to the science-based explanation and solution of concrete, practical school problems (e.g. Weddle, 2023; Farrell et al., 2021; Coburn & Penuel, 2016; Coburn et al., 2013). The school partner is the largest comprehensive school (1,460 students, 150 educators) in the city, serving one of the most socio-spatially disadvantaged districts (social index score 9 out of 9–with 9 being the most disadvantaged) in Essen, a city of 600,000 inhabitants, located in the Ruhr Area in the West of Germany.

This RPP aims to provide accompanying research and research-based support to the school leadership in their efforts to implement two major pedagogical-organizational changes during the construction of their new school building: First, the development of an Education Campus, i.e., a community school structure and respective culture that will house school physical therapists, social workers, a branch of the city library, and administrative services for students. Second, a new curriculum including two mandatory periods each day taught by community partners so that half the class studies academics while the other half learns through hands-on activities with community partners.

Reserach Design and Approach

The research design follows an explorative, emergent mixed-methods approach (Schoonenboom, 2017, 2024), which develops various research methods and data - both primary and secondary data - during the project in a context-specific manner and with a focus on the emerging dynamics and potentially changing project objectives, and it systematically relates them to each other (integration). This agile approach can react to dynamic developments and generate more in-depth, multi-perspective knowledge during a development process. The context-specific, educationally pragmatic approach of the original US model is based on “the fundamental equivalence of scientific and real-world knowledge” and seeks scientific knowledge “in practical (educational) work” (Kerres et al., 2022, p. 13). The accompanying research team thus adopts a co-constructive, strength- and context-oriented position that, on the one hand, supports the school development projects selectively with offers and, on the other hand, acts as an external, well-intentioned critical friend, asks critical questions, makes contradictions explicit and offers complementary perspectives.

 

Literature

Coburn, C. E., Penuel, W. R., & Geil, K. E. (2013). Practice partnerships: A strategy for leveraging research for educational improvement in school districts. William T. Grant Foundation.

Coburn, C. E., & Penuel, W. R. (2016). Research–Practice Partnerships in Education: Outcomes, Dynamics, and Open Questions. Educational Researcher, 45(1), 48–54. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X16631750

Farrell, C. C., Penuel, W. R., Coburn, C. E., Daniel, J., & Steup, L. (2021). Practice Partnerships in Education: The State of the Field. William T. Grant Foundation.

Kerres, M., Sander, P. & Waffner, B. (2022). Zum Zusammenwirken von Bildungsforschung und Bildungspraxis: Gestaltungsorientierte Bildungsforschung als Ko-Konstruktion. Bildungsforschung, 2, 1-20.  10.25656/01:25457

Schoonenboom, J., & Johnson, R. B. (2017). How to construct a mixed methods research design. Kölner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 69(2), 107-131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-017-0454-1

Schoonenboom, J. (2024). Mixed Methods and Multimethod Research. In J. E. Edlund & A. L. Nichols (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Research Methods and Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Volume 2: Performing Research (pp. 163–186). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Weddle, H. (2023). Developing a Research–Practice Partnership With Policy Intermediaries: An Examination of Collaboration With State Education Agency Leaders. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737231213082

 

Selected Qualtitative Inquiries

• Phenomenological interviews with students, teachers, school management, members of the multi-professional teams, parents, education administration, district government, etc. to reconstruct patterns of interpretation and insights into the diverse actor perspectives.
• Admission process of the future 5^th grade (entry grade) students and families
• Evaluation of activities offered in the context of the campus band

 

Selected Quantitative Inquiries

• School-wide survey of selected ICCS-study (2022) constructs
• Integration of secondary data (city, community, school data) to assess the status quo and monitor developments and progress

Conferences, publications, qualification papers

Conference papers based on the first year of the project:

- ”Translation Challenges in Research-Practice-Partnerships: A University-School Collaboration Toward a New Community School Campus" Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, Colorado 26 April 2025

- ”The first year of a research-practice partnership with a comprehensive school in a socially challenging situation in NRW: Education equity, participation and democracy education“ Tag der Bildungsforschung des Interdisziplinären Zentrums für Bildungsforschung University Duisburg-Essen, 18 February 2025

- "Educational justice, school participation and democracy education: Mixed-methods findings of a case study analysis in a research-practice partnership design at a secondary school in a challenging situation in NRW“ Annual conference of the Society for Empirical Educational Research in Mannheim 29 January 2025

- "Lived democracy and participation: A case analysis of democracy education and school participation at a secondary school in a disadvantaged location in NRW" Symposium of the Criminological Society in Tübingen, 28 September 2024

- "Research-practice partnerships: A mixed-methods approach to cooperation between university and school for a new community school campus" Conference: Bildungsorganisation, Bildungsplanung und Bildungsrecht (KBBB), 20 September 2024

 

Master's theses in development:

• Constructions of student-teacher relationships in phenomenological conversations with teachers
• Constructions of deviant behavior in phenomenological conversations with teachers
• Experience of safety and security measures in schools
• Evaluation of sports and language offers “We speak opportunities”
• Senior student project “School of the future”
• The transition from elementary to secondary school