Network for Inclusive Science Education

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Nehring
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 396981572

With regard to a comparatively large body of non-domain-specific research and to the social relevance of inclusion, the „Network for Inclusive Science Education“ (NinU) focusses on research on teaching and learning processes in inclusive science classrooms on primary and secondary level. It involves biology, chemistry, physics, primary science and special needs educators (six graduated researchers with permanent position, nine junior researchers with fixed-term contract). With their particular expertise in the field of inclusive education, all participants contribute to successful communication and design processes within the network. The triennial work program aims at analyzing and systemizing subject-specific demands for inclusive science teaching, at designing an inclusive science education framework, at establishing a network between German and international experts in the field of inclusion, at adapting research methods for investigating inclusive teaching and learning processes, at supporting junior researchers, as well as at publishing and applying cooperatively for third-party funding. These aims will be reached based on six network meetings and four main focuses. Firstly, the network will identify and systemize research desiderata for inclusive science education (first main focus). Secondly, the network will establish a theoretically and empirically based framework for teaching and learning science inclusively (second main focus). Conceptions and results coming from the network members as well as from national and international experts will be included for this purpose. In a further step, methods for research on inclusive science teaching and learning will be adapted and specified (third main focus). The network will work on how to include typical lines of differences coming from recent research into inclusive research, on adapting existing instruments to the demands of inclusion, and on the relation between individual and group level - a general particularity for the context of inclusion. Finally, these developments will lead to cooperative research projects (fourth main focus). Amongst others, network members will apply for DFG research grants. Junior researchers, in particular, will be supported in initially applying. Publications in terms of peer-reviewed articles, symposia on conferences, contributions to conference proceedings, and an anthology will accompany the work produced in the network.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks