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Projects

DFG-Project: SaHe

Public School Development

Communal education policy

Disstertations

DFG-Project: SaHe

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

 

SAHe - School policy ideas of the Alternative for Germany at federal and state level: Themes, strategies and justifications for dealing with heterogeneity (Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai, Line Saur M.A., Moritz Gawert M.A.)

 

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been represented in the German Bundestag since the 2017 federal elections and currently (as of July 2024) in 14 of 16 state parliaments. Its parliamentary presence means that its ideas and concepts are increasingly having a real political impact. The topic of school policy is seen as a “resonance chamber of right-wing ideologies” (Rödel 2020, 136), which is “increasingly a field of action for the AfD” (Hafeneger 2018, 4), which “will use its parliamentary presence to change the political culture and shift political fields of action” (ibid.). At the same time, schools and other educational institutions are now more than ever faced with the question of how to deal with the increasing heterogeneity of learners in a meaningful way. Politicians are called upon to come up with solutions. The project examines the school policy proposals of the AfD party at federal and state level with regard to the following questions:

 

  1. On which school policy issues related to its understanding of education and school organization does the AfD express itself and what position does it take?
  2. What school policy ideas does the AfD articulate on dealing with heterogeneity and how does the party justify its positions?
  3. How have the AfD's arguments changed or been maintained over time?

 

To this end, the party's election manifestos, parliamentary documents and social media posts will be analyzed. This is done using the categories shown in Figure 1:

Fig. 1: Structure of the project

 

© University of Augsburg

 


Literature:
Hafeneger, Benno (2018): „Der Bildungsbereich wird zunehmend ein Handlungsfeld der AfD werden“. In: VHS (Hrsg.): dis.kurs. Das Magazin der Volkshochschulen, H. 3, S. 4-6.

Rödel, Severin Sales (2020): (Erwachsenen-)Bildung in Zeiten rechtsgerichteter Metapolitik. In: Debatte. Beiträge zur Erwachsenenbildung Jg. 3, H. 2, S. 132-149.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

 

Publications and Presentations

Editorships

Matthes, Eva & Nikolai, Rita (Eds.). (2024). Bildung und Erziehung 77 (4): Themenheft "Rechtspopulismus und Schule". Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
BibTeX | RIS | URL

Journal articles

Gawert, Moritz, Saur, Line, & Nikolai, Rita (in press). Die AfD und Sportunterricht: eine inhaltsanalytische Auswertung von parteipolitischen Dokumenten. sportunterricht: monatsschrift zur Wissenschaft und Praxis des Sports mit Lernhilfen, .
BibTeX | RIS
Gawert, Moritz & Saur, Line (2024). Die Analyse von schulpolitischen Positionen rechtspopulistischer Akteur*innen in Sozialen Medien – ein methodischer Vorschlag. Bildung und Erziehung, 77(4), 467-482. https://doi.org/10.7788/buer-2024-770406
BibTeX | RIS | DOI
Nikolai, Rita & Feldengut, Celine (2024). Rechte Christ*innen und Schule: schulpolitische Positionen in den Debatten um den Bildungsplan in Baden-Württemberg und ihre Anschlussfähigkeit an rechtspopulistische Narrative. Bildung und Erziehung, 77(4), 451-466. https://doi.org/10.7788/buer-2024-770405
BibTeX | RIS | DOI
Nikolai, Rita & Matthes, Eva (2024). Rechtspopulismus und Schule - Einleitung zum Themenheft. Bildung und Erziehung, 77(4), 395-400. https://doi.org/10.7788/buer-2024-770401
BibTeX | RIS | DOI
Nikolai, Rita, Gawert, Moritz, & Saur, Line (2024). The Alternative for Germany and its school policy positions. On Education: Journal for Research and Debate, 7(20). https://doi.org/10.17899/on_ed.2024.20.5
PDF | BibTeX | RIS | DOI

Presentations

Nikolai, Rita, Saur, Line, & Gawert, Moritz (2024). AfD und schulpolitische Positionen auf Sozialen Medien. Augsburger ver.di Aktivenkonferenz: "Tatort Demokratie! Rechte Erzählungen erkennen und dagegenhalten", 17.09.2024, Augsburg.
BibTeX | RIS
Nikolai, Rita, Saur, Line, Gawert, Moritz, & Meyer, Sina Maren (2024). Arbeitsgruppe "Rechtspopulismus und Schule". 29. Kongress der DGfE, 10.-13.03.2024, Halle-Wittenberg.
BibTeX | RIS
In der AG berichteten Prof. Rita Nikolai, Line Saur, Moritz Gawert und Dr. Sina Meyer aus ihren Forschungsarbeiten.

