Educational Studies with a Focus on Migration and Transnational Comparison

Research and teaching at the Professorship of Educational Studies with a Focus on Migration and Transnational Comparison centre on educational processes and practices in societies shaped by migration. The relationship between subjects, educational institutions, and society is examined in the context of migration, transnationalisation, and social inequalities. Particular attention is paid to how belonging and difference are produced and negotiated, and to the power relations that shape educational processes and institutional orders in migration societies. Through transnational comparison, educational orders are analysed in terms of both their cross-border entanglements and their specific social and nation-state configurations.

A key area of research and teaching concerns racism, discrimination, and intersectional inequalities in school-based and extracurricular educational settings. This involves examining how different forms of racism intersect with one another and with other relations of inequality, and how these dynamics shape institutional structures, pedagogical practices, and access to and participation in education. The analysis also considers language-related power relations and forms of discrimination, as well as how multilingualism is recognised, addressed, and positioned within educational institutions. Particular attention is paid to the reproduction, intersection, and transformation of orders of difference in migration societies in the context of contemporary forced migration, transnational wars and conflicts.

Another important area of work concerns the transformation of educational institutions and pedagogical practice towards greater responsiveness to diversity and a more critical engagement with discrimination. This includes examining the professional knowledge, orientations, and practices required to address discrimination in educational contexts, the role of anti-discrimination counselling, and the institutional and organisational conditions that enable or constrain efforts to recognise, address, and challenge discrimination. Research also explores how democratic education can be strengthened and how opportunities for democratic participation and action can be expanded in the face of social inequalities and power relations in migration societies.