PowerMii: Vocational Schools in Rural Areas
Empowerment Research Groups for Girls with a Migration Background in Vocational Schools in Rural Areas
Project at a Glance
Project Description
In Germany, inclusion, educational equity, and labour market participation for young people with a migration background remain key societal challenges. The need for action is particularly evident in rural regions, where exclusion resulting from intersectional disadvantage and discrimination is especially pronounced at critical transition points within the education system.
Educationally disadvantaged girls with a migration background often attend pre-vocational classes within the transition system in order to fulfil compulsory schooling requirements, as they are not enrolled in vocational training programmes.
The PowerMii project seeks to unlock the potential of empowering educational biography work for educationally disadvantaged girls with a migration background in vocational schools located in rural areas. Within real-world laboratories, research–practice tandems consisting of researchers, school social workers, and vocational school staff will collaborate to develop teaching units for an educational programme entitled “Empowerment Research Group” (ERG). The project follows a transdisciplinary and participatory action research approach.
Challenges and enabling conditions will be analysed through a comparison between one western and one eastern German federal state. Within the Empowerment Research Groups, participants will develop a reflective and inquiry-based approach to their own educational biographies and qualify as role models who can act as multipliers through workshop formats in other educational institutions.
To ensure sustainability and facilitate transfer, the project findings will be compiled into a practical workbook for educational professionals and stakeholders.
Organisations
Subproject: Research-Based Development and Evaluation in Brandenburg
Potsdam University of Applied Sciences
Subproject: Research-Based Development and Evaluation in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
University of Siegen
Subproject: Real-World Laboratories in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
Catholic Youth Organization Förderband Siegen-Wittgenstein e.V.
Subproject: Real-World Laboratories
Sponsors
The project “Meta-project Migration, Integration, and Participation in Education” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Family, Seniors, Women, and Youth and the European Union through the European Social Fund Plus (ESF Plus) as part of the “Integration through Education” program.
