Ubiquitous Working

The technological potential for separating work from the workplace is constantly increasing. Mobile devices, mobile internet access and remote access to firms’ internal networks and data allow for working anywhere at any time, i.e. Ubiquitous Working (UW). An interdisciplinary network of scholars used theory-based empirical research to explore the opportunities and challenges arising from UW. For this purpose, the project made use of rich data on both employees and employers in order to examine the diverse dimensions of UW that are relevant from the perspective of the involved disciplines – economics, work psychology, media psychology, occupational medicine, and sociology. The project’s objective was to bring together these disciplines in a closely collaborating network of institutions and scholars in order to gain deeper insights into the phenomenon of UW.

WZB Berlin Social Science Center

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center conducts basic research with a focus on problems of modern societies in a globalized world. Around 160 German and international researchers work at the WZB, including sociologists, political scientists, economists, legal scholars, and historians. They study developments, problems, and opportunities for innovation in modern societies. Their research is theory-based, problem-oriented, often long-term and mostly based on international comparisons. The research areas are: education, work and life chances, markets and choice, society and economic dynamics, international politics and law, dynamics of political systems, migration and diversity.

One research focus at the WZB is sociological education research on vocational training and continuing education. Research devoted to these topics is primarily performed at the research unit “Skill Formation and Labor Markets” (Director: Prof. Dr. Heike Solga) and the WZB-based project group “National Educational Panel Study: Vocational Training and Lifelong Learning” (Head: Prof. Dr. Reinhard Pollak). The WZB makes theoretical and empirical contributions to improving the German education systems, fighting educational deprivation, and smoothing the transition from school to work. All of this involves international comparisons. An important focus of education research at the WZB is the relation between education, labor market, and social policy.

Important Research Projects:

  • The project group “National Educational Panel Study” at the Social Science Research Center (WZB) is involved in Stage 6 (Vocational Training and Transition to the Labor Market) and Stage 8 (Adult Education and Lifelong Learning) of the German National Educational Panel Study. 
  • In cooperation with various Leibniz institutes, the “College for interdisciplinary Education Research” (CIDER) offers the opportunity of interdisciplinary career advancement to 30 junior scientists in educational science, psychology, economics, and sociology during their early post-doctoral stage.
  • The WZB is a partner and patron of the „Berlin Interdisciplinary Education Research Network“ (BIEN) and of the Berlin Network of Labor Market Research (BeNA). 
  • The institute publishes the “WZBrief Bildung”. The „WZBrief Bildung“ provides concise up-to-date information about a given topic from their educational research. It is published several times a year in electronic form. It is geared towards experts and specialists working in politics, schools, organizations and the media. The authors of the „WZBrief Bildung“ are scientists conducting research on issues surrounding education and training.
  • In cooperation with the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, the WZB publishes the „Zukunft Bildung“ dossier (“The future of education”). Using texts, videos, and graphics, the dossier makes current educational policy debates and research results from various disciplines accessible to a broad, non-academic audience.  

University of Luxembourg

At the associated partner “University of Luxembourg” is the research group „Educational Processes in Contemporary Societies“ consisting of members from two Institutes devoted to educational research. It connects social scientific perspectives on education and learning processes (educational theory, philosophy, history, and sociology). The main focus is on educational policies, systems, and processes within particular cultural, political, and socio-economic contexts. Thus, particular importance is placed on historical, cross-national, and international perspectives. Objects of study, whether in quantitative or qualitative or historical and institutional analyses, are education policies, system development, learning processes and teaching, and learning within and outside educational organizations.

Activities:

The activities of the research group include editing journals and book series, contributing to national education reports (Germany, Luxembourg), organizing international conferences, evaluation and consulting in a range of countries and advisory board membership.

Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi)

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg analyses educational processes from birth to old age. In order to promote longitudinal educational research in Germany, the LIfBi provides fundamental, nationally and internationally significant, research-based infrastructures for empirical educational research. One core of the institute is the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which is based at the LIfBi and brings together the expertise of a Germany-wide, interdisciplinary network of excellence. In addition to the ReGES and BildungswegeFlucht refugee studies, the LIfBi is also in charge of other major projects such as the Data Literacy monitoring study. This is based on their own research and development work, in particular the well-founded development of instruments and methods for longitudinal educational studies, from which other research projects also benefit.

