Professorship in Educational and Socialization Theory

The Professorship in Educational and Socialization Theory focuses on educational and socialization processes in various contexts within both non-school and school settings, with a strong emphasis on empirical educational and social research.

The key areas of research and teaching within the professorship include:

• Family, school, peers, and their significance in the development of children and adolescents.

• Socialization, personality, development, identity, attachment.

• Social networks, online networks (especially TikTok, Instagram, Twitter).

• Extremism, group-based hostility, stigmatization, stereotyping, inclusion.

• Democracy (education).

• Education policy, international educational processes, environmental and climate policy.

• Climate education, education for sustainable development, cultural education.

• Cooperation, social relationships, networks.

• Youth research.

• Social network analysis, natural language processing.

We work in an interdisciplinary and international team comprising various disciplines, including educational research, educational science, psychology, political science, communication science, computer science, computational social science, and public administration. Through this collaboration, we are able to develop and apply innovative approaches and methods. In particular, we are dedicated to advancing methods such as social network analysis and natural language processing to gain deeper insights into socialization and educational processes.

Within our teaching activities, we offer courses that cover the theoretical foundations of educational and socialization theory. Additionally, we are involved in the programs of educational science (B.A.) and educational science (M.A.), as well as modules in educational sciences for secondary school teacher training. Of particular importance to us is the imparting of knowledge and skills in the areas of democracy education, personal development, and identity.

For students interested in pursuing a thesis in our field, we provide comprehensive supervision and support. Further information can be found on our website.

We place great importance on engaging with practitioners in the field of education. Therefore, we collaborate closely with schools and non-school institutions in Brandenburg and Berlin.

The professorship has an extensive international network and participates in international collaborative projects. An example in the field of climate education can be found at mecce.ca. Another example is our collaboration with Tel Aviv University in the field of democracy education and educational inequality.

You can find us on Twitter at @NinaKolleck and @SozialisationUP