CHANGE

Students research social inequality

The project “CHANGE” makes an innovative contribution to analyzing social inequalities and injustices from the everyday perspective of students. It generates new knowledge that would not be accessible without the collaboration with students as citizen scientists and the focus on their everyday experiences. The participatory research project is based on the principles of Global Citizenship Education and includes a variety of methods such as photovoice, videography, focus groups, observation, semi-structured interviews, online surveys and the collection of social media data.

The selection of participating schools includes different types of schools (AHS/BHs, secondary schools, polytechnic schools and vocational schools), which represent a heterogenous group of young people with different living environments as well as different forms of teaching. According to the school, the research activities of the participating young citizen scientists are integrated into the curricula and the subjects in different ways.

In cooperation with the research team, the students develop research questions in the initial phase of the project that relate to various forms of social inequality, e.g. wealth/income, power/prestige, origin/nationality/citizenship, gender, age, and education. The students act as citizen scientists and choose the topics and methods according to their own interests and develop detailed research concepts. These vary from school to school, but are always realised in collaboration and implemented in all research phases. Over the course of the project, the students therefore acquire a wide range of scientific expertise and skills in regard to systematic data collection and data analysis, but also “transferable skills” in terms of team building, moderation, presentation, project planning, project management and project evaluation. These skills can then also be applied in other schools and professional areas. In addition to their research activities, the students - as citizen scientists - are equally involved in evaluating the individual project phases and communicating the project results. The project also aims to develop strategies to reducing inequalities - in everyday school life, within peer groups and beyond.

"CHANGE" promotes the competence-orientation of students and strengthens their openness to science through an intensive, experience-oriented and reflective examination of a complex topic. The project also contributes to the school specialisation (autonomer Schulschwerpunkt) in the field of science, it helps to drive the further professionalization of teachers and fosters a close and long-lasting co-operation between the tertiary education sector and schools.