In the Media

2024

Team

Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai
Professor - Internationalisation Coordinator
Comparative Education
  • Phone: +49 821 598 - 4633
  • Email:
  • Room 2059 (Building D)
Contact (.vcf)
Line Saur M.A.
Research Associate
Comparative Education
  • Phone: 0821 598-65951
  • Email:
  • Room 4018 (Building D)
Contact (.vcf)
Moritz Gawert M.A.
Research Associate
Comparative Education
  • Phone: +49 821 598-65951
  • Email:
  • Room 4018 (Building D)
Contact (.vcf)
© University of Augsburg

 

Nina Herrmann

Student Assistant

Comparative Education

 

E-Mail: nina.herrmann@student.uni-augsburg.de

© University of Augsburg

 

Celine Feldengut

Student Assistant

Comparative Education

 

E-Mail: celine.feldengut@uni-a.de

Public School Development

Public school development and public school financing policies in international comparison (Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai, Dr. Yusuf Özdemir)

In international comparison, private school attendance is expanding. The proportion of children and young people attending public schools has increased significantly over the last three decades. An expansion can be seen above all in developing and emerging countries. However, a development of the private school sector can also be observed in many OECD countries.

This project examines the development of the public school sector in selected countries and explores the causes of the different effects on the regulation and financing of public schools. The various development paths of public school developments in international comparison are examined based on analyses of secondary literature, document analyses, and expert interviews. Expert interviews are conducted with education policy actors (including political parties, associations, representatives of churches and religious communities, and ministries).

 

 

Publications

Team

Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai
Professor - Internationalisation Coordinator
Comparative Education
  • Phone: +49 821 598 - 4633
  • Email:
  • Room 2059 (Building D)
Contact (.vcf)
Dr. Yusuf Özdemir
Research Associate
Comparative Education
  • Phone: +49 821 598 - 2991
  • Email:
  • Room 2050 (Building D)
Contact (.vcf)

Communal education policy

On the governance of regional inequalities in educational opportunities: school infrastructure in rural and urban areas. (Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai)

How do demographic conditions, especially population and birth trends, affect school network planning? This project focuses on the region as a dimension for educational processes. The gap in higher academic attainment rates has narrowed considerably in the European Member States over the decades. Still, the regional extent has regained relevance in explaining differences in educational attainment. The project aims to examine the planning and decision-making processes for school network development at the local level and their impact on educational inequalities using selected rural regions in Germany. The transformation processes at the regional level and their causes will be examined based on selected municipalities in two federal states about the following questions: How has the school infrastructure changed from 2000 until today? What role did political, institutional, and socio-economic factors play in the changes in school infrastructure? What influence did the respective actor constellations and strategies have? What scope for design and action did school policy actors use at the municipal level? Why did regions with similar challenges (e.g., decline in pupil numbers) adopt different solutions (e.g., establishing an integrated school form)? Why did the private school sector expand in some regions and not in others? The changes in school provision since the 2000s are traced using data from the official statistics of selected federal states. In selected municipalities, the causes of changes in school infrastructure since the 2000s are also analyzed with the help of document analyses and expert interviews with school policy actors (from political parties, associations, municipal school administration, and ministries).

Publications

Helbig, Marcel, Konrad, Marcus, & Nikolai, Rita (2019). Entwicklung der Schulinfrastruktur in Ostdeutschland und die Rolle privater Schulen. In Detlef Fickermann & Horst Weishaupt (Eds.), Bildungsforschung mit Daten der amtlichen Statistik (pp. 105-120). Münster: Waxmann. https://doi.org/10.31244/dds.bh.2019.14
PDF | BibTeX | RIS | DOI
Helbig, Marcel, Konrad, Markus, & Nikolai, Rita (2018). Die Schulinfrastruktur in Ostdeutschland: ein multimedialer Zugang zur Analyse der Veränderungen von Schulstandorten. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB).
PDF | BibTeX | RIS | URL
Helbig, Marcel, Konrad, Markus, & Nikolai, Rita (2018). Wende, Landflucht, Geburtenknick: 25 Jahre öffentliche und private Schulen in Ostdeutschland. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin.
PDF | BibTeX | RIS | URL
Helbig, Marcel, Nikolai, Rita, & Konrad, Markus (2015). Entwicklung von Schulen in Ostdeutschland 1992–2015. (Online-Ressource). Berlin: WZB - Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung.
BibTeX | RIS | URL

Disstertations

Doctoral project: Pedagogical Critique in the Context of Extreme Right Transformation Processes - The Revitalization of Critical Theory for Pedagogical Analyses as a Model of Triangulating Critique (Moritz Gawert M.A.)

In recent years, pedagogy as a scientific discipline and practice has increasingly faced the challenge of dealing with the influence of extreme right-wing actors on different fields (e.g. school policy or areas of social work). Particularly in the academic context, the analysis of these influences raises the question of the importance of a critical approach to research data and the (normative) positioning of academics as social actors. The dissertation aims to discuss these questions by developing a concept of a contemporary re-actualization of pedagogical critique in the context of extreme right-wing positions based on critical theory and testing it on empirical material. In doing so, she would also like to make a contribution to the revitalization of critical theory for pedagogical analyses.

 

 

 

Doctoral project: The AfD's understanding of education (Line Saur M.A.)

A description of the topic will follow soon

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