Project title:

Bildungsgerechtigkeit forschend studieren (Studying educational equity through research)

Project management:

Dr Fabian Dietrich, Dr Nina Thieme

Funding:

Leibniz University Hannover, university funding for project-orientated teaching

Project term:

01.10.2010 – 31.03.2011

Project description:

A teaching project entitled ‘Bildungsgerechtigkeit forschend studieren’ (Studying educational equity through research) was carried out at the Institute of Educational Science of the Faculty of Philosophy at Leibniz University, which comprised a basic introductory seminar, a lecture series and a colloquium.

These three parts of the teaching project were closely linked: As part of the lecture series, theoretical approaches and current empirical research projects were presented by host and guest speakers and then discussed with the participants of the event. The aim was to provide students with an insight into the current academic debate on the topic of ‘educational equity’ that extends beyond Leibniz University.

In order to enable the participating students to deepen the insight gained through the lecture series and to actively participate in the discussions themselves, the seminar, Educational (In-)Equity - Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives, was offered as the second element of the teaching project. In this seminar, the topics of the lecture were prepared and followed up in the form of a reading course and supplemented with theoretical principles in order to enable students to systematically localise the current empirical research projects discussed in the lecture series.

The concept of the seminar, which is part of the Master's programme, took into account the idea of interdisciplinarity anchored in the LUH mission statement by locating it as a cross-curricular course in three degree programmes: in the Master's degree programme in Teaching at High Schools, in the Master's degree programme in Teaching Special Needs Education and in the Master's degree programme in Educational Sciences. The aim of attending these two courses was to create a sound basis in terms of content for initial considerations on the design of a Master's thesis. The latter could then be conducted as a separate empirical research project, thus initiating the students' own research activities, which can be considered essential for academic training. The third element of the teaching project, the ‘interdisciplinary research colloquium on educational science’ offered by Prof Dr Martin Heinrich, provided the opportunity to develop and discuss in depth a question to be addressed in the Master's thesis.

Publications:

Dietrich, Fabian/Heinrich, Martin/Thieme, Nina (Eds.) (2013): Bildungsgerechtigkeit jenseits von Chancengleichheit. Theoretische und empirische Ergänzungen und Alternativen zu ‚PISA‘. Wiesbaden: VS.