The research work of the Chair of Comparative Education focuses on the institutional context of education. At the system level, the research focuses on the structural and organizational issues of education systems in international comparison as a level of observation. Structures and regulations as framework conditions are, on the one hand, the result of educational policy decisions (at the national/regional or local level). Still, they are also the result of past historical decisions. In the context of research on the development of educational institutions, the governance of educational systems, and the national and international comparison of educational structures, projects at the Chair deal with historical-institutionalist and comparative studies on processes, contents, and facilities in educational policy. The focus is on school systems' social and institutional contexts and their effects on educational inequalities. Current research focuses include analyses of institutional change in education systems in Germany and international comparison, the effectiveness of institutional regulations, and the interface between social and education policy.

Two main questions determine the research: 

(1) What mechanisms explain the persistence and change of institutional arrangements in education systems?

(2) What effect do institutional arrangements in education systems and their changes have on educational inequalities?

In addition to qualitative research methods (especially analyses of interviews and document analyses), quantitative methods are also used. These include studies with data from official statistics on the social composition of schools and developments in school infrastructure.

The chair also offers the additional subject of Intercultural Education in the BA Educational Science. Further information can be found here: Additional topic "Intercultural Pedagogy"

The chair is currently working on the following projects:

• SAHe - School policy ideas of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at federal and state level: Themes, strategies and justifications for dealing with heterogeneity (Prof. Dr Nikolai, Line Saur M.A., Moritz Gawert M.A.), funded by the DFG
• School infrastructure in rural and urban areas: developments after 1990 to the present (Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai)
• Private school developments and private-school financing policies in international comparison (Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai)