From 2000 onwards in Germany – also on grounds of the delayed political recognition of the migration-fact in Germany – ‘intercultural opening’ has become a key concept to frame political, administrative and pedagogical efforts to (pro)actively adapt educational organizations, programmes and practices with regard to the needs of the increasingly diverse school populations and neighbourhoods. Furthermore against the backdrop of international human rights conventions and new antidiscrimination legislation ‘intercultural opening’ of schools is more and more perceived as a strategy to tackle existing educational inequalities along ethnic, socio-cultural and gender-related differences, and to remove structural barriers against equal participation of all children in the school system (e.g. KMK 2013; Niendorf/Reitz 2016). In research and practice there is a consensus, that a fundamental change of educational institutions is barely possible without qualifying and professionalizing the staff (see Karakasoglu et al. 2011). However in German speaking countries the theoretical and methodological conceptualizations as well as the empiric exploration of processes of qualification and professionalization of teachers dealing with questions of difference, discrimination and justice – particularly connected to school development – is still in its beginnings.

The paper presents findings of a deepening analysis of qualitative interview material, generated within an perennial evaluation study of the biennial further training programme “Quality development of schools within immigration society” in a German large city. The formative evaluation has been passed for the pilot course (2012-2014; see Gomolla/Schwendowius/Kollender 2016) and the second cohort (2014-2016; see Gomolla/Langheinrich/Bello, forthcoming) of the qualification. The further training programme is provided to teachers of different (types of) schools within all tiers of the tracked school system. It aims to qualify teachers as multipliers – so called ‘intercultural coordinators’ – in their school organizations. The participants are to be enabled to integrate the requirements of difference, discrimination and social justice within the context of immigration society into regular school development – at the level of classroom practices, organizational development and staff development. The programme consists of a series of external further training units, including theoretical foundations and practical skills of Anti-Bias-Education combined with a complex approach to school development. It involves the development and implementation of first practical projects in the participating schools, which are supported and supervised by the trainers and the other participants. The participation of individual teachers is voluntary. However the assent and support of the heads of schools is a precondition and requirements for schools to join in the qualification programme are formally regulated.

In the paper the following main questions will be mentioned:  

(1)   Which processes of prospecting, learning and enlargement or transformation of professional attitudes, knowledge and action patterns with regard to educational requirements of difference, discrimination and social justice can be reconstructed based on the descriptions of the interviewees?

(2)   How do the participating teachers and head teachers understand and fulfill the new organizational function of a ‘multiplier’ for intercultural school development/intercultural opening of schools?

(3)   How do participants relate their learning experiences to their educational practices with regard to classroom practices, organizational- and staff development in their schools?

(4)   On which main explicit or implicit theoretical concepts as difference, (in)equality, justice or discrimination are the analyzed descriptions of this new role and related concrete activities based upon?

(5)   Which different strategies do participants adopt to advance the implementation of the new function of ‘intercultural coordination’ in their schools?

(6)   Which barriers and which supportive preconditions do they experience in their school environments?

How do participants create spaces to raise issues of racism, discrimination and social justice and to put them on the agenda of school development?

Discussion is based on a deepening analysis of available data from qualitative expert interviews with teachers who participated in the first two units of the further training programme (N=31) and a smaller sample of involved headteachers (N=11). For the pilot project of the further training programme a longitudinal qualitative interview analysis with all participating teachers was conducted (N=23); each participant was interviewed three times (before, in the middle and after the further training course). For the second cohort a smaller sample of teachers (N=8) has been interviewed at the end of the delivery of the further training programme. The interviewees were selected based on theoretical considerations (theoretical sampling). The qualitative expert interviews were conceptualized as semi-structured guided interviews. Additionally several types of documents produced within the context of the further training programme and the implementation of the new function of 'intercultural coordination' within the school organizations (e.g. produced materials; posters with descriptions of initiated projects and processes in individual schools; application portfolios of all participating teachers of the second cohorte) were exploited. Conceptualizing data was based on Grounded Theory Approach; in an open-reconstructive process codes, concepts and categories were filtered out of the material. In this way subjective constructions and interpretations, argumentation figures and positionings of the interviewees can be comprised. The analysis is structured by different strands of theory, including educational theories and concepts of education within the context of immigration societies (see Leiprecht/Steinbach 2015; Mecheril 2016), sociological theories of educational inequality and its reproduction in the school system, in particular theories of institutional discrimination (see Hasse/Schmidt 2010; Gomolla 2017) as well as theories of teacher professionalization, school development and institutional change (see Bohl et al. 2010).

'Intercultural opening' of educational institutions is a complex concept without a generally accepted definition. In current political and scientific discourse on the demands and challenges of linguistic, religious and socio-cultural diversity in schools - not only - caused by immigration, exist epistemologically, theoretically, methodically and ideologically highly different strands of arguments. The study aims to provide empirical and theoretical knowledge to reflect policies and practices of intercultural opening of schools and related programmes of teacher education and further teacher training. It conveys - exemplary for the concrete investigated further training programme - empirical insights in processes of prospecting, learning and enlargement or transformation of professional attitudes, knowledge and action patterns with regard to educational requirements of difference, discrimination and social justice in schools. A special focus is held upon the barriers against or opportunities for change at the organizational level and with regard to the professional culture of teachers. The study also contributes to the development of a theoretical framework to conceptualize processes of teacher qualification and professionalization at the cutting edge of organizational development - not only within the context of immigration society but towards developing socially just education in general, as they are discussed in many countries and at the international level (see e.g. Lingard et al. 2008; Dyson et al. 2010; Oakes et al. 2013; Gomolla et al. 2016; Niendorf/Reitz 2016).

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