Faculty of Education

Dean	Professor Dr. Dieter Schulz
Address Phone Fax E-mail URL	Karl-Heine-Straße 22b, 04229 Leipzig (03 41) 97 31 400 (03 41) 97 51 499 dekanat.fakerz@uni-leipzig.de http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~erzwiss/

Research Activities at the Faculty

	Research Activities at the Faculty
	Topics of Doctorates and Postdoctoral Qualifications / Previous Years
	Reports of the Institutes and Departments

	Institute of General and Comparative Education, Curriculum Studies and Educational Psychology
	Institute of Primary School Education
	Institute of Adult Education, Vocational and Social Education
	Institute of Special Education

The research activities of the Faculty of Education were marked in 1999 by an increase in the number of externally funded projects to 32, as well as the further expansion of international research contacts. The growth in externally funded projects was partly due to the start of SFB (Collaborative Research Centre) 417 ("Regionally-oriented Identification Processes: The Case of Saxony"), which involved two colleagues from the Faculty of Education pursuing two sub-projects. It should be borne in mind that it is generally harder for education to obtain outside funding than for other subjects owing to its concentration on teacher-training. Consequently, many of the externally funded projects concern adult education and social education, which are particularly responsive to their social environment (the non-involvement of vocational education can be attributed to this particular chair being vacant). The relatively large number of externally funded projects in the area of education for those with speech and behavioural disorders is also related to the special role of these two subjects in society, as they affect a considerable social environment which extends beyond the confines of school. Dealing with speech disorders, for example, is an area which also directly concerns adults needing linguistic rehabilitation (e.g. after a stroke).

In 1999 the Faculty expanded its international context, and now enjoys research links with France, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, Korea and Japan. Under SFB 417, ties with other Polish and Czech colleagues were built up, and it was also decided to enter into co-operation with colleagues from the University of Rennes following the German-French colloquium (co-organised by the SFB) on processes of regional identification held there. Mention must also be made of the foreign doctoral candidates (including from Korea and Mozambique) who contribute to the Faculty's international character.

One highlight of international co-operation was the organisation of the 24th Annual Conference of ATEE (Association for Teacher Education in Europe) at the University of Leipzig, which was chaired by two members of our Faculty. Addressed by internationally eminent keynote speakers, the 350 participants from 30 countries all over the world also participated in concurrent sessions and working groups, where the main topic of discussion was "Teachers' Professional Knowledge and Reference Disciplines of Teacher Training".

The publishing activities of Faculty members should be underlined. In 1999 they published no less than 21 books (including an encyclopaedia of education), as well as about 100 essays in magazines and anthologies.

Regarding basic research (for which the Institute of General and Comparative Education, Curriculum Studies and Educational Psychology is largely responsible), incorporation into SFB 417 boosted the importance of regional research - already a topic of great importance to the education system owing to the Federal structure of administration in Germany, which is divided into regions. The two SFB sub-projects related to education latch on to already existing topics of research, namely the history of education (General Education Unit) and the analysis of the systems of post-socialist transformation states in connection with the analysis of the development of a "European dimension" in education systems (Comparative Education Unit). In the latter sub-project, the SFB's focus of interest is combined with existing transnational research into education focusing on regional, national and European aspects of identification in the Euroregion comprising Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia. In addition, the peculiarity of transformation societies is to be examined by means of an inter-German regional comparison with a state in western Germany. Since a number of other projects by this Institute are involved in this SFB topic, we can talk of the crystallisation of a new area of research.

One special research interest of various projects in the area of school education is the (recent) history of education. In particular, the Theodor Litt Research Centre at the Department of Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education brings the importance of recent German history to the public eye every year by organising an annual symposium about the work of this great intellectual opponent of political dictatorship.

A new field of research interest for the Faculty is environmental education. This is an area which is bound to have an interdisciplinary impact thanks to its links to the proposed graduate study programme entitled "Institutional Framework Conditions of Environmental Responsibility in Industrial and Post-industrial Society".

Thematic and sometimes also methodological overlaps are to be found in the Department of Educational Psychology's research into cultural comparisons and the systematic comparative work of the Department of Comparative Education. Exciting co-operation can be anticipated in this respect in the future.

Interdisciplinary co-operation takes place with not only the SFB and environmental research, but also in a project between the Department of Educational Psychology and the Faculty of Theology concerning the development of religious concepts in schoolchildren.

One important topic of research embarked upon in a number of projects by the Department of Adult Education (including in the field of general education) is the current problem of quality management in education.

The Institute of Primary School Education focuses its attention on practical schools research. This field also forms the core of the research interest pursued by the Centre of Research and Development of Professional Practice in Education, which integrates those working locally and regionally in education and education policy by means of its regular Regional Education Forums. This practical research into primary school education was accompanied by EU-funded studies of teacher-training in Germany. The Department of Primary School Mathematics Teaching is at present devoting much of its attention to the history of the discipline, a subject also dealt with by general education and school education.

The Institute of Adult, Vocational and Social Education concentrates on the evaluation of actual teaching. In quantitative terms, research is focused on the area of adult education, the particular features of which have already been mentioned.

Many of the research activities performed by the Faculty take place within the Institute of Special Education. All areas of work focus on applied research. Important interdisciplinary fields include the integration of the disabled into 'normal' classes, their vocational training, their incorporation into the world of work, and the development of methods of treatment and therapy, especially in connection with speech disorders. This area of work is also an example of how the educational disciplines can achieve research findings which are by no means limited to children, but which are in fact very useful for adults, especially the elderly.