Freie Universität Berlin

Im Rahmen der PhD-Workshop-Serie ‚Vademecum‘ an der Bildungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Masaryk Universität Brno (Tschechien) hat Inka Bormann einen Vortag mit dem Titel „How to grasp the tacit dimension of educational relationships. Methodological suggestions using the example of trust“ gehalten. Die beiden Fachbereiche haben zudem die Möglichkeit des DoktorandInnen-Austauschs im Rahmen von Erasmus+ vereinbart.

Mandy Singer-Brodowski hat gemeinsam mit internationalen Kolleginnen einen Artikel im Special Issue ‘Transformative Learning, Teaching and Action in the Most Challenging Times’ in Frontiers in Education veröffentlicht.

Abstract: The multiple crises of unsustainability are provoking increasing stress and unpleasant emotions among students. If higher education is to fulfill its mission to support transformation processes toward sustainable development, it must adapt its pedagogical approaches to help students deepen their critical thinking and empower them to engage in these transformation processes. For this reason, emotions – which can also prevent critical thinking – should be carefully addressed within transformative learning journeys. However, these journeys are themselves challenging for learners and educators. They push them to abandon stable meaning perspectives, causing feelings of incoherence and tension. Learners need safe enough spaces to navigate these situations of uncertainty. The central questions of this manuscript are: What is meant by safe enough spaces? How can learners, educators, and higher education institutions create and hold such spaces? These questions are explored on three different levels: (1) the intrapersonal level, (2) the interpersonal level, and (3) the organizational and systemic level of discourses in higher education. For the intrapersonal level, perspectives inspired by neurobiology are used to discuss reaction patterns of our autonomous nervous system and present insights into stress development. Learners should feel bodily safe when engaging in transformative learning processes. This is supported by balancing the challenges learners face with the resources they have. For the interpersonal level, the manuscript argues that focusing solely on rational discourse is insufficient to support safe enough spaces for transformative learning. We call for a culture of edifying conversations supported by respectful relationships among learners, as they are more adequate for regaining self-direction. For the organizational and intertwined systemic level, the ambition is followed to make higher education institutions offer learning environments that feel safe enough for all involved. However, as these institutions are strongly influenced by dynamics of economization and competition, they do not necessarily empower learners to challenge and disrupt unsustainable and neoliberal discourses. The manuscript explores how learners and educators can cultivate engaged critique by acknowledging their own embeddedness in neoliberal dynamics and opening up so-called transformative spaces for institutional change. Finally, recommendations for educational practices in higher education for sustainable development are offered.

Der Artikel kann hier eingesehen werden: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.787490/full

Wir freuen uns, Dr. Katharina Schröder und Laura Dose als Gäste am Arbeitsbereich Allgemeine Erziehungswissenschaft zu begrüßen – herzlich willkommen!

Dr. Katharina Schröder setzt sich als Gastwissenschaftlerin mit der Frage auseinander, welche Rolle zwischenmenschliche und emotionale Aspekte für Verläufe geplanter Innovationen im Bildungssystem und für den Transfer zwischen Theorie und Praxis spielen.

Laura Dose ist Doktorandin der Université Paris Nanterre (F. Hatchuel) und gleichzeitig der Freien Universität Berlin (I. Bormann). Sie führt Studien zu Beziehungen des Subjekts zu Ideologien durch.

The paper „Home-school interaction: A vignette study of parents’ views
on situations relevant to trust“ (Bormann/Killus/Niedlich/Würbel) has been accepted for publication in the special issue „Trust in educational settings: European perspectives“ in European Education (forthcoming).

Abstract:

This paper addresses parental trust in schools in relation to different situations of school-based involvement. More precisely, the study seeks to examine how selected situations of parental school-based involvement (parent-teacher conferences and parents’ evenings) are relevant to trust, and what facets of trustworthiness are activated in each situation. In line with the comprehensive model of trust (Niedlich et al., 2021), this study aims at interconnecting two elements: ‘trust among parents and schools’ and ‘promotion of trust’ based on perceptions of trustworthiness as antecedents for trusting behavior. Building upon this model and a prior vignette study on parent trust in different situations of school-based involvement (Bormann et al. 2019), the paper highlights the potential of  further theoretical and methodological developments in educational trust research relevant for both research and practice.

Beim 28. DGfE-Kongress (Ent/Grenz/Ungen) werden Prof. Dr. Inka Bormann und Dr. Sebastian Niedlich am Mittwoch, 15.3.2022 in der Zeit von 14.00 bis 16.00 Uhr eine Arbeitsgruppe zum Thema „Bridging challenging boundaries in education. The meaning of trust as a  socio-emotional and cognitive resource in interaction and change“ durchführen.

