The research group considers school as a social system, and broaches the issue of its current transformation against the background of long-term institutional change. In this respect, the focus is on the interactions between institutionalised education and society. Of interest is on the one hand the question of what school «does» with people («people processing») and how the people, for their part, deal with the institutional conditions. On the other hand, it is asked what school «does» with a society's culture, i.e. what role school plays in the reproduction of a society's culture («culture processing»), through, for instance, selecting, reshaping or excluding educational contents, and in this way passing on and innovating culture. The respective research intentions place the mostly «locally» determined concrete object of investigation in a comparative perspective, which can also be international in scope.
Thematic focus
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- Institutional change with regard to structures (inter-cantonal harmonisation, introduction of preschool level; block times and day school), steering and control (educational standards and monitoring; school supervisory board, parental collaboration and student participation) and discourse (accountability)
- Change of «people processing» with regard to inclusion/exclusion/selection, qualification/certification and socialisation (citizenship education; human rights education; political education) and with regard to microstructures and everyday culture in the field of action of school (school ethnography)
- Change of «culture processing» with regard to educational standards and curricula (German-Swiss curriculum) and didactics (history instruction).
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