Important work and services:

  • LIfBi runs the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). The NEPS collects longitudinal data that are representative of Germany on the development of competencies, educational processes, educational decisions, and returns to education in formal, nonformal, and informal contexts throughout the whole life span.
  • NEPS data are made available to the national and international scientific community in the form of Scientific Use Files that can be accessed through various innovative ways using state-of-the-art technology. Interested data users are invited to attend regular user trainings.
  • NEPS data provide an empirical basis for research and offer a rich potential for analysis with regard to educational research and related disciplines (e.g., demography, educational science, economics, psychology, and sociology).
  • In addition to the standard documentation material for every single Scientific Use File, the NEPS Research Data Center offers a number of supplemental information and assisting tools for handling the NEPS data.
  • The Research Data Center LIfBi (RDC LIfBi) is primarily responsible for the user-friendly preparation of survey and test data of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and its dissemination to the scientific community in the form of Scientific Use Files.
  • Third-party funded projects by LIfBi: LIfBi continually acquires new third-party funded projects.

Institute for Employment Research (IAB)

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) is a special office of the Federal Employment Agency (BA). The IAB conducts research on the labour market in order to advise political actors at all levels.

The research of the IAB focuses on labour market policy, regional and international labour markets, macroeconomic labour market research, establishments in the labour market, and life chances and social inquality.

A large part of the institute‘s findings is based on own comprehensive surveys of establishments, individuals and households along with process data from the Federal Employment Agency. IAB is a leader in developing new methods of surveying, linking and processing data. External researchers as well have access to quality-assured sets of innovative micro data that have been prepared for scientific analysis through the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at IAB.

Important Work and Services:

  • The IAB investigates current issues in the area of economics and sociology of education and makes the research results available to the community of researchers as well as to the general public.
  • Based on its research results, the IAB contributes to the decision and legislative procedures in the field of labour market policy.
  • With its own surveys as well as with the process data from the BA the IAB provides important datasets, which can be used as the basis for studies in a wide range of scientific disciplines.

GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

As the largest German infrastructure institute for the social sciences, GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences, with its expertise and services, stands ready to support researchers on the basis of the newest scientific methods, high quality data and research information.

Research projects generally go through a process with several phases – the research data cycle. Therefore, the services offered by GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences are structured along a four-phase research data cycle, as follows:

  • Plan studies & collect data
  • Finding & retrieving data
  • Prepare & analyze data
  • Archive & share

GESIS offers consulting and practice-oriented guidance for each phase.
In the first phase, for example, GESIS experts advise on the collection of survey data and digital behavioral data. Researchers are supported in the development of an adequate project design and the quality assurance of the implementation.
The second phase, Find & Retrieve Data, enables researchers to find the appropriate data for secondary analysis. For this purpose, more than 6500 national and international studies are available in the GESIS data archive.
The preparation of data is also an essential step on the way to their analysis. Therefore, in the third phase Prepare & Analyze Data, GESIS supports the modification, linking, and analysis of data.
In the fourth phase, Archive & Share, GESIS promotes scientific transparency in line with the FAIR principles: F(indable) A(ccessible) I(nteroperable) and R(e-usable).
At GESIS, researchers can find repositories and services to archive, register, and share their data and publications over the long term.

The services offered for the research process are based on our own continuous and interdisciplinary research in the four areas of Survey Methodology, Research Data Management, Current Societal Issues, and Applied Informatics, as well as within their intersections.

Data Archive for the Social Sciences (DAS)
The department Data Archive for the Social Sciences (DAS) is Germany’s central infrastructure for the registration, documentation and digital archiving of quantitative research data which can be used to analyze societal developments from a national, internationally comparative or historical perspective.

Research Data Center
The Research Data Centers (RDC) at GESIS offer a special service for a number of survey programs for which GESIS partially participate in the data collection or permanently take over the tasks of data processing, archiving and delivery

One of GESIS’ most important research areas is education research. GESIS is involved in significant German, European, and international projects: Within PIAAC, GESIS is part of the PIAAC Consortium, which is the board responsible for planning and controlling. GESIS is also responsible for the German project management. An enhancement is PIAAC-L, a project that is implemented together with LIfBi and SOEP. It is the first internationally comparable long-term study worldwide for competencies in adulthood. Further selected GESIS projects within the area of educational research are:

  • CIDER – College for Interdisciplinary Education Research for the support of talented junior researchers in interdisciplinary context
  • Feasibility study for the Baden-Württemberg-Panel to generate progress data on the transfer from education at school and vocational training
  • CAMCES – Computer-Assisted Measurement and Coding of Educational Qualifications in surveys to make the internationally greatly varying survey tools for education comparable in survey data.

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.