Research area education, diversity and inequality
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Content of this page
Social inequality is still rife when it comes to educational opportunities and achievements. Understanding why these inequalities persist and finding ways to overcome them is one of the most urgent issues to be addressed within the education sciences. This overarching issue is investigated from the perspective of different disciplines and methodologies at PH Zurich. The common thread is the key role schools and teachers have to play in laying the foundations for equality in education. One focus of research being conducted at PH Zurich is the logic and practice behind distinctions and assessments made throughout the school day. For example, research is underway to identify how terms such as “performance”, “talent”, “gender” and “migration background” are used in teaching practice and what impact they have by shaping professional opinions and actions.
Research focuses
Questions of equality and inequality are addressed at PH Zurich in national and international consortiums, through externally funded projects, in teaching research projects and in doctoral/postdoctoral theses. These research activities are linked to current discourse surrounding educational policy and teaching practice on many levels, relating to everything from discussions on diversity management, inclusion and inclusive education to debates on discrimination and racism in a migration society.
Pedagogical knowledge in the context of persistent inequality in education
All pedagogical action is based on a wide range of knowledge with all kinds of professional and social points of reference (including professional knowledge, ideas of quality and equality in schools, and discourse surrounding educational policy). This knowledge has social implications because it is constantly being fed into assessments, evaluations and decisions in the classroom, meaning it can help eliminate inequalities but also reinforce them. In this focus area, the research aims to examine how this knowledge takes shape, how it is applied to everyday teaching practice and what implications it has for equality in education.
Inclusive education in heterogeneous contexts
Inclusive education involves system-first and person-first perspectives. Its aim is to achieve an educational system in which everyone involved works together and a learning environment that allows all pupils to learn together despite their differences. This fosters a school culture built on equal opportunities in education, where pupils can fulfil their potential and teachers can develop further on a professional level. There is a focus on accessibility, with special attention also being paid to sensitive situations with a view to minimising negative discrimination and stigmatisation caused by putting people into categories.
Transcultural learning
International education cooperation opens up opportunities for everyone involved to meet and enter into discussions. Alongside subject-specific questions relating to particular skills (subject, interdisciplinary, teaching), there are also questions about the added value of transcultural cooperation when working with project partners. How do people learn in a shared transcultural space? What improvements do people see in their skills? These kinds of questions are qualitatively assessed and examined within international communities of experts as well as being made accessible to the target groups, which are teaching staff at universities, teachers in schools and employees working for NGOs.
Publications
2025
Horvath, Kenneth, Andrea Isabel Frei und Mario Steinberg (2025) How Do Problematisations “Materialise”? A Neopragmatic Perspective on the (In-)Visibilisation of Justice Concerns in AIED.
British Journal of Sociology of Education: 1–20.
Horvath, Kenneth (2025) Das Problem mit der Praxisrelevanz – oder: zur Schlüsselrolle Pädagogischer Hochschulen für eine zeitgemässe Bildungsforschung.
In: Zwei Jahrzehnte hochschulische Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung: Bilanzierungen und Perspektiven = Deux décennies de formation des enseignant·e·s en haute école: bilans et perspectives, hrsg. v. Bruno Leutwyler, Deniz Gyger Gaspoz, Barbara Kohlstock, Heinz Rhyn und Peter Tremp, 311–16. Bern: Hep.
2024
Hessdörfer, Florian and Kenneth Horvath (2024) Potenziale. Zur Kritik eines Leitmotivs zwischen Politik und Pädagogik
Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 6: 737–41.
Horvath, Kenneth (2024) Zur folgenreichen Unmöglichkeit, Potenziale zu prüfen
Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 6: 758–74.
Steinberg, Mario, Horvath Kenneth and Andrea Isabel Frei (2024) Die (neo-)pragmatische Perspektive der Soziologie der Kritik auf Herrschaft, Macht und Ungleichheit in der schulischen Bildung
Gesellschaft – Individuum – Sozialisation. Zeitschrift für Sozialisationsforschung 5 (2): 1–15.
2023
Berner, Hans, Rudolf Isler and Wiltrud Weidinger (2023) Einfach gut kooperieren
Bern: hep.
Bühler-Garcia, Georg, Gisela Bürki and Wiltrud Weidinger (2023) Unterwegs. Das bin ich. Das kann ich. Da will ich hin
2. Auflage. Bern: hep.
Grimmer, Bettina and Jennifer Hobbins (2023) Neue Subjektpositionen – alte Klassismen? Übergangsregime und aktivierende Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland und Schweden
In Übergänge mit Klasse, herausgegeben von Antje Handelmann und Karolina Siegert, im Erscheinen. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt Verlag.
