History and organisation of the Department of Educational Science

Together with Department of Psychosocial Intervention and Communication Studies, the Department of Educational Science today forms Faculty of Education. It can look back on a history of over 60 years.

The Institute was founded in 1959 under the former name "Pedagogical Institute", after pedagogy was spun off from the "Philosophical-Pedagogical Seminar" at the University of Innsbruck. Lectures on pedagogical and Educational Sciences topics had previously mainly taken place within the framework of philosophy and theology. The first lecture at the University of Innsbruck on educational issues under the title "Erziehungskunde" dates back to the winter semester of 1806/07.

The founding of the institute in the 1960s led to the establishment and consolidation of educational science at the University of Innsbruck as an independent academic subject, which deals with the theories, practices and social conditions of education as well as the scientific analysis of educational realities in various educational fields of action. In 1963, the department was renamed the "Department of Education".

In the first period of its existence, the Institute belonged to the "Faculty of Humanities" at the University of Innsbruck. In 2004, it became part of the newly founded "Faculty of Education", which also included today's "Institute for Psychosocial Intervention and Communication Research" and the "Department of Teacher Education and School Research". In 2012, the current structure of the Faculty of Education with two institutes was created when the "Department of Teacher Education and School Research" was integrated into the newly founded "Faculty of Teacher Education". As part of the reorganisation processes at faculty level, the Department of Educational Science has also undergone a process of restructuring and profile development. Today, it is divided into six teaching and research areas and discusses theoretical and methodological fundamental questions of the discipline in recursive specialist dialogues between the Educational Sciences sub-disciplines and specialist areas of General Educational Sciences, Migration Pedagogy, Historical and Empirical Educational Research, Inclusive Education, Political Education, Family Pedagogy, Childhood, Youth and Gender Studies.

The six teaching and research areas of the institute

Contribution to the degree programmes

Together with the Department of Psychosocial Intervention and Communication Studies, the Department of Educational Sciences runs the Bachelor's degree programme in Educational Science, the Master's degree programme in Educational Science and the PhD programme in Educational Science offered by the Faculty of Educational Sciences.

In the Bachelor's degree programme in Educational Science, the Department is responsible for teaching and course planning in the modules on the introduction to the history, basic concepts, central issues and theories of Educational Science as well as the modules dealing with theories of learning in institutions and in the life course, socio-historical changes in life courses, gender studies, inclusive education and migration education. In the Master's degree programme in Educational Sciences, the Institute's staff are responsible for the compulsory modules on history, the central issues, theories and methods of Educational Sciences as well as subject and social theories. They are also responsible for the elective modules on issues of inequality and inclusion in education, childhood and family, body relations in education, training and culture, the connection between migration and education and topics relating to generational, youth and educational research. In addition, the Institute's staff take turns in all modules of the doctoral programme in Educational Sciences.

Nach oben scrollen