Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Science - History of Education

Research

Research profile

I am interested in the history of mass schooling, its evolution and transformations. As a common experience of entire populations, elementary schooling is of fundamental significance for modern societies. The technological transformations of this important institution are of particular and strategic interest. My research primarily focuses on Europe (Germany and Spain) and Latin America (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia), but I am also looking at other contexts outside Europe. This approach has resulted in a number of studies with a clear international and comparative orientation. New challenges in the history of education for me are the history of the economy of education, the history of emotions and pedagogic relationships as well as the history of school techniques and teaching methods.

Topical focus

  • Methods and procedures in the formation of the subject in the modern era: Theory of modern teaching and the modern school; power and culture in education.
  • Elementary schooling in an international perspective: governance of teaching; transformation of educational structures; compulsory schooling as political issue; international diffusion of Western school models.
  • Internationalisation of schooling: pedagogic semantics; governance of education systems; privatisation in the education sector.
  • Micropolitics of schooling: politics of didactics and methods; emergence and transformation of teaching cultures.

Current projects

Supervision

  • 2018
    research project:

    "Pädagogisch (Pedagogical). Emergence, Implementation, Variance and Transformation of a Modern Conceptual Field (German States, 1750-1850)" ("Pädagogisch. Emergenz, Durchsetzung, Varianz und Transformation eines modernen Begriffsfeldes (deutsche Staaten, ca. 1750-1850)", sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/ German Research Foundation (DFG). 

  • 2016
    research project:

    "The Bureaucratization of Groupings. Local and transnational dynamic of innovation in the introduction of age-graded school classes in compulsory education (Prussia, the US, and Spain, ca. 1830-1930) („Die Bürokratisierung der Gruppierung. Lokale und transnationale Innovationdynamik bei der Einführung von Jahrgangsklassen im Pflichtschulbereich (Preußen, USA, Spanien; ca. 1830-1939)“, sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / German Research Foundation (DFG). Project applicant and head.

  • 2014
    Book project: „Globalizing Discipline. The monitorial system of education and the making of modern schooling“, sponsored by the Excellence Initiative at Humboldt-Universität.

 

Books:

  • "Globalizing Discipline. The Monitorial System of Education and the Making of Modern Schooling".

Advising

  • 2009-2011
    Adviser to the research program “Paradigmas del saber pedagógico en el campo conceptual de la pedagogía en Colombia, 1970-2000“ (“Paradigms of pedagogic knowledge in the emergence of pedagogy as an academic field in Colombia, 1970-2000”). Adviser (methodological and content matters) to 15 sub-projects and coordinator of overarching publications.
  • 2007-2009
    Adviser to the research project „La apropiación de la escuela nueva en el saber pedagógico colombiano: una mirada a las escuelas normales durante la primera mitad del siglo XX“ [Die Rezeption der Reformpädagogik in der Institutionalisierung pädagogischen Wissens in Kolumbien: Die Normalschulen in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts]. Supervision: Prof. Rafael Ríos, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Kolumbien. sponsored by Colombian Research Foundation COLCIENCIAS.
  • 2004-2008
    Adviser to the research project “Berufliche Deutungsmuster und Ausbildungsstrukturen im Vergleich“ in the Sonderforschungsbereich / Collaborative Research Center 640: Repräsentationen sozialer Ordnungen im Wandel at Humboldt University Berlin, sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / German Research Foundation (DFG).
 
Completed projects

Coordination

  • 2012-2019
    „Entstehung und Steuerung ‚gemischter’ unterrichtsorganisatorischer Normen im Transfervergleich (Spanien, Irland, Indien, ca. 1840-1900)“, sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / German Research Foundation (DFG). Project applicant and coordinator.
  • 2003-2007
    (    With Jürgen Schriewer): "Nationalerziehung und Universalmethode. Globale Diffusionsdynamik und kulturspezifische Aneignungsformen der Bell-Lancaster-Methode im 19. Jahrhundert", sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / German Research Foundation (DFG). Co-applicant and coordinator of the operative implementation of the project.

Projects

  • 2009-2010

    “Aushandlung und Durchsetzung unterrichtsorganisatorischer Normen: Gemischte Unterrichtssysteme in Westeuropa (1850-1900)“; “Politisierung der Schulbildung: Das Junktim von Wahlrecht und Alphabetisierung in Hispanoamerika (1812-1903); “Moderne Öffentlichkeit und Schulpolitik: Kulturgeschichtliche Perspektiven zu schulpolitischen Kontroversen im Königreich Bayern (1860-1880)“. These projects were conceptualised within the framework of the Heisenberg Scholarship from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / German Research Foundation (DFG).

  • 1999-2000

    "Zur Geschichte der pädagogischen Regulierung. Staatliche Regelung des Unterrichts und ihre Rezeption in der Lehrerschaft (1869-1918)". Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung graduate scholarship.

  • 1993-1996

    "Pedagogía, intelectuales y curriculum: El caso de las izquierdas argentinas (1943-1955)", University of Buenos Aires, Institute of Education, sponsored by a research grant from the University of Buenos Aires.

  • 1991-1993

    "Fuentes y espacios del pensamiento pedagógico del peronismo: Los discursos pedagógicos del nacinal y de la izquierda (1943-1949)", Institute of Education, University of Buenos Aires, sponsored by a research grant from the University of Buenos Aires.

Participation
  • 1994-1996
    Junior-researcher in the department "Education and Society" at the Latin-American Faculty for Social Sciences (FLASCO), Buenos Aires. Research work on the situation of schools in the provinces Santa Fe and Mendoza; problems of teacher training in Latin-America. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Cecilia Braslavsky.
  • 1990-1993
    Research assistant in the department „Bildung und Gesellschaft“ at the Latin-American Faculty for Social Sciences (FLASCO), Buenos Aires. Empirirc research work in the province Mendoza, Santa Fe and Rio Negro. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Cecilia Braslavsky.
  • 1990-1991
    Research assistant in the research project “Pedagogic alternatives and the future of education in Latin America“. Comparative historical project, cooperation between the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Universidad Autónoma de México. Coordinator: Prof. Dr. A. Puiggrós.