Horvath, Kenneth, Mario Steinberg and Andrea Isabel Frei (2023) Bridging Inquiry and Critique: A Neo-Pragmatic Perspective on the Making of Educational Futures and the Role of Social Research
Learning, Media and Technology, März, 1–14.
Horvath, Kenneth (2023) How Economics and Sociology of Conventions Helps to Understand the Social Dynamics of Testing and Sorting
In: Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions, herausgegeben von Rainer Diaz-Bone und Guillemette de Larquier, 1–19. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Horvath, Kenneth and Mario Steinberg (2023) Social classification and the changing boundaries of learning. A neopragmatic perspective on social sorting in digital education
Learning, Media and Technology 48 (4): 566–80.
Horvath, Kenneth, Andrea Isabel Frei and Mario Steinberg (2023) Hinter den Kulissen künstlicher Intelligenz: ein soziologischer Blick auf Gefahren und Potenziale adaptiver Lernsoftware
EP (Education Permanente) Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Weiterbildung (1): 33–43.
2022
Gollob, Rolf and Wiltrud Weidinger (2022) Observation handbook for trainers. Professional Development through classroom visits
Ministry of Education Moldova/SDC: Zurich.
Weidinger, Wiltrud (2022) Hierarchien in der Organisation Schule – (Un)bewusste Dynamiken und Hinweise für eine gelingende Zusammenarbeit
In: Schulmagazin 5–10, Heft 5/6 2022. Hannover: Friedrich-Verlag.
2021
Berner, Hans, Rudolf Isler and Wiltrud Weidinger (2021) Einfach gut lernen
Bern: hep.
Horvath, Kenneth (2021) In der Anti-Brennpunktschule? Neopragmatische Perspektiven auf pädagogisches Unterscheidungswissen, schulische Leistungsordnungen und kategoriale Ungleichheiten
In Diversitätssensible Lehrer:innenbildung. Bildungssoziologische und überfachliche Zugänge, herausgegeben von Sven Oleschko, Katharina Grannemann, und Andrea Szukala, 33–56. Weinheim: Beltz.
Horvath, Kenneth, and Regula Julia Leemann (2021) The Politics of Inequalities in Education: Exploring Epistemic Orders and Educational Arrangements of Durable Disadvantaging
Social Inclusion 9 (3): 296–300.
Horvath, Kenneth (2021) Elite, Begabung und soziale Ungleichheit – ungelöste Gerechtigkeitsfragen
In Handbuch Begabung, herausgegeben von Victor Müller-Oppliger und Gabriele Weigand, 77–87. Weinheim: Beltz.
Horvath, Kenneth (2021) Klassifikationen zwischen Politik und Ungleichheit. Pädagogisches Unterscheidungswissen in migrationsgesellschaftlichen Kontexten
Kumulative Habilitationsschrift, Luzern: Universität Luzern.
Lieger, Catherine and Wiltrud Weidinger (2021) Spielen Plus
Bern: hep.
Doctoral theses
The ecosystem of edtech start-ups
Project name: Edtech start-ups between promise of innovation and selection pressure
Doctoral thesis by: Andrea Isabel Frei
Topic: Edtech start-ups are expected to deliver revolutionary innovations as solutions to the many challenges being faced in education in school settings. There are many tests awaiting edtech start-ups within their own ecosystem in the form of organisations like incubators and accelerators or fundraising in the search for investors. This project investigates the tests that edtech start-ups have to pass and the practical steps they can take to ensure their survival in this context. There appears to be a special selection process that will ultimately also have an impact on the development of digital technologies in educational contexts.
Funded by: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Supervisor: Kenneth Horvath
Digitalisation in educational settings
Project name: Education, digitalisation, everyday teaching practice – a case study with multiple strands demonstrating the incorporation of digital educational technology into specific teaching situations and how it is perceived.
Doctoral thesis by: Mario Steinberg
Topic: This research project examines how teaching staff react to digital educational technology, how they incorporate it into everyday teaching scenarios and which knowledge they draw on in the process. There is a focus on the associated (and undesirable) categorisation effects and potential for discrimination.
Funded by: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Supervisors: Oliver Nachtwey (University of Basel), Kenneth Horvath (PHZH)