Educational research as project of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research (1942-1969)

The project aims to reconstruct the theory program and research program of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. The areas of educational theory and educational research, which formed a clear focus of the theory program and research program in the years 1942–1969, are at the center of attention of the project. The study examines the theoretical prerequisites of this program, its institutional impact in the context of post-war educational research as well as ist resonance in the public sphere. These three levels of investigation will be addressed in the proposed project through (1) an analysis of the debates and negotiation processes regarding the theory program and research program with the representatives of academic pedagogy and Christian humanism on the one hand and with the representatives of re-education inspired by pragmatism on the other hand. (2) The institutional impact of the theory and research program is subject of an analysis based on the approach of history of knowledge. The analysis examines the program of social-scientific educational research developed at the IfS in its significance for the history of educational research after 1945 and in particular for the so-called social-scientific turn in educational science. (3) The reconstruction of the resonance of the education program and research program will focus on its recep-tion in a public influenced by mass media. The research project aims at an empirically based reconstructive investigation of the three levels, particularly with regard to their interdependencies and tensions. The empirical basis is constituted by published texts on issues from educational theory and educational sociology as well as printed and unprinted sources (e.g. documents from research projects on educational sociology) from archival collections. The documents are evaluated hermeneutically and by content analysis.