Pedagogical Professionalism in a Migration Society

About the project

Migration phenomena challenge, unsettle, and disturb the legitimacy and functionality of the natio-racial-culturally coded 'us' in nation states like Germany. As a result, the legitimacy and functionality of institutional routines such as linguistic practices or practices of collective memory are questioned. Thus migration as the movement of people across borders as well as a discourse that shapes new knowledge about belonging and citizenship troubles culturally dominant views and opinions about the legitimacy and functionality of individual privileges – like the privilege to not only expect but to claim that one's own language is also the language of the other. Against the backdrop of the understanding of migration as both bodily and discursive influential, it becomes clear that pedagogy has to deal with the conditions, forms, and consequences of movements of people across borders. In our approach of “Pedagogical Professionalism in a Migration Society”, pedagogy comes into being as an important field in the critical discourses on migration and discourses on legitimate and less legitimate forms of belonging. So in the context of the overall project we ask what happens when migration becomes an issue in educational fields and to what extent pedagogical protagonists and institutions weaken or strengthen natio-racial-culturally coded concepts of 'us' and 'them'. Thus education and pedagogy act both as a mirror and a playground for those symbolic practices that differentiate between a natio-racial-culturally coded 'us' and 'them'.

These perspectives are central to the project “Pedagogical Professionalism in a Migration Society” of the University of Bremen and the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, which encompasses three project phases.

This project is supervised by

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu (University of Bremen, Unit for Intercultural Education)

Prof. Dr. Paul Mecheril (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Institute for Pedagogy; Centre for Migration, Education, and Cultural Studies/CMC; now at Bielefeld University)

Qualitative-interpretative research

Project phase I (09/2016 - 10/2017)

Qualitative-interpretative research on teacher training

In phase I the project team analyzes exemplary administrative and pedagogic policy papers as well as curricula used in teacher training programs both on the federal and on the level of German Federal Lands (Bremen, Northrhine-Westfalia, Saxony and Lower Saxony). Read more about this research project.

Academic Staff Members

Saphira Shure (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg)

Dr. Anna Aleksandra Wojciechowicz (University of Bremen)

Funding

Mercator Foundation

International Conference: Failing Identities, Schools and Migrations – Teaching in (Trans)National Constellations

Project phase II (10/2017 - 12/2018)

26th to 28th October, 2018 at the University of Bremen

Here you can find detailed information about the conference.

Academic Staff Members

Saphira Shure (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg)

Aysun Doğmuş (University of Bremen)

Lydia Heidrich (University of Bremen)

Funding

  • Mercator Foundation
  • German Research Foundation (DFG)
  • Wolfgang-Ritter-Stiftung
  • Hertie-Stiftung

Edited volume: Regimes of Belongig - Schools - Migrations. Teaching in (Trans)National Constellations

Project phase III (11/2018 - 07/2020)

Following the international conference FISM, an edited volume on the conference's topics migration, identity, belonging, power relations, school, pedagogy and teacher education will be published in spring 2021. Further information can be found here.

Academic Staff Members

Saphira Shure (Bielefeld University)

Lydia Heidrich (University of Bremen)

Funding

Mercator Foundation

News

As part of her research semester, Yasemin Karakaşoğlu accepted the invitation of our cooperation partners Prof. Dr. Akiko Ito and Prof. Dr. Hitoshi Sato from the University of Fukuoka and presented the Bremen model to the members of her research group on the “Importance of diversity in teacher education in international comparison”. The hybrid event, which was attended by colleagues from the USA, New Zealand and Sweden, led to a lively exchange about the different national attributions of meaning to diversity and inclusion. The colleagues are planning a return visit to Bremen in 2025 to further develop a joint research project.You can find the announcement of the lecture HERE

 

Dennis Barasi, René Breiwe, Isabel Dean, Aysun Doğmuş, Rabea Lucille Halimi and Nicolle Pfaff have published a digital documentation of the conference of the Netzwerk Rassismuskritische Schulpädagogik “Utopien im Hier und Jetzt: Visionen für eine rassismuskritische Schule - Perspektiven für Schulentwicklung & Schulpädagogik”: HERE

Dennis Barasi, Aysun Doğmuş, Ellen Kollender and Aslı Polatdemir have published the documentation of the event “Pedagogy in times of catastrophe - A solidarity event with educational actors in the Turkish-Syrian border region” in the journal Voluntaris. A digital documentation was also created. The corresponding portfolio contains documentation on the content and course of the event, contact addresses for networking with the invited actors from Anadolu Kültür, Body Movement for Vulnerable Groups, Education Reform Initiative / Eğitim Reformu Girişimi and Kırkayak Kültür, as well as opportunities to donate to the civil society actors in the earthquake region. The portfolio can be accessed under the following link: HERE