Current Third-Party Funded
Research Projects of Prof. Dr. Uta M. Quasthoff
(selection)
Research
School Education and Capabilities
The international and
interdisciplinary Research School Education and Capabilities (EduCap) offers a
three-year doctoral program. The language of instruction is English. Each
student is supervised by two professors, at least one of them from the staff of
EduCap. The program covers empirical and theoretical issues in educational and
related research. The focus lies on the analysis of developmental options and
opportunities for children, adolescents and young adults. Special attention is
given to the issue of social and language related competencies.
EduCap investigates
how educational processes within formally organized, non-formal and informal contexts
of growing up influence the development of fundamental human capabilities.
EduCap pursues the option for the further development of an educational
research formed by a perspective on social justice which is particularly
inspired by the Capability Approach (CA) in the tradition of Amartya
Sen and Martha C. Nussbaum. It uses the CA as an overarching
framework that allows for conceptualizing and evaluating causes of educational
inequality and opportunities for just educational chances. Therefore EduCap promotes
an innovative and comprehensive notion of educational research which
empirically relates the materially, culturally and politically structured space
of societal opportunities to the individual competences for action and personal
goals of young persons.
FUnDuS: The role of familiar support in the acquisition of
discourse- and writing skills in secondary education: An interdisciplinary
longitudinal study
The interdisciplinary project FUnDuS
I focuses on the acquisition of oral and written argumentation. Particularly on
the lower secondary school level (Sekundarstufe
I) these skills are assumed to be of fundamental importance for the
students’ everyday life and academic achievement.
FUnDuS aims at obtaining
comprehensive data on how students develop argumentation competencies as well
as at identifying the crucial factors in these processes. Participants of this
survey are students attending the lower secondary level (fifth-graders from 76
classes in 29 schools) and their parents. The study combines quantitative
methods (questionnaires and tests) applied at schools as well as linguistic
analyses of interactions at the participants’ homes.
Fundus I has
identified patterns of parent-child-interaction supportive of the acquisition
of argumentative discourse competence, which is assumed to be a central
presupposition for success in different subjects in school. Since the
prevalence of more or less supportive practices is linked to social status in
families, primary social disparities in education could be explained. At the same time, these resources are also
found in families with low SES. Consequently, these findings of FUnDuS I are
used to conceptualize, implement and evaluate a training program for parents in
FUnDuS II, aiming at the improvement of learning conditions for underprivileged
children.
LiLaC – Literacy between Languages and Cultures
LiLaC aimed at the
investigation of resources and obstacles in the field of written communication
with German authorities as experienced by persons of different age groups (60,
40 and 20 years) with and without a history of immigration.
The participants of the
study were recruited in milieus of low SES and educational level in the Ruhr
area. The comparison of immigrants from Turkey and their descendants with
native German participants followed the assumption that the lack of societal
participation due to difficulties and resistance in dealing with authorities is
to a large degree shared in disadvantaged milieus. At the same time it aimed at
the identification of factors which can in fact be explained by difficulties in
the mastery of L2 German.
The qualitative results
show systematic difficulties in all participants in filling out a simple form.
Most narrators experience personal or written contact with authorities as
strange to their mundane cultural construction of normality and thus as
“face-threatening”. A study of participants’ oral language use in complex
discourse functions – as a prerequisite for writing competence - suggests that
linguistic devices are principally comparable in native and non-native
speakers, but differ qualitatively. The final study could identify
transparency, autonomy and enforcement of clients’ purposes as well as
affective elements as relevant factors influencing the general evaluation of
authorities. The assumption of similar perceptions, experiences and
positionings of the immigrant and non-immigrant groups could be widely
confirmed. However, clear differences were revealed between the sub-group of
persons who rarely or never use German and the rest of the sample.
Research Project Interpass
Interactive methods for establishing
matching and divergence for linguistic and subject-cultural practices in
teaching German and Mathematics. A reconstructive classroom survey explaining
successful or unsuccessful participation in learning processes at school.
The Interpass
research focuses on different class room situations in the subjects Mathematics
and German. Not all students feel comfortable in both subjects – at least not
to the same degree. This study aims at comparing teaching processes observable
in Mathematics and German lessons with respect to the different use of language
and cultural knowledge.
The project examines the degree to which fifth-graders
from different school forms show varying learning behaviors. The overall aim is
to reach a better understanding of possible learning difficulties of students
related to subject-cultural aspects, and to improve the ways these problems are
dealt with in class.
http://www.interpass.tu-dortmund.de/
If you have any further questions or
want to make a suggestion for improvement, please do not hesitate to mail to us
at Team Quasthoff.
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