Biographies and professional careers of alumni of exclusive boarding schools in Germany

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ulrike Deppe
• Subject Area: Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 366762907

Boarding schools represent prominent places of exclusive school education through their characteristics and attributions, such as selection, separation, privilege and often history. In Germany, two contrasting types of exclusive boarding schools are interesting: the first is characterized by high costs and a progressive education tradition, often combined with international offers and an international student body; the second is represented by state funded low cost boarding schools with strict performance and personality-related entrance examinations. While few studies have been carried out on single boarding schools, no studies on alumni of exclusive boarding schools have been reported.In this three-year qualitative study the educational biographies and professional careers as well as the orientations towards privileged education within the biographies of approx. 30-year-old graduates from exclusive boarding schools are to be examined. 20 to 24 autobiographical-narrative interviews are to be conducted. The aim is based on the fact that in Germany no obvious advantage derives from attending an exclusive boarding school because the leaving certificate (Abitur) at any German higher secondary school (Gymnasium) enables to enter university, but also on the thesis that boarding schools are total institutions which provide a strong secondary socialisation through additional and hidden curricula that can decisively influence the public and private adult lives of the students.Drawing on biographical, identity and habitus theory approaches, the study adopts autobiographical-narrative Interviews with alumni of exclusive boarding schools appr. ten years after their graduation. Expert interviews with the school headmasters and monitoring questionnaires with the considered graduate cohorts are supposed to open and obtain further in-depth information on the field of research.With its question, the project is situated between education and socialisation research as well as vocational training, university and professional transition and occupation research.As a result, for the first time, information on the relevance of exclusive boarding schools for the educational and professional careers as well as the medium-term professional qualifications of the former pupils and on the educational-biographical effects of boarding school socialisation can be expected.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants