We are excited to announce that we will be part of the newly launched Collaborative Research Centre [in:just]. This center is special as it will be the first such center in the field of educational sciences and will focus on justice and participation in the educational system. Its goal is to study why inequality in Germany’s educational system continues to exist and what factors contribute to this. The spokespersons are Prof. Merle Hummrich and Prof. Vera Moser, both of whom work in the Department of Educational Sciences at Goethe University.
The first phase of the Collaborative Research Centre [in:just] will be funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2026 – 2029. A team of 31 researchers from fields such as education, sociology, philosophy, political science, law, geography and computer science will work together in this interdisciplinary project, led by experts in educational sciences.
One of the experts is Prof. Dr. Hendrik Drachsler, who will be leading two of the research’s projects:
Project Z03 [in:just:MetaPART]
The first project “Educational Science Methodologies of Participation Challenged by Digital Technologies” [in:just:MetaPART] will be coordinated by DIPF together with the Goethe University’s Faculty of Education/Institute for Secondary Education and Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics/Institute for Computer Science.
[in:just:MetaPART] will be working on new ways to combine social science and education research with artificial intelligence (AI). The project aims to create digital tools that help researchers understand issues like participation and belonging in education. These methods are based on social critique and theories about inequality.
During the course of the project the researchers from Z03 will collaborate closely with the team of project S03 [in:just:INF] and develop a methodology in which educational theory and social criticism actively shape the design of AI and algorithmic approaches.
Project Z03 contributes to the research center in three main ways:
- Creating a new method with a shared coding system that allows all research areas to study belonging in a consistent way.
- Supporting other projects by using AI to analyze and code large amounts of text data.
- Finding patterns related to recognition, inclusion, and justice through network analysis of this data.
The major goal is to design AI-based methods that are both data-driven and socially critical, so they provide strong, innovative ways to study participation and belonging in education.
Project S03 [in:just:INF]
The second project “Scientific Services and Data Processing” [in:just:INF] will be led by Hendrik in his role as Director of studiumdigitale and will build a data system that will make it easier for all research teams in the center to share and manage their information. It will focus on:
- Connecting projects from different research areas so they can work together more effectively.
- Using AI tools to help organize, analyze and manage qualitative data for the center and the wider educational research community.
S03 [in:just:INF] will lead the center’s data management by providing clear guidelines, templates and a shared database. Each of the projects will collect and document their data following these standards, working closely with Project Z03 and other teams to create a common structure for metadata. This process will ensure that data is anonymized and prepared for long-term reuse.
By following international FAIR principles—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable, S03 will ensure that all data is well-documented, ethically managed and available for future research. It will act as the center’s data governance hub to make sure that everything is consistent, secure and sustainable.