Forms of Differentiation in General Adult Education Organizations Two qualitative-reconstructive reanalysis concerning collective orientations about formations of employees and space

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Annette Scheunpflug, since 8/2015
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning ; General Education and History of Education
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 216177478

With the proposed study, two specific forms of differentiation in adult education organizations are taken into account. Firstly, the study focusses on social forms of differentiation. Therefore it will be analysed how the communication and cooperation between pedagogical and administrative employees in adult education organizations is structured. Furthermore it will be asked, how this is expressed in the collective orientations of organizational members. It is the objective to reconstruct forms of differentiation concerning the formations of employees in adult education organizations. Secondly, forms of differentiation in regards to space are taken into consideration. The question is how the surrounding (rural) space is perceived in rural adult education organizations and how it influences the collective educational orientations of its members. The focus of this research is on the reconstruction of forms of differentiation that are structured in regards to the meaning of surrounding space as space formation. Both research questions result from a current qualitative research study concerning Teaching in General Adult Education Organizations. Unexpectedly, both forms of differentiation became apparent in the empirical data of this study. However, these were of subordinate relevance for the empirical results for the current study. Therefore the proposed study objects to focus on these forms of differentiation. In regards to both research questions derived from the current research, the state of research provides no solid empirical findings. The proposed study aims to respond to that research desideratum. The already existing comprehensive set of data offers the opportunity to analyse both forms of differentiation by means of two reanalyses. At the same time, it is possible to respond to the request to use also qualitative data sets for specific reanalyses. The current set of data includes nine organizations of general adult education. Within these cases, interviews were conducted with managers and 23 group discussions with pedagogical employees, freelancing teachers and administrative officers. For the proposed study, further rural adult education organizations are included into the sample. The data material is analysed by the documentary interpretation method in order to reconstruct implicit orientations in regards to employees and space formations. The proposed study objects to reconstruct forms of differentiation by reanalysing social formations of employees and formation of the perception of space in adult education organizations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Professorin Dr. Julia Franz, until 7/2015