Educational Research

‘Educational Research’ builds on the founding principle of Universität Klagenfurt: to shape, promote and conduct research into education. The topics covered in this research area are correspondingly diverse.

Knowledge societies that demand participation and inclusion for the largest possible number of its members need to have a comprehensive knowledge of how to effectively plan, design and implement educational processes in order to achieve these democratic aims. Educational research at AAU is informed by these ideas. It also aims to gather knowledge of developments amongst individuals, social groups and across society as a whole, as well as to find opportunities to shape these developments in the interests of equal opportunities.

The topics researched at Universität Klagenfurt are very broad and include: democratic citizenship, individuality, diversity, interculturalism, gender, multilingualism, demographic change, inclusion, skills and competencies, life-long learning, continuing education and education for educators and teachers, higher education development, knowledge society and scientific communication. Research into the quality of schools and lessons, teaching methodologies and teacher education also plays an important role in future education reforms.

Providing support to young researchers is a particular concern in this area of research, and for this reason a sponsorship award for educational research was announced and presented in 2013 and 2014. The aim of this award is to help an interdisciplinary group of young researchers to develop a research proposal that can then be submitted to the FWF, the Österreichische Nationalbank Anniversary Fund or another institution offering research funding. The project that received the award in 2014, which was titled ‘Communities of Memory in Carinthia: National Socialism and the Second World War in Collective Youth Memory’ has already been able to obtain highly sought-after third-party funding.

During the 2015 summer semester, a lecture series on ‘Empirical Approaches to Education’ was organised, which featured renowned practitioners from all over the world.