Research

On the one hand, the research work of the department is purely methodological research. The focus here is on quantitative methodology in the field of survey methodology (questionnaire construction, generalized survey setting, item and unit non-response, satisficing, cognitive pretests, etc.). Research on behavioral traces and computational social science (CSS) is currently being developed. In the area of mixed methods research, the development of complex survey and sampling designs as well as validation strategies for method-combining studies play a prominent role.

On the other hand, the department's team is anchored in empirical education, science and higher education research and is equipped with expertise on social inequality in educational success, career paths in science, gender issues in STEM subjects, hybrid study formats (dual studies) and the permeability of vocational and higher education. In addition, work and organizational sociology as well as health sociology issues are addressed.

 

Ongoing projects

Accompanying research project of the BMBF funding line "T!Raum - TransferRäume für die Zukunft von Regionen"; Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Bettina Langfeldt, Prof. Dr. Guide Bünstorf, Dr. Christian Schneijderberg; Collaborators Dr. Igor Asanov, Pia Schoch, Rocio Fonseca; Duration: 01.10.2023 - 30.09.2026
https://www.innovation-strukturwandel.de/strukturwandel/de/innovation-strukturwandel/t_raum/t_raum_node

 

With its funding line "Transfer Spaces for the Future of Regions (T!Raum)", the BMBF aims to enable universities and research institutions to develop innovative transfer instruments. The aim is to bring innovations to the region more quickly and thus strengthen positive structural change. In the accompanying research for this funding line, INCHER, together with the Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft and SV Wissenschaftsstatistik gGmbH, aims to make the effects of innovative transfer formats on structural change measurable, to promote and research a sustainable culture of cooperation through learning processes, method transfer and networking at an individual and institutional level and to derive overarching success factors for impact measurements and learning processes.

As a central component of the joint project with the Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft and SV Wissenschaftsstatistik gGmbH, the INCHER sub-project pursues five central objectives:

  1. To make the effects of social and technological innovations or innovative transfer formats on structural change and regional development measurable.
  2. To identify the effects of the funding measure and robustly estimate their magnitude on the basis of a quasi-experimental approach.
  3. Review common indicators of impact measurement at the micro, meso and macro levels with regard to acceptance, benefits and adequacy.
  4. Bringing together the experience, contextual and methodological knowledge of the actors involved and incorporating it into the development of new indicators and experimental transfer formats.
  5. To make the findings collected in the project usable as a basis for empirically supported (further) theory development.

The project focuses on the development of recommendations for a holistic and sustainable evaluation of transfer strategies, taking into account unintended side effects, identifying contextual conditions for promising, in particular experimental, transfer activities in various fields of action and stimulating new social practices and forms of knowledge transfer.

Project in the BMBF funding line "Research on non-state universities"; Collaborator: Ingmar Zalewski; Duration: 01.07.2023 - 30.06.2026

https://www.wihoforschung.de/wihoforschung/de/bmbf-projektfoerderung/foerderlinien/forschung-ueber-nicht-staatliche-hochschulen/agepf/agepf.html

 

The project aims at the theoretically and methodologically guided generation of empirically supported knowledge on non-state compared to state providers of dual study programs or hybrid study formats in the health and nursing professions. In addition to a differentiated status quo description of the offer for regulated and non-regulated healthcare professions in initial and continuing education, the governance of the relevant universities, their behavior on the education market and their concrete efforts to increase the attractiveness of the healthcare and nursing professions are analyzed. Among other things, the question of whether (and if so, how) non-state providers have been able to maintain their "pioneering role" in the successful academization of previously non-academic professions will be investigated. Since the balance between academicism and practical orientation is a key quality criterion in dual study programs, the project also focuses on the design of cooperation between learning locations and the transfer of theory and practice. An analysis of the demand side is intended to clarify, among other things, which criteria former students and current practice partners use to select dual/hybrid degree courses in the healthcare and nursing professions and what role the university's sponsorship plays in this choice.

