Education and Transformation

The thematic doctoral programme “Bildung und Transformation” is endowed with an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary orientation and is offered as a cooperative programme by the Department of Didactics of Mathematics, the Department of Educational Science, the Department of German Studies and the Department of Instructional and School Development. Embedded in the context of Educational Research, it is grounded in the pedagogical understanding that education and learning are not merely concerned with formation, but rather, in no small measure, aim at the transformation of subjects and collectives in formal, non-formal and informal contexts and across the entire lifespan. Processes of social transformation and challenges such as social inequality, educational poverty, digitalisation, changes in the world of work, migration, diversity or environmental issues also influence education and learning processes, their foundations and conditions. The study of transformation through and in education also embraces the notion that social conditions can be changed through education and thus individual or collective transformation processes can be actively initiated – supporting the claim to participation, humanisation, democratisation and social justice. How the relationship between education and transformation is received and processed on an individual, a collective, an institutional and a societal level, or which changes are set, prevented or (jointly) shaped, is a theoretical-normative and empirical issue requiring further clarification and one that opens up a wide range of research opportunities.

Three research perspectives are central to the thematic doctoral programme “Education and Transformation”:

• Social participation and involvement against the backdrop of social inequality, social exclusions and restrictions and (self-)empowerment
• Quality and impact of teaching and learning in formal contexts or, respectively, in the field of non-formal education and informal learning; teaching and learning processes; designing settings for learning under shifting societal conditions or meeting changing requirements
• Structures and cultures of educational institutions: governance, organisational development, professionalisation, designing educational programmes, interface issues (transitions)