POLIS

POLIS - Center for Political and Sociological Education

at the Department of Social Sciences

The members of Polis (incomplete) from left to right: Thomas Meyer, Olaf Jann, Yasemin Niephaus, Alexander Wohnig, Dominik Feldmann, Andrea Neugebauer, Georgia Vassiliadou, Markus Schaal, Hans Graßl, Franka Schäfer, Hanna Butterer, Steffen Pelzel, Elisa Knitsch

The Center for Political and Sociological Education is an association of teachers and students of social sciences. It serves the exchange on questions and subjects of social science education, with a focus on sociological and political science issues. To this end, the Center plans semesterly event programs. The Center also publishes a series of publications in which students and academics present the results of their research.

Self-image & core functions

Institutional merger

At Polis, we bring together members of the Department of Social Sciences who are active in social science teacher training.

Organization

We organize the curriculum planning, the school and extracurricular internships as well as the practical semesters in the educational science MA courses.

Bundling

We bundle the research interests, projects and plans in the field of political education and educational research at the Department of Social Sciences.

Central contact point

We are creating a central point of contact for students on social science teacher training courses and are working on establishing an alumni network.

Establishment of forums

Within the framework of Polis, we open up forums (e.g. in the form of conferences, seminars or digital offerings) for various subject-related and didactic topics in the social sciences.

Cooperations

At Polis, we strive to cooperate with regional and national educational institutions.

Perspective

In the future, we aim to function as a further education center for teachers in the Center for Political and Sociological Education and thus strengthen the regional impact of the university.

Events & Publications

We organize university and public lectures and workshops on topics of political and sociological education. In addition to collecting our own relevant publications, we publish a series of publications (available for free download).

Current events

Erstsemesterbegrüßung Wintersemester 2025/26 Audimax Universität Siegen

CiCS-Evening-Lecture: Julika Bürgin

Why political education is not 'more than (extremism) prevention'?

In her lecture Julika Bürgin refers to

Campus Unteres Schloss (US), Room: US-C 103

19.06.2026, 15:00 - 17:00 oclock

The current semester program at a glance

Weekly from 14.04. | 10:00 - 12:00 | AR-A 1007
Seminar "Datenerhebung und -auswertung an Schulen. A project-based seminar" with Dr. Uta Liebeskind

19.05.2026 | 14:00 - 16:00 | AR-K 117
Short workshop "Queersensitive political education" with Sy Legath (MindBiz Augsburg)

20.05.2026 | 18:00 - 20:00 | Buchhandlung Bücherkiste
Lecture "On the critique of historical-political education. Dealing with antiziganism and antisemitism in post-war German society" with Dr. Katharina Rhein

30.05.2026 | 10:00 - 15:00 | US-S 002
Symposium"Games in political education"
Please register with Sylvia Seibert.

19.06.2026 | 15:00 - 17:00 | US-C 103
Lecture "Why political education is not 'more than (extremism) prevention'"
In cooperation with CiCs

Overview of previous semester programs

Here is a picture of the wall in the office!

20.10.2025
Workshop "Why education needs attitude. On the impossibility of neutrality in (political) educational processes" (with Max Barnewitz and Hanna Butterer)

04.11.2025
Book presentation "Totality" by Alex Struwe, moderated by Alexander Wohnig

11.11.2025
Award ceremony "Helge Pross Prize" to Prof.' em. Dr.' Andrea Maihofer

12.12.2025
Didactic workshop on qualitative research with Verena Männer

13.12.2026
Inclusion symposium: Teaching materials for inclusive civic education

17.01.2026
Conflict orientation symposium

20.01.2026
Lecture with Christina Engelmann on "Clara Zetkin's analysis of class relations. Implications for political (women's) education"

03.04.2025, 19:00 - 21:00 - Bookstore Bücherkiste
Book presentation "Kampffeld politische Bildung"

With Dominik Feldmann, Steffen Pelzel, Jana Sämann

23.04.2025, 18:00-20:00 - US-C 002
"Zwischen Agendasetting, Anrufung und Konflikt: Diskussionen zu aktuellen Berichten der Bundesregierung und ihrer Relevanz für die politische Bildung" (Moderation Hanna Butterer and Max Barnewitz)
Panel discussion with Ina Bielenberg, Benedikt Hopmann, Chantal Munsch

07.05.2025, 14:00-18:00 - AR-D 6101
Didactic workshop on quantitative research
With Uta Liebeskind

23.05.2025, 10:00 - 15:00 - US-C 109
"Class, Classism & Sociological Education"
Workshop in cooperation with the Department of Didactics of Social Sciences

24.05.2025, 10:00 - 16:00 - Campus US
Open University Day

12.12.2024: Didactic workshop on qualitative research. With Dr. Julia Lingenfelder (University of Cologne).

