Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI)

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI) is a centre for research in educational media and is one of a kind in Germany. Its mission consists in carrying out practice-oriented, multidisciplinary research on textbooks and other school-based educational media, informed by the disciplines of history and cultural studies. The GEI also advises national and international stakeholders in educational policy and practice. The Institute coordinates and mediates debates and cooperations on international textbook-related matters. As a non-university establishment that both conducts research and makes research possible, the GEI sees itself as a research-oriented infrastructural institution. Its main attraction is the Research Library, with an internationally unique collection of textbooks from the areas of history, social studies/civics, geography and ethics/religion. With the information and communication portal Edumeres, the GEI provides virtual access to current information, publications and data from research on textbooks and educational media, organized into several modules.

Key research activities and services at the GEI:

  • With the advancement of digitalisation, education is undergoing a fundamental change. In response, the GEI has broadened its focus to include digital educational media. Research on knowledge and interpretation, on the societal dimension of media-based transformation, and on the use and adoption of new technology goes hand in hand with an expansion of the Research Library’s collection and the continuing digitisation of its holdings.
  • The GEI provides a diverse range of academic transfer and other services. It acts, for instance, as a coordinator for bilateral textbook commissions and projects and supplies consultation services on textbook-related matters to national and international education policymakers, practitioners and organisations. Additionally, it has served as a mediator in conflict-laden situations surrounding textbooks and provides support for the development of new textbooks and educational media.
  • The GEI’s research library, which holds a unique collection of history, geography, social studies and ethics/religious education textbooks from around the world, has been designated as a Special Subject Collection library by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is the textbook centre of the Council of Europe.
  • The GEI runs the information and communication portal Edumeres.net, which acts as a virtual point of access to educational media research conducted from the perspective of historical and cultural studies.
  • The Institute has its own visiting professorship through the Georg Arnhold Program on Education for Sustainable Peace.

German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW)

DZHW provides applied empirical research in the field of higher education and science studies. As research institution of the Federal State and the Länder (Bund-Länder-Einrichtung) it works nationally and internationally as a partner of the scientific community and both higher education and science policies. Committed to politically independent and excellent research DZHW develops and elaborates innovative, socially and politically relevant issues regarding tertiary education and science. The research and service tasks of DZHW are organized in four research units:

Educational Careers and Graduate Employment
Longitudinal studies regarding educational and occupational trajectories, returns to education, in particular regarding decision to study, progress of studying, occupational and scientific careers.

Research System and Science Dynamics
Examinations of the development of the system of research and science in the international context and of the interactions of different structures of governance, funding, and promotion.

Governance in Higher Education and Science
Studies with respect to indicator systems of universities and scientific organizations, regarding the structures of governance of scientific continuing education at universities and examinations of structures and processes of governance with an organization-sociological perspective.

Research Infrastructure and Methods
Provision of research infrastructure, data sets, databases, buildup of the research data centre. The Research Data Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (RDC-DZHW) archives quantitative and qualitative data from the field of higher education research and science studies and makes them available to researchers and teaching staff for secondary use.

Important work and services:

  • Longitudinal studies on persons with university entrance qualifications, students (e.g., social surveys of students since 1951, eurostudent), graduates, PhD students and PHD graduates;
  • NEPS 1: From Higher Education to the Labor Market (NEPS Starting Cohort 5 „First-Year Students“)
    The DZHW is in the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) responsible for the Starting Cohort 5 (First-Year Students) which following up a cohort of first-year students throughout their studies and into their careers. Particular attention will be paid to investigating educational decisions, the development of competencies, the returns to higher education, and the transition to the labor market;
  • NEPS 2: Panel of Teacher Education Students
    The DZHW examines the study progress and success and the career start of teacher education students (additional sample of NEPS Starting Cohort 5) as well as potential differences in interests, occupational orientation and previous educational biographies compared to other students;
  • NEPS 3: Returns to Education Across the Life Course;
    The DZHW examines as member of pillar 5 “Returns to Education Across the Life Course” of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) the non-monetary returns to education like health, deviance and social and political participation;
  • Educational monitoring and reporting (contributions to „National Report on Education” or ”National Report on Junior Scholars”;
  • Competence Centre for Bibliometrics for the evaluation of research performance;
  • RCD-DZHW with data sets of higher education research and science studies;
  • Services for Federal State and State (Länder) administrations, universities, commissions and boards, science organisations and researchers. More information can be found here (in German).

DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education

The DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education provides a central information infrastructure for and about education in Germany, expanding scientific foundations by conducting research in its own right. As a national centre for educational research, DIPF investigates education from systemic, institutional, individual and historical perspectives. Accordingly, it critically reflects on existing concepts for quality, governance and improvement. DIPF delivers theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions, connecting fundamental research with innovative developmental work and applications for the benefit of society. Owing to its diversity of disciplines, long-term experience in co-ordinating large-scale projects, national and international networking and positioning as a competence centre for knowledge communication and research on education, the Institute is particularly well equipped to react flexibly with respect to complex demands and diverse developments in education, and to provide incentives for the further development of education systems.

Important work and services:

  • DIPF holds a leading role in national educational reporting, commissioned by the federal government (Bund) and states (Länder).
  • DIPF continually takes on relevant tasks in the context of large-scale OECD studies on education (PISA, PIAAC).
  • In co-operation with Goethe-University Frankfurt and the Sigmund-Freud Institute (in German), DIPF runs the interdisciplinary centre for research on individual development processes in children and adaptive instructional design, IDeA.
  • The German Education Server is a central guide to education on the web. Jointly funded by the federal government (Bund) and the federal states (Länder), it is co-ordinated at DIPF.
  • The Research Data Centre for Education provides observation data (e.g., lesson videos) and interview data and related material. Questionnaires and individually indexed scales (item batteries) are also openly accessible. Registered users can download available anonymized transcripts, coding and descriptions
  • The Institute provides the German Education Portal (in German), the central access point to scientific information for educational researchers, educational scientists and pedagogical practice.
  • The interdisciplinary area of “Technology Based Assessment” is concerned with researching and developing new procedures in computer-based educational measurement.
  • The DIPF department “Research Library for the History of Education” is a centre for education historical research; it is the largest specialised pedagogical library in Germany.