Nach einer Einleitung in das Thema der Arbeitsgruppe (Niedlich/Bormann) werden vier Vorträge gehalten:

1. Begegnungen an institutionellen Grenzen: Home-school interactions (Bormann/Killus/Niedlich)
2. Overcoming institutional boundaries: Young people re-entering education (Görlich, Aalborg)
3. Zusammenhänge wahrgenommener Autonomie und sozialer Eingebundenheit von Lehrkräften mit deren Vertrauen in schulische Akteure (Hufschmid/Markus)
4. Bedingungen von Interaktion und Veränderung untersuchen: Cognitive-affective maps (Luthardt, Graz/Berlin)

The manuscript „Trust in educational settings – what it is and why it matters“ (Bormann, Niedlich, Würbel) has been accepted for publication in European Education. The paper will introduce the special issue on „Trust in educational settings. European perspectives“ in which invited papers by colleagues from Finland, Denmark, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Germany will reflect trust in formal and non-formal educational settings. Additionally, the paper „Trust in educational settings: Insights and emerging research questions“ (Bormann, Niedlich, Würbel) has been accepted. The article combines recent theoretical tendencies and current empirical findings of interdisciplinary trust research and systematically points out approaches of forward-looking trust research in education which is oriented to the international state-of-the-art.

The paper „Social Exclusion, Subjective  Academic Success, Well-Being, and the Meaning of Trust“ (Barbara Thies, Elke Heise, Inka Bormann) has been published in the Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie (2021), 53 (1-2), 42–57. The full text is accessible here.

Abstract: This article uses a person-environment fit perspective to investigate whether and how educational background and general trust are related to fit (or not) with university life as well as to criteria of subjective academic success and well-being. To analyze how students perceive fit with their university, we measured their perception of exclusion and their affective commitment. The sample includes N = 424 students from two German universities, about half of whom have at least one parent with tertiary education. The results show that especially general trust is related to the subjective criteria of academic success, and that this relationship is mediated by the perception of exclusion, on the one hand, and by the affective commitment, on the other hand. A comparison of the two mediators shows that the perception of exclusion is particularly potent in terms of predicting satisfaction with coping with study demands and general well-being. We discuss the results in terms of their significance to the future diversity management at universities for overcoming social inequality and increasing social inclusion.

Dr. Mandy Singer-Brodowski hat zum 1. Oktober 2021 eine Gastprofessur im Rahmen des internationalen Verbundprojekts UNA Europa der Freien Universität angetreten. Neben Lehre im BA Erziehungswissenschaft und dem Studienbereich Allgemeine Berufsvorbereitung Nachhaltigkeit wird sie nachhaltigkeitsbezogene Forschungsaktivitäten der FU stärken.
Die Gastprofessur ist am Arbeitsbereich Allgemeine Erziehungswissenschaft angesiedelt.

Wir gratulieren Prof. Dr. Mandy Singer-Brodowski sehr herzlich und freuen uns auf die Zusammenarbeit! 

Am 15. September 2021 hat im Rahmen der diesjährigen AEPF/KBBB-Tagung mit dem Titel „Grenzen sprengen – Forschung verbinden. Interdisziplinäre empirische Forschung jenseits klassischer Handlungsfelder“ eine Podiumsdiskussion mit Prof. Dr. Oliver Böhm-Kasper (Vortrag), Prof. Dr. N. Johannes Naumann und Prof. Dr. Inka Bormann zur Frage „Mixed Methods. Modeerscheinung oder notwendige Weiterentwicklung empirischer Forschungsmethoden?“ stattgefunden.

Der Beitrag „Einstellungen pädagogischer Fachkräfte zu anregenden Interaktionen in Kindertagesstätten – Fortbildungsbedarfe entdecken mit Cognitive-affective maps“ von Jasmin Luthardt, Inka Bormann und Frauke Hildebrandt wurde in der Fachzeitschrift Frühe Bildung (in Heft 3/2021) veröffentlicht. In dem Aufsatz wird vorgestellt, welche Einstellungen Teams pädagogischer Fachkräfte aus unterschiedlichen Einrichtungen zu kognitiv-anregenden Interaktionen haben und wie sie ihre eigenen Interaktionen mit den Kindern bewerten. Auf dieser Basis wird diskutiert, wie cognitive-affective maps für die gezielte, teamspezifische Konzipierung und Durchführung von Fortbildungen eingesetzt werden können. Der Volltext ist hier zugänglich.