Univ.-Prof. Dr. Fred Berger
Dean of Faculty of Educational Sciences
Professor of Educational Sciences
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft
Innrain 52a, A-6020 Innsbruck
Room 08F010 (8 th floor)
0043-512-507/40059
fred.berger@uibk.ac.at
Profile
Main Areas of Scientific Interest
- Socialization, education and learning in the family and in school
- Family relations and intergenerational exchanges
- Development of social relationships in the life course
- Intergenerational transmission of education and parenting
- Learning in adolescence and young adulthood in various contexts
- Agency and social participation in adolescence and young adulthood
- Professional practice in educational contexts such as in school, youth education programmes, and child and youth welfare
- Relationships between social generations (generations in the sense of age cohorts)
- Historical changes in family and partnerships and in the field of education and learning
- Cultural differences in parenting and parent-child relationships
- Quantitative research methods, longitudinal and life course studies
Current Projects
LifE3G – Interlinked Life Courses From Childhood to Late Adulthood in the Context of Three Generations
LifE3G is one of a few longitudinal three-generation studies with an observation period of more than four decades. Besides its long-term perspective, the study’s unique selling points consist of its multi-generational, multi-actor and multi-domain approaches. The data structure permits interdisciplinary processing of questions concerning individual development over several stages of life in the context of family relations and in different domains, as well as the investigation of intergenerational continuities and discontinuities across three generations.
Authors: F. Berger, W. Lauterbach, H. Fend & U. Grob
Growing Up in Digital Europe – GUIDE
Starting in 2027, the longitudinal cohort study GUIDE (Growing Up in Digital Europe) will be Europe’s first comparative birth cohort study of children’s and young people’s wellbeing. The aim of the GUIDE study is to investigate and compare children’s personal wellbeing and psychosocial development from early childhood into young adulthood across Europe. The harmonized study design of GUIDE will create the first internationally comparable, nationally representative, longitudinal study of children and young people in Europe. GUIDE will be an important source of evidence in developing social policies for children, young people, and families across Europe for many years to come. Fred Berger and his research unit are playing a leading role in the implementation of the European GUIDE-Study in Austria.
Scientific evaluation of the European Erasmus+ Youth Education Programmes
For the programme period 2021 to 2027, Fred Berger and Susanne Gadinger are official Austrian and Liechtenseinian research partners for the scientific evaluation of the European youth education programmes. Studies to scientifically accompany the programmes Erasmus+ Youth (RAY-MON) and European Solidarity Corps (RAY-SOC) as well as a longitudinal study on the long-term effects of Erasmus+ Youth are currently underway. The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on youth work in Europe (RAY-COR) and the contributions of the European youth programmes to sector-specific strategies that frame and guide the programmes (RAY-STRAT) are also investigated. The evaluation research is commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization (OeAD) and the Liechtensteinian Agency for International Education (AIBA). Research is integrated into the European RAY research network (Research-based analysis of European youth programmes).
Two regional longitudinal youth studies in Zillertal, Tyrol
Statistical analyses continue on two regional longitudinal youth studies in Tyrol, which were investigating the transitions from primary school to lower secondary school and from lower secondary school to upper secondary school in the theoretical framing of a resource model for coping with educational transitions. As these longitudinal studies took place during the pandemic (2019-2023), they also enable insights on important questions regarding coping with the challenges of out-of-school distance learning and a possible increase of educational disparities during the pandemic.
Authors: F. Berger, W. Hagleitner, L. Jesacher-Rößler, C. Kraler, S. Roßnagl & C. Schreiner