YEAR 2022

The first hybrid LIfBi Lecture focused on how educational systems contribute to the reproduction of social inequality. During his visit to the Leibniz Institute in Bamberg, Professor Fabrizio Butera, Ph.D., from the University of Lausanne presented results of various analyses on the role of structural factors in the academic achievement gap between social classes.

The Leibniz Association's Competence Centre Procurement (LCCP) has been relocated at the LIfBi since this spring. The centre, which was founded about two years ago in Berlin and was previously affiliated with the Berlin Research Association, coordinates and procures diverse needs of all members of the Leibniz Association. Until further notice, the LIfBi will now take over the management of the competence centre. In addition to the tendering of joint framework contracts, the individual institutes of the Leibniz Association are advised and supported in demanding national and Europe-wide tenders.

The Director of the Bamberg Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, has been elected as a new member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW). This recognizes her as one of nine new Bavarian academics who have contributed to a significant expansion of knowledge in their respective fields.

Prof. Dr. Ilka Wolter, Head of the Department of Competencies, Personality, Learning Environments at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) and Professor of Educational Research with a focus on development and learning at the University of Bamberg, has been appointed as a new member of the Advisory Board of the National Report on Junior Researchers 2025 (BuWiN). Once per legislative period, the report presents the status quo on career paths, employment conditions and perspectives of young scientists in Germany.

Starting on April 19, interviewers will be on the road again to visit participants of the project "Educational Trajectories of Refugee Children ans Adolescents“. The study, which is based at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), accompanies around 4,100 young refugees and examines their educational paths and transitions at key interfaces of the German educational system with a longer-term perspective. In the surveys, the focus is now particularly on these transitions among young people, for example from school to vocational training or to the labor market.

By the end of the first quarter of 2022, the number of researchers who have registered to use the data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) has increased to 3,000. A recent survey among data users also revealed a high level of satisfaction with the data offered by the NEPS. 94 percent of those surveyed stated that they would recommend the data to others for use based on their own experiences.

How does digitalization affect learning? What contributes to students' willingness to engage socially? And what about inclusion and educational equity? In the fall of 2022, the new NEPS study "Education for the World of Tomorrow" will begin, which will address these topics. For this purpose, 20,000 students and about twice as many people from their surroundings, such as teachers and parents, will be surveyed. Until the summer, the new NEPS study will be presented in the form of online events at selected regular and special schools to promote participation.

On Thursday, March 31, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) received members of the Rotary Club Bamberg-Schloß Geyerswörth. During an evening event, the delegation learned about the work and structure of the institute, the National Educational Panel Study and other projects, and gained a practical insight into educational research by means of competency tests.

DORA, the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, has been working since 2012 to improve the evaluation of the results of scientific research. Its goal is to reduce the dominance of the journal impact factor in research assessment in favor of a broader range of assessment criteria. On behalf of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), its director, Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, signed the DORA declaration in March 2022, joining the 2,500 institutional and more than 18,800 individual signatories worldwide to date.

From March 9 to 11, 2022, around 1,000 scientists met at the 9th symposium of the Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung (GEBF) (Society for Empirical Educational Research), which was held online under the motto "Everything back to square one? Education in Digital Change". In addition to the more than 500 conference papers, participants experienced three keynotes, two poster sessions, the traditional social evening - for the first time in virtual form - and much more.