Profession and Institution Reconstructions of fitting relations between teacher habitus and school culture

• Applicant: Dr. Hilke Pallesen
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 352125135

The applied project bases on the assumption that teachers professionalization is a lifetime process. Furthermore, it is assumed that this process of professionalization is influenced by biographic and institutional conditions. In view of the above, the interaction of incorporated dispositions and characteristics of individual schools are of particular research interest. Within the context of relevant literature on teachers habitus and school culture two contrastive schools will be chosen. The collected research material will be interpreted based on sequence analysis. The aim is to reconstruct and identify ideal-typical constellations of school culture and teachers habitus. Based on school self-representations and group discussions with a sample of teachers the meaningful conditions (opportunities and limitations) regarding the processes of teachers professionalization will be reconstructed. The documentary method is the methodological approach. A selected sample of occupational-biographical teachers interviews will be analyzed with the method of sequence analytic habitus reconstructions. This methodological approach aims at the reconstruction of types of teachers habitus presented in the interviews. In the following the reconstructed teachers habitus types will be analyzed regarding their level of professionalization with reference to a heuristic model of professional habitus. Finally, a multi-level procedure with individual-school and cross-school contrasts is planned, aiming at the identification of range and conditions of professionalization processes. This has a practice-relevant importance particularly for future teachers education programs.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants