Courses

in the winter semester 2025/2026

Bachelor’s degree courses

Lecture: Theories of Education (STEOP) [ PLUSonline]

What do ‘upbringing’ and ‘education’ mean? / Foundations of educational theory (including Plato, Ballauff, Benner) / On the problem of theory and practice (including Herbart, Arendt) / On the dialectical nature of upbringing and education (including Schleiermacher, Rousseau, Litt) / Conditioning or emancipation as the goal of upbringing and education? (Freire, Skinner) / Education and social criticism (including Adorno, Mollenhauer, Heydorn) / Who sets the standard for education and learning? (including Kant, d’Arcais, Noddings, Nussbaum) / On the future of education and learning (including OECD, Radtke). Course leader: Prof. Dr. Sabine Seichter

PS The Practice of Qualitative Social Research [ PLUSonline]

“Historical-systematic research in the age of ‘artificial intelligence’” The emergence of ‘artificial intelligence’ presents even established academic approaches with new challenges: What is the academic role of researchers and students? What can humans do that AI cannot? How can AI tools be usefully applied to the writing of research papers and/or term papers? What opportunities are opening up, and what pitfalls are emerging? Based on these questions, the introductory seminar will focus on developing a research practice that critically and reflectively engages with the possibilities and limitations of AI. Given that pedagogy, as a ‘practical’ science, must continually engage with its own concepts, problems and fundamental questions, the seminar will focus on exploring a (self-chosen) topic using approaches from the cultural and humanities disciplines – with the support of, and in contrast to, AI. The focus will be on reflecting scientifically and methodologically on the educational-theoretical and historical-systematic contexts and integrating them into contemporary research practice. Course leader: Dr Matthias Steffel

PS Topics and key concepts in education: ‘classics’ [ PLUSonline]

Why are certain figures regarded as ‘classics’ of educational theory whilst others are not? In this introductory seminar, we will examine the origins, function and (feminist and postcolonial) critiques of these ‘classic’ representations in educational theory. We will ask which authors are represented in the curriculum, which are missing, and what this means for the discipline. The focus will be on Mathilde Vaerting, the first female professor of educational science (1923–1933, Jena). We will reconstruct her academic biography using historical sources and secondary literature. We will then develop a shared reading guide for excerpts from one of her major works, *Die Macht der Massen in der Erziehung* (1929). The aim is to highlight Vaerting’s contributions to educational thought and to explore their potential for contemporary debates and educational practice. Course leader: Sophie Schubert, BA, MA

UV Democracy in Action, Education and Sustainability. Practical Perspectives (OWM C/A) [ PLUSonline]

Following on from the Ring course ‘Democracy Education in Times of Crisis’, in which we explored the question of what is meant by democracy education, this semester we aim to adopt a more practice-oriented perspective. Democracy education addresses the fundamental question of how younger generations are socialised into an existing democracy and how, at the same time, this democracy becomes a tangible reality for them. In this context, it is not only about facilitating democratic processes within educational institutions; it is also about taking a stance within society as a whole and negotiating how we can, want to, and should live together. In this course, we will therefore address the topics of democracy in theory and practice within the context of education and training, discuss democratic processes at the university, and turn our attention to the topic of memory politics. The open format creates a space for exchange in which students can actively participate alongside academics, practitioners and other social actors. Course leaders: Sophie Schubert, BA, MA; Claudia Schwertl, MA; Dr Matthias Steffel

Master’s courses

SE Maria Montessori. Education in the Context of Eugenics, Racial Anthropology and Perfectionism. A Reading Seminar [ PLUSonline]

Maria Montessori’s (1870–1952) concept – with its eugenic ambitions and strong biological underpinnings – serves as an exemplary and almost archetypal illustration of a globally prominent vision of the (self-)optimisation of the child. Montessori’s entire endeavour was directed towards preventing the ‘abnormal’ child – that is, the child deviating from the statistical average norm in physiological, pathological, moral and intellectual terms – and, where necessary, selecting them out in order to promote the ‘normal’ and thus (self-)optimised child. Even though Montessori saw education – particularly the system she herself devised – as a means of enabling perfection with a view to the ‘higher development’ of the human being, by the end of her life she was forced to acknowledge that a sustainable and boundary-pushing enhancement of the child’s nature could ultimately only be achieved through reproductive technological interventions. Course leader: Prof. Dr. Sabine Seichter

SE Introduction: Upbringing and Socialisation (A) Person or Thing? On an anthropological category of difference and its implications for theory and practice [ PLUSonline]

This course will focus on comparing and critically evaluating two fundamental positions within educational science. The key difference between these two positions lies in their differing anthropological conceptions of human beings, each of which gives rise to a distinct theory of education and training, as well as practical approaches. Whereas the natural sciences tend to ‘objectify’ human beings, the humanistic tradition conceives of them as autonomous and responsible individuals; research based on this approach will primarily examine the heterogeneity and diversity of human action, thereby leading to a theory of education and learning centred on emancipation and self-determination. Course leader: Prof. Dr. Sabine Seichter

UV Identity crises. Pedagogy and conceptions of humanity across different stages of life (Focus Area A) [ PLUSonline]

One of the central concepts underlying upbringing and education is ‘the human being’. People are brought up by other people and are meant to develop as human beings. But what is the point of this, really? A possible framework for orientation can be found in the different stages of life, which become significant in the context of educational goals and can be broadly divided into childhood, youth/adolescence, adulthood and old age — each of which can be further subdivided. This raises pedagogical and anthropological questions: Where do these classifications of life stages actually come from? What (different) conceptions of humanity underlie them in each case? And what implicit and explicit attributions and normativities accompany them? These and other questions are taken as an opportunity in the VU to critically engage with supposed self-evident truths of upbringing and education. The starting point here is that the actual people living their lives are not identical to their life stages. Taking the associated ‘identity crises’ as a starting point, the course does not view the different life stages as a ‘grid’ with fixed ‘stages’ in the life course, but rather describes and problematises them in the light of their cultural and social conditions. The underlying conceptions of humanity play a key role in this and can be made visible and critically analysed. This will be the focus of the seminar, along with developing an understanding of pedagogy that goes beyond strict standardisation and normalisation. Course leader: Dr Matthias Steffel

SE Begleitseminar I (Masterarbeit) [ PLUSonline]

Supervision and guidance for the Master’s thesis are limited exclusively to research projects in educational theory and philosophy within the field of general educational science.Course supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sabine Seichter

SE Begleitseminar II (Masterarbeit) [ PLUSonline]

All courses can also be taken as elective modules.