Cooperation project with the University of Oldenburg; participating researchers: Alena Klenke (University of Oldenburg), Prof. Dr. Bettina Langfeldt (University of Kassel), Maximiliane Reifenscheid (University of Kassel), Prof. Dr. Sebastian Schnettler (University of Oldenburg)

Time use studies are usually based on survey-based time diaries. They have shown that a) there are large differences between men and women living together as heterosexual couples with children in terms of participation in household tasks (Schulz 2021), and b) there may be gender-specific over- or under-reporting of household activities (Bonke 2005). In the future, technological advances will enable the use of devices that automatically record (inter)actions (wearables) to obtain more valid information on the division of tasks, daily routines and interaction between household members. Wearables are also a potential next step in advancing family research to better understand the challenges of mobile work. However, unlike in health research, little is known about the acceptance of the use of such technologies for research on family life behavior. The project therefore investigates the acceptance of wearables for research purposes in households with children through focus groups and surveys. The placement of measuring devices will be tested in a model apartment.

Literature:

Schulz, F. (2021). Mothers, Fathers and Siblings; Housework Time Within Family Households. Journal of Marriage and Family, 83(3), 803-819.

Bonke (2005). Paid Work and Unpaid Work: Diary Information Versus Questionnaire Information. Social Indicators Research, 70, 349-368

Completed projects

Project in the BMBF funding line "Quality Development in Science"; staff: Sören Magerkort; student assistants Dennis Rauhut, Jana Bierbrauer; duration 01.06.2019-31.08.2022.

https://www.wihoforschung.de/wihoforschung/de/bmbf-projektfoerderung/foerderlinien/qualitaetsentwicklungen-in-der-wissenschaft/qualitaetsentwicklungen-in-der-wissenschaft-i/q-dual/q-dual.html

 

The project examines the current process of quality assurance and development in dual study programs, which takes place both in the field of tension between different institutional and stakeholder-related interests and against the background of divergent concepts of quality. Research on this topic is important because the hybrid qualification format has experienced rapid quantitative growth over the past ten years and has become more differentiated in the process. However, student and graduate surveys provide indications that the expected good theory-practice link, the design of the practical phases and the learning support and documentation of company qualification processes could be optimized in many places. The project thus aims to gain new, more data-based insights into the interplay between structural, organizational, cultural and sector-specific factors influencing quality assurance in dual study programmes.

An integrated multidimensional and multi-perspective mixed-methods design is chosen as the methodological approach, in which various qualitative and quantitative data collection and evaluation procedures are used. In addition to document analyses (e.g. of state higher education laws) and expert interviews (e.g. with representatives of chambers and umbrella brands of dual study programmes), a standardized online survey of coordinators of dual study programmes at state and private universities and vocational academies is planned. The results will be interpreted using various theoretical approaches from organizational sociology and vocational education.

In our complex and interconnected world, there is a strong need for databased scientific approaches to solving diverse local as well as global problems. However, to transform scientific recommendations successfully into policy measures, societal trust in scientific methods and results is required. Yet, mistrust toward scientific results seems to be on the rise in recent years. A prominent example is the disbelief in the severity of and acceptance of scientific measures against the coronavirus in some societal groups around the globe. In a democracy, surveys can be an important tool for measuring public opinion and informing political decision-makers about the views of their constituents. Yet, decreasing survey participation, attempts to manipulate polls, and misleading accusations of "fake polls" as well as polls carried out not in accordance with established scientific standards, put the validity of the collected data in jeopardy. If the survey climate continues to be on the decline, this will have drastic consequences for survey-based research since both policymakers as well as the recipients of political interventions have to believe in the accuracy of the data. Therefore, as long as surveys remain the most used scientific method of getting a broad picture of public opinion within a democratic society, researchers may need to worry at least as much about whether results of surveys will be recognized and used for evidence-based policymaking as about the accuracy of survey data.

Link to the Workshop