The Institute for Educational Research (IfB)

Foundation and development

The Institute for Educational Research is part of the School of Education, which was founded in 2010. The School of Education, the Centre for Teacher Training and Educational Research at the University of Wuppertal, functions as an independent organisational unit. It supports the departments in the teacher training programmes. The Institute for Educational Research is responsible for research-related activities and coordinates the educational science components of the teacher training programme.

Research specialisms

The research fields of the Institute of Educational Research are very diverse and cover all aspects of the education system: teaching (interaction), school (organisation) and society (system). Against this background, the IfB has set corresponding research priorities. These focus on the one hand on the area of teacher professionalism and on the other hand on social inequalities in educational participation. The IfB carries out various research projects on these focal points, which are funded by the DFG, the BMBF as well as state and foundation funds.

The Institute's departments co-operate on these and similar issues and can complement each other through their different disciplinary perspectives. For example, the Institute also investigates psychological and linguistic issues.

The departments are supported by the methodological expertise of the junior professorships for quantitative and qualitative methods. The newly established research areas, which focus on the language acquisition of migrant pupils and the needs of children with special educational needs, complement and round off the multi-perspective orientation of the Institute of Educational Research.