SchuMaS (Empowering Schools)
Information about the project
Within the framework of the consortium project "Schule macht stark" (SchuMaS) - which translates to "Empowering Schools", funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 13 scientific institutions and universities collaborate with 200 schools nationwide locatedin challenging areas. The overarching goal is to break down educational barriers for socially disadvantaged students. Through innovative concepts, the educational prospects of children and adolescents from less privileged parental backgrounds, who already bring less favorable learning prerequisites due to their origins, will be increased. The focal point of this interdisciplinary project is the comprehensive and context-sensitive support of schools, aiming to provide effective research-based measures in the areas of school and teaching development, professionalization, and community orientation that are tailored precisely to the diverse stakeholders within the educational context. With its unusually long duration of five years, the initiative aims to make a significant contribution to reducing social inequality within the German school system.
The team from Ruhr-Universität involved in the project, consisting of the Chair of Social Science Data Analysis led by Prof. Dr. Jörg-Peter Schräpler and his collaborator Jakob Schuchardt, as well as the School Research Working Group under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Gabriele Bellenberg and the coordinator Dr. Matthias Forell, extensively focuses on the theme of social spatial orientation. They analyze and, through co-constructive exchange with several selected workshop schools within the project context, develop innovative offerings for socially spatial-oriented school and curriculum development. During this process, diverse educational stakeholders are engaged, and in collaboration with them, a detailed exploration of the micro-social environment of each individual school takes place. Additionally, this process simultaneously generates transferable concepts applicable to schools in comparable regional and social contexts.
The developed offerings and concepts encompass, among other things, a parent survey, a specially designed digital tool for data-driven social spatial analysis using georeferenced maps, workshops with teachers and other educational staff on georeferenced social spatial maps and the school's catchment area, group discussions involving various school stakeholders, and the opportunity for subjective exploration of the social spatial perspective from students, in collaboration with the #stadtsache-app (engl. UrbanMatters-app).
For further information regarding the offerings and products in the field of social spatial orientation and analysis within the "Außerunterrichtliches Lernen und Sozialraumorientierung“ (ALSO) - which translates to "Extracurricular Learning and Social Spatial Orientation" cluster, please refer to the poster linked here.
