Call for Papers

For individual development throughout the lifespan and the constitution of a personal identity, transitions, crises and the successful overcoming of such crises are essential constitutive factors. They provide opportunities for shaping one’s biography but also highlight structural limitations to the ability to shape one’s life course beyond what is considered to be a normal biography. What do biographical disruptions mean for individuals, and what are their implications for equality of opportunities and participation? How can they be examined empirically and compensated for through pedagogical intervention? In this context, the entire lifespan – from childhood through adolescence to old age – needs to be considered from an educational point of view, in order to improve educational chances and well-being across generations within the framework of inclusive and participatory approaches.

In the digital age, the effects of digitalization on all areas of the educational system are often experienced as disruptions. Developments in artificial intelligence, in particular, challenge personal values, competences and qualifications, and aspirations – or even entire careers. To look at chances and risks of an often short-lived evolution in digitalization also means to become aware of one’s own situatedness as researchers, to constantly feel estranged from usually proven methods and concepts and to improve them, whenever possible, through digital media. Which perspectives open up through the digital transformation with regard to pedagogical acting? What does this mean for the shaping and organization of teaching-learning situations and interactions? How can individuals be prepared to engage effectively with technologies?

The huge lack of experts in many areas of the educational system endangers the quality of professional action in at least two respects: on the one hand, pedagogical concepts may not be implemented according to required standards due to insufficient resources; on the other hand, de-professionalization in pedagogical organizations and institutions looms as qualitative requirements are not met. This becomes apparent in the current debate on the lack of teachers in our school system, in particular. Simultaneously, demands on qualified professionals increase continuously, for example due to increasing numbers of children learning German as a second language. What are the causes for this, and what could appropriate responses look like? What other disruptions will pedagogical professionals be confronted with in the context of their initial, advanced and further training? How can breaks and disruptions in the educational, but also the academic career (e.g. precarious conditions of employment during phases of qualification) be topicalized and softened from a basic theoretical, didactical, historical, education-political or school- and organization-pedagogical perspective? How are disruptions reflected in organizations working in child and youth welfare services?

Processes of education and training are inseparably linked to tensions and breaks because they unfold within an ever more complex and dynamic field of social change and contradictory expectations. How can possible obstacles, disruptions, or experiences of failure be reflected theoretically and made visible as important issues? Which links, new discoveries, or re-readings are made possible by a basically fractured and thus life-world-oriented reflection on education and training? Since breaks often point to socially constructed structures, attributions, or the normativity of theoretical assumptions and definitions, the question arises as to how these could be broken up or transcended within the framework of a post-structuralist approach or an approach that remains critical of ideologies. What can theories contribute to the pedagogical study of disruptions and what possible focal points might they entail?

The consequences of global problems such as climate change, pandemics, or war and refugee migration entail ever more often political radicalization and the strengthening of authoritarian systems. These changes, which can also be experienced as disruptions, may have drastic effects also on the individual level. Educational institutions are directly affected by this and are at the same time being addressed as problem solvers. How do social disruptions and conflicts that arise through inequality, discrimination, or political division influence our perception of society and of the educational and scientific system? What can educational science contribute to the handling of current social challenges? Which approaches (e.g. intercultural education, research on migration, education for sustainable development, educational sociology) help provide answers to current sociopolitical questions and which education-political answers can be deduced from the diverse research results?

Disruptions are a constant factor not only in individual biographies but also in the history of pedagogical ideas and theories – be it due to breaks in traditions of thought and research, changes in paradigms, disruptions in or the breaking out of research communities, the fragmented passing on of a body of methods and theories, or a fundamental re-orientation within the different disciplines. The handling of breaks in itself can also bring forth new frictions (e.g. a language sensitive to differences). How can such disruptions be assessed from the perspective of science history? Which present disruptions characterize the discipline (e.g. reclassifications and changes in denomination, the exodus of expert knowledge into other disciplines)?