Performance and Pathologization

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ralf Mayer
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 569432625

Performance proves to be a controversial term in educational contexts. Its claim to emphasize individual efforts, abilities, autonomy and responsibility and to confront them with specific requirements (e.g. in educational institutions) is controversially discussed. Attempts to unambiguously define the relevance of performance with regard to unequal opportunities for participation, options and social positioning also remain controversial. At the same time, the concept of performance is considered to have a hardly contested ordering function with regard to educational challenges and social selection processes. In contrast, the public debates about the increase of stress phenomena or (behavioral) disorders take up aspects that are directed against universal performance requirements also in educational institutions. However, the opposition between performance and pathological phenomena represents only one possible adjustment. Thus, it can be seen that the diagnosis of an impairment, a weakness, etc. uses multiple references to the concept of ability or competence. In this respect, the recognition of an illness recurs to differentiated connections to the spectrum of performance – and articulates a problem. Furthermore, in the field of education, in relation to normative criteria such as equal opportunities raise the question of equalizing efforts, insofar as the reference to individual performance continues to legitimize the production of differences. The support variants range from assistance, to different kinds of disadvantage compensation, to an institutionalized system for special needs or inclusive concepts. Referring to this the project explores the concrete reference to pathologization and performance motives and the negotiation of corresponding ideas, problems, potentials and efforts of different actors. These controversial constellations result in diverse inquiries into general considerations of educational science in the context of conceptualization, the discussion about participation, equal opportunities or educational justice, as well as current debates about the school as an institution. The basic theoretical and empirical research question to be differentiated is: In what way is everyday life in pedagogical institutions such as schools characterized by performance requirements and how does the orientation towards performance criteria change when specific needs, weaknesses, disorders, etc. become an issue in a school class or with certain students. To answer this question, interviews with experts in the institutional field of schools will be conducted. On the other hand, the research project analyzes professional and public discourses in order to work through the hegemonic disputes about performance and pathologization in their significance for pedagogical questions and problems.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants