Current projects

DFG Project - Police as partners in home education? The professional organization of the relationship between home education and the police as a horizon of experience for young people

Duration 11/2023 - 10/2026

In the practice of residential care, there are numerous occasions for different interactions and/or cooperations between the police and residential care facilities that have potentially serious consequences for young people. The extent and type of contact between residential care organizations and the police as well as the experiences, interpretations and processing methods of young people are the central subjects of this project. The research design includes a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative research. First, types of interaction and cooperation between home education and the police are statistically differentiated and correlated with pedagogical orientation patterns. Qualitative interviews with users are used to record how interventions and the presence of the police in these different types of institutions are experienced, subjectively interpreted and processed by young people. The extent to which young people's experiences of the police and the pedagogical handling of these experiences have consequences for the self-perceptions and external positioning of those affected will be investigated. The questions are:

• How are educators perceived against the background of experiences with the police, for example as advocates, as investigative assistants or simply as uninvolved witnesses of events?
• How do young people perceive their status as subjects in police interactions, how do police experiences influence their perspective on themselves as present and future (legal) subjects?
• What role do educators and their interactions play in the extent to which young people can (re)position themselves as (legal) subjects in relation to institutions? Do the police experiences and the perspectives of young people on these experiences correspond with the types of cooperation and interaction as well as the pedagogical orientations in the organizations?

Team

Prof.'in Dr. Zoë Clark (University of Siegen)
Prof. Dr. Tilman Lutz (HAW Hamburg)
Jonas Kohlschmidt, research assistant (HAW Hamburg)
Moana Kahrmann, research assistant (University of Siegen)
Arne Wohlfarth, research assistant (University of Siegen)
Fabian Fritz, research assistant (University of Siegen)
Pia Tillmann, student assistant (University of Siegen)
Tina Zahabi, student assistant (HAW Hamburg)
Amelie Gießer, student assistant (University of Siegen)

Project-related publications

Clark, Z./ Fritz, F./ Kahrmann, M./ Kohlschmidt, J./ Lutz, T./ Ragunathan Wohlfarth, A.(September 2025). Widersprüche - Zeitschrift für sozialistische Politik im Bildungs-, Gesundheits- und Sozialbereich, Heft 177: Soziale Arbeit und Polizei - Spannungen, Relationierungen und Interdependenzen. Published by Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Clark, Z./ Kahrmann, M./ Kohlschmidt, J./ Lutz, T./ Ragunathan Wohlfarth, A. (2025). Addresses and uses of the police by young people in the context of inpatient residential groups of educational support. In: Contradictions, H. 177, pp. 29-44

Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C./Kohlschmidt, J./Lutz, T. (2023): Who takes the blame? On the significance of the thematization of racial profiling for home education, In: Migration und Soziale Arbeit 04/23.

Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C./Lutz, T. (2023): Police contacts in everyday home education - not pedagogically relevant situations? Research notes from an explorative study, In: Discourse on childhood and youth research.

Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C./Kohlschmidt, J. (2022): Shifting boundaries: On the relationship between home education, flight and police in Germany. In: Swiss Journal of Sociology 48 (3).

Unlikely educational careers - The contribution of child and youth welfare to successful education under conditions of particular disadvantage: gelB(BMBF)

Project description

The aim of the project is the empirically based analysis of successful educational processes of young people who grow up under conditions of socio-structural and socio-spatial disadvantage as well as problematic family circumstances. To this end, both young users of child and youth welfare services (open youth work, outpatient educational assistance, residential care) who succeed in educational success and educational careers despite unfavorable social conditions, as well as young people who do not succeed in education despite these measures, will be interviewed. The focus is on reconstructing the conditions that make unlikely educational processes possible. From the perspective of the users, it is recorded how and under what conditions child and youth welfare services and other actors in the social networks of the respondents contribute to successful educational processes, or themselves act as barriers to educational success. The findings will be used to formulate empirically based recommendations for education-related practices in child and youth services and open and mobile child and youth work as well as for their networking with school stakeholders. The research project is designed as a collaborative project that examines the conditions and social mechanisms of successful educational processes for young people in unfavorable starting situations, taking into account different regional (prosperous and crisis-ridden regions) and socio-spatial contexts.

Completed projects

Educational assistance as work for the common good. Between impact-oriented management and equal participation in Germany and Great Britain: geste (BMBF)

Symposium "Who decides what and how?"

Self-organization and Representation of Interests of Recipients and Employees of Home Education

Participation, self-organization and the representation of Interests of young people and employees are facing new challenges. New forms of management and the omnipresent shortage of skilled workers are having an impact on the working conditions and processes of employees. At the same time, the reform of Book Eight of the German Social Code (SGB VIII) has considerably strengthened the participation rights of young people, which makes a redesign of previous formats appear sensible. The geste research project has examined the participation practices of both users and employees in the field of residential care and is now presenting the results as well as concrete impulses for the further development of participation opportunities for employees and young people in residential care.

The symposium took place on October 6, 2023 at the University of Hamburg. We would like to thank all speakers and attendees for the interesting contributions, exciting discussions and diverse exchanges. The lectures were recorded and, thanks to Lecture2Go, are available both directly on this website and via this link.