Project title:

Wer macht wen und was wie zum Fall in (sozial)pädagogischen Handlungszusammenhängen? Theoretische und empirische Vergewisserungen (Who makes whom and what as a case – and how – in (social) pedagogical contexts of action? Theoretical and empirical reflections)

Project management:

Guest Professor Dr Nina Thieme

Student employee:

Maurice Malten

Funding:

University of Kassel, funds for central teaching support

Project term:

01.10.2016 – 31.03.2018

Project description:

Research forms an important basis for university teaching, both in terms of teaching content and with regard to the qualification aspect of direct participation in the research process (cf. Development Plan of the University of Kassel 2015 to 2019, p. 20). This connection between research and teaching, which was already emphasised by Wilhelm von Humboldt, is considered at least a rhetorical consensus in the German academic landscape.

The reform of the German higher education system initiated as part of the Bologna Process, the core element of which is the introduction of Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes, represents a central challenge with regard to the realisation of this idea: There is a risk that the research-based nature of teaching will lose its priority importance in view of time pressure, limited resources and teaching capacities as well as the anticipated demands of the labour market for vocational training (cf. Pätzold/Schophaus 2008, p. 87) or has already lost it in some cases.

This scenario was addressed by the teaching project ‘Who makes whom and what as a case – and how – in (social) pedagogical contexts of action? Theoretical and empirical reflections’. From October 2016 to March 2018, the project was based at the Institute of Social Work in the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Kassel. It was aimed at students on the BA Social Work programme and comprised a thematically focused seminar, a two-semester qualitative-reconstructive research workshop that also focused on the subject matter, and an internal work conference.

The primary idea of this research-based course was to create a space in which - over several semesters - students could continuously research a subject relevant to social work, in the process receiving methodological training. The hermeneutic-analytical perspective they could thereby develop forms an essential part of pedagogical professionalism in work contexts within and beyond the school.