17.12.2024: Diversity-sensitive political education with Sy Legath (Mindbiz, Augsburg)

11.01.2025: Symposium on cooperation between schools and child and youth work. In cooperation with Schools II

16.01.2025: No story of advancement. Why poverty makes you mentally ill. Reading and discussion. With Oliver David (author, Hanover, among others) (moderated by Max Barnewitz and Hanna Butterer)

16.04.2024: Lecture by Prof. Dr. Frank Nonnenmacher (Goethe University Frankfurt): "Greens" and "Blacks" in the concentration camp. The denied victims of National Socialism

02.05.2024: Didactic workshop on qualitative research with Dr. Luisa Girnus (registration required with Sylvia Seibert
until 24.04.2024)

08.06.2024: Open University Day 2024

18.-19.06.2024: SIE*KRIT24 "WHO CARES?!...AND FOR WHAT?" Teaching/learning festival in precarious times. In cooperation with tobecontinuied Siegen and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

18.06.24, AR-HB 0116, 12 noon Lecture Martin Dornberg - Sorge/Care. Power and contexts of a paradigm,
18.06.24, 19:30 (blue lecture hall, AR-D 5102) Film screening in cooperation with the Panoptikum "Paris is burning"
19.06.24, AR-HB 0120, 12 noon Lecture Carolin Ziehringer, Rosine Kelz - The Desire for Care: Feminist Care in a Precarious World

21.06.2024, 3 p.m.: Lecture by Benedikt Widmaier: Infrastructures and tasks of extracurricular civic education

29.06.2024, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.: Expert day on simulation games and simulative methods II

19.10.2023: Away with it! A future without? Political education and abolitionism - workshop by Matthias Heil and Steffen Pelzel

06.11.2023: POLIS Siegen workshop: "Siegen perspectives on sociological education"

05.12.2023: Didactic workshop on qualitative research with Julia Lingenfelder

11.-15.03.2024: Festival week and conclusion of the Democracy Festival

27.04.2023 Didactic workshop on qualitative research with Dr. Marcel Grieger

13.05.2023 Open University Day

03.06.2023 Symposium on simulation games and simulative methods
Symposium on inclusive social science education with a focus on learning and emotional-social development

22.06.2023 What about the Children? On the democratic exclusion of young people - A lecture by Dr. Andreas Busen

25.10.2022 Didactic workshop on qualitative research with Gesine Bade

09.12.2022 Symposium on the topic of inclusive social science education with a focus on learning and emotional-social development

18.01.2023 Workshop on power-critical education

01.02.2023 Helge-Pross award ceremony

AST Autonomous student meeting tutorial

...

Publication series

The series publishes works on school and extracurricular education. The focus is on the theory and practice of political and sociological education from a social science, didactic and pedagogical perspective.

The series is the publication organ of political and sociological education at the University of Siegen, which is organized in the POLIS Centre and includes the didactics of social sciences and the sociology of education. The series also aims to publish selected outstanding works by students, e.g. research papers from the practical semester of the Master's degree. The work is thus made accessible to students, teachers and the specialist public (e.g. teacher training). The research work from the Master's degree in particular is highly relevant for teacher training, as it involves a critical examination of teaching and learning in schools.

Previous volumes of the series

Matthias Heil: The teaching profession as a political profession [POLIS I, 2020]

The teaching profession has always been politically conceived and politically instrumentalized; it is a political profession. This enables both the political-theoretical analysis of the teaching profession and the development of a normative ideal of a democratic teaching profession based on reflexivity and criticism.
POLIS series - political and sociological education, Volume II (2020)

The second volume of the publication series "POLIS - political and sociological education" brings together two student papers - Felix Dornhöfer and Cancuma Cetinyilmaz - that deal with the theory and practice of political and sociological education.
Max Meyer: Radical Democratic Theory [POLIS III, 2022]

The third volume of the POLIS series documents a work that examines radical democratic theories of democracy with regard to their potential for social science education. In the process, principles and categories of social science education are expanded and new readings are added.
Yannik Büdenbender: The reproduction of inequality as a problem for democracy (POLIS IV, 2024)

A functioning democracy requires citizens who make use of their opportunities for political participation, who get involved, who actively shape society, politics and the economy. But what if people from different educational backgrounds are presented with their opportunities for political participation in school textbooks in different ways and to different extents?

Selected publications by POLIS members

Book

2026

Demokratiebildung und politische Bildung

Authors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Wohnig et al.

Book chapter

2024

lost concepts?! Demokratiebildung und Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung als umkämpfte Felder kritischer politischer Bildung

Authors: Hanna Butterer et al.

Public speech

2024

BNE als demokratischer Lernprozess – Interview mit Politikdidaktiker:innen Hanna Butterer und Steve Kenner

Authors: Hanna Butterer et al.

Journal article

2023

Entgrenzungen im Diskurs um Demokratiebildung und politische Bildung

Authors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Wohnig et al.

Further publications & educational materials

Meyer, Thomas (2022): From Queen to Cinderella. On the paradoxical marginalization of sociological education in times of social upheaval and crisis. In: Wohnig, Alexander/Zorn, Peter (eds.): Neutrality is not a solution! Politics, education - political education, Bonn, pp. 248 - 267

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Kooperationen

Arbeiterkind e.V.

Homepage der Gruppe-Siegen

Model United Nations

Bei Model United Nations handelt es sich um eine studentische Simulationsreihe mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Aspekten internationaler Zusammenarbeit und Verhandlungen im Angesicht der aktuellen Weltpolitik.

Homepage der MUN Siegen

Forum Siegen

Beim Forum Siegen handelt es sich um eine Vortragsreihe, die wissenschaftliche Impulse mit gesellschaftlichen Debatten verbindet - jedes Semester mit einem anderen zentralen Thema im Blick.

Homepage des Forum Siegen

Helge-Pross-Preis

Das Zentrum für politische und soziologische Bildung (POLIS) unterstützt alle drei Jahre den Helge-Pross-Preis der Universität Siegen für für herausragende Leistungen auf dem Gebiet der Familien- und Geschlechterforschung.

Homepage des Helge-Pross-Preises