The main research question

In the pro­ject Tra­MiS (“Trans­na­tio­nal mobi­li­ty in schools”), the fol­lo­wing ques­ti­on is posed: how can schools deal effec­tively and inno­va­tively with mobi­li­ty, espe­ci­al­ly in times when stu­dents may not stay for their who­le edu­ca­tio­nal tra­jec­to­ry in one coun­try or sys­tem. Reasons include a plan­ned stay of limi­t­ed dura­ti­on or a thre­at of depor­ta­ti­on. The rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment pro­ject was fina­li­sed in 2021.

Research Partnership

This pro­ject, fun­ded by the Ger­man minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch and con­duc­ted in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the Ger­man Tea­chers’ Uni­on and the Freu­den­berg Foun­da­ti­on, is desi­gned as rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment in part­ner­ship with schools, not sim­ply rese­arch about schools. 12 Ger­man schools that stand out for strong com­mit­ment to their stu­dents’ suc­cess and inno­va­ti­ve approa­ches are part­ners in the pro­ject.
In addi­ti­on, Tra­MiS team mem­bers have visi­ted schools in inter­na­tio­nal set­tings with diver­gent migra­ti­on pat­terns, immi­gra­ti­on laws, and school poli­ci­es, name­ly in New York (USA), Toron­to (Cana­da),  Stock­holm (Swe­den) and Bol­za­no (Ita­ly).

Methods

Methods include work­shops, inter­views with school lea­ders and class­room obser­va­tions to under­stand local tea­ching con­di­ti­ons.
The rese­ar­chers col­la­bo­ra­te with lea­ders of par­ti­ci­pa­ting schools, using rea­li­stic trans­na­tio­nal stu­dent sce­na­ri­os that call for inno­va­ti­ve school-based prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons. School lea­ders explain how their school would respond in each case, taking into account their pedago­gi­cal stance, school con­text and any limi­ta­ti­ons. The pro­ject rese­ar­chers also spend 3 days in par­ti­ci­pa­ting Tra­MiS schools to deve­lop a nuan­ced under­stan­ding of the school’s tea­ching con­di­ti­ons and approach. The main goal of the pro­ject is to use exem­pla­ry school set­tings to deve­lop a com­pen­di­um of effec­ti­ve pedago­gi­cal opti­ons under diver­se cir­cum­s­tances. At the same time, par­ti­ci­pa­ting schools have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to exch­an­ge ide­as with other school par­ti­ci­pan­ts and learn from an inter­na­tio­nal perspective.

Background​

In the Fede­ral Repu­blic of Ger­ma­ny, school poli­ci­es were deve­lo­p­ped under the prin­ci­ple of return migra­ti­on in the 1950s to 1970s, while today the prin­ci­ple of immi­grant inte­gra­ti­on is gui­ding school poli­ci­es: New­ly arri­ved child­ren and youth are addres­sed as immi­grants who will stay for the rest of their lives in Ger­ma­ny. They are sup­po­sed to learn Ger­man quick­ly so that they can be trans­fer­red to regu­lar school ins­truc­tion in Ger­man that pre­pa­res for a life in Ger­ma­ny.
At the same time, all stu­dents in Ger­ma­ny have to take Eng­lish as a for­eign lan­guage to be able to com­mu­ni­ca­te inter­na­tio­nal­ly, and many stu­dents are invol­ved in inter­na­tio­nal exch­an­ges with other count­ries. An inter­na­tio­nal or even glo­bal ori­en­ta­ti­on of all stu­dents is con­side­red to be important for Euro­pean inte­gra­ti­on, eco­no­mic com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness and cul­tu­ral exch­an­ge in the digi­tal age. Ide­al­ly, all stu­dents pro­fit from a school deve­lo­p­ment that con­siders dif­fe­rent migra­ti­on per­spec­ti­ves and opportunities.

Short information

Full title of pro­ject: Per­ma­nent? Tran­si­ent? The diver­si­ty of trans­na­tio­nal mobi­li­ty as a chall­enge for insti­tu­tio­nal chan­ge in schools in Ger­ma­ny
Pro­ject Direc­tor: Pro­fes­sor Dr. Yase­min Kara­kaşoğ­lu
Prin­ci­pal Inves­ti­ga­tor: Dr. Dita Vogel
Rese­ar­chers: Tor­ben Ditt­mer, Mat­thi­as Lin­ne­mann
Fun­ding: Bun­des­mi­nis­te­ri­um für Bil­dung und For­schung (Fede­ral Minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch in Ger­ma­ny)
Pro­ject dura­ti­on: 2/2018 to 1/2021
Coope­ra­ti­on part­ners in Ger­ma­ny: Freu­den­berg Stif­tung (a foun­da­ti­on with long-stan­ding com­mitt­ment to inno­va­ti­on in schools) and Gewerk­schaft Erzie­hung und Wis­sen­schaft (the main tea­chers’ union)

In English