The project "LabSchoolsEurope: Participatory Research for Democratic Education" aims to develop, evaluate and implement democratic pedagogical innovations in dealing with heterogeneity in schools directly on site in multi-professional teams of scientists and teachers in order to be able to incorporate the corresponding innovations into the current practical, scientific and educational policy discussion in Europe. For this reason, the project focuses on so-called "Laboratory Schools" (short: "Lab Schools"): cooperation between universities and schools that – in the tradition of John Dewey – on the one hand consciously aim at a democratic education of their pupils and on the other hand strive for a closer connection between school practice and university research.

It is planned a) to develop, evaluate and disseminate democratic pedagogical innovations for dealing with heterogeneity in primary school in the form of multilingual practice guides, teaching materials and best-practice examples, b) to document and analyse the various research approaches and organisational framework conditions of the participating Laboratory Schools on a transnational comparative basis and to further develop them in the sense of a comparative system of participatory school research, c) to train and professionalise the teachers and scientists involved pedagogical and in research methods, d) to sustainably improve the school and teaching practice of the participating institutions from a democratic pedagogical point of view, e) to strengthen and consolidate the cooperation between school and university already practised at the various locations, and f) to establish a European-wide lab-school network which promotes exchange among the participating institutions as well as with non-European partners and at the same time forms a starting point for the support of future lab-school foundations.

Publications