The project “ReNeEd – Research Needs in Education from the perspective of immigrant pedagogic professionals in education” evaluates and systemizes research needs concerning the integration of immigrants from the formal and non-formal education sector of the German education system. The project follows an actor-centered approach, considering these professionals as leading source of information. Further, the research focusses on professionals who have either some form of immigration experience themselves or via their parents. Moreover, the educational qualification may be awarded by German institutions, or by an institution of the country of origin. The paper assumes that analyzing research needs especially from the perspective of educational professionals with an immigration history is an approach not only to point out the gaps of the education system, but also to gain a more differentiated insight into research needs.

The project uses the theory of “Research Utilization" (e.g., Weiss 1980) as a basis to develop more specific questions. Weiss addresses the question on how and to what extent people who work in all kinds of public organizations are influenced by research (cf. Weiss 1980: 396f.). She analyzed the influence of research on these people and the relevance of research on their actions, e.g. decision making, and found out that the perception of trustworthiness and relevance among potential users are the basic and most important conditions for the use of research.

While science traditionally focusses on trustworthiness as a central quality condition, the current societal and political transformations push for an equal focus on relevance (Weiss 1980, Newman, et al. 2016). ReNeEd takes this focus in a twofold manner. Firstly, the research design supports stakeholder participation and generates a complimentary view on, which research may be considered as important. Secondly, the content picks the issue of relevance as central theme and therefor asks professionals in education for their perception on the relevance of existing research (see question 1). In order to understand the concepts of trustworthiness and relevance more deeply the project wants to find out what criteria professionals set up in order to conceive research as relevant and trustworthy (see question 4). Moreover, the project examines, if there are different perspectives on research between professionals from the formal and non-formal education sector, and with regard to the origin country of their qualification (see question 5).

The project focusses on the aspect of integration of immigrants, which has been often discussed as a major task of the education system (e.g. Schachner, et al. 2016). On that basis, two research questions have been determined. The first question investigates on which issues should be examined more closely by research (see question 2). In order to prevent an exclusive focus on problems of integration, the analysis will look explicitly for resources and as well for obstacles of integration about which professionals desire research (see question 3). Against this theoretical background, the following research questions were predefined:

1)      To what extent are professionals in education practitioners familiar with existing research, and in how far do they believe it to be relevant?

2)      What issues are necessary to be explored via research from their perspective in order to enhance the potential for integration in the educational sector?

3)      Which positive resources for and obstacles to integration in the education sector have not yet received sufficient attention from research?

4)      What are criteria for research to be conceived as relevant and trustworthy?

5) In how far do the perspectives of interviewees on research differ with regard to their qualification (qualification in Germany vs. qualification in emigration in the country of origin) and with regard to the subsector of education (formal vs. non-formal)?

The project uses the concept “needs assessment” as defined by Roger A. Kaufman and Fenwick W. English in 1979. It is a method to evaluate the needs of citizens, educators, and learners (cf. Kaufman, English 1979: 8). The original definition of “need” focused on a kind of product: “[…] “Need” is defined as a gap between current outcomes or outputs and desired (or required) outcomes or outputs” (cf. Kaufman, English 1979: 8). In a current work, Watkins et al. (2012) define “need” as a gap in results between present, existing results and desired results, which are seen in the future (cf. Watkins et al. 2012: 3). The project adapts the concept of “needs” to desired research results that are relevant for the professionals in order to orientate or legitimize their work. The method allows research needs to be determined by quantitative and qualitative empirical research methods (cf. Watkins, et al. 2012: 8). Following this, the project uses a mixed method approach. In the first phase, sixteen expert interviews have been conducted. In the second phase, the project implements an online-survey with standardized questionnaires. The sixteen interviews with experts have been conducted, recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The interview transcripts are analyzed according to qualitative content analysis based on the methodology of Philipp Mayring (cf. Mayring 2014). Following this methodology, the researchers have to create a category system, which segments and subsumes the content of the transcripts (Mayring 2014: 51f.) and each category based on hypotheses (cf. Mayring 2014: 41). For instance, based on the interviews, a hypothesis confirms that intercultural competence is important for teachers to create an equality of treatment among their pupils (e.g. Ogay/Edelmann 2016: 393). After that, a category with the title “intercultural competence” was created and the term was defined. In the next step, the transcripts will be examined with regard to this category (e.g. Mayring 2014: 51f.). The second phase of the project investigates how different groups of professionals rank the importance of research needs. The collection of data is done by an online-survey with standardized questionnaires. These questionnaires are derived from the results of the qualitative phase, i.e., the analysis of expert interviews. The survey is open to all kinds of professionals in education (with and without migration background) and asks for their field of work (formal or/and non-formal education sector), professional training (degree and country) or, relevance and trustworthiness of (educational) research.

At this point in time, the project has finished the qualitative data collection. The definition of categories for the analysis and a first version of the standardized questionnaire have been prepared. The results of the sixteen interviews with experts from the formal and non-formal education sector show that most of the pedagogic professionals deal with research in their work and think that educational research is important and relevant to understand and explain phenomena in this field. They also think that further research and recommendations for action are urgently needed in some areas of educational research, i.e., multilingualism or, heritage language education. The pedagogic professionals try to become experts in their field of work by reading many different research studys, because they think they need to know the current state of research in order to justify and defend new concepts, changes, ideas or projects in front of different stakeholders, employers and/or colleagues. Some institutions like to work with universities to design new educational projects or provide universities with their own projects for impartial accompanying scientific research. According to the experts, this cooperation is rated as good by both sides, as theoretical and practical findings can be compared. The pedagogic professionals for the survey have been recruited via migrant-organizations supporting agencies for schools and out of school institutions. The number of participants in the online-survey is not limited. Expected outcomes of the online-survey will allow determining a hierarchy of research needs from the perspective form practitioners. Researchers can assess their current research agenda on that basis.

Kaufman, R. /English, F. W. (1979). Needs assessment. Concept and Application. New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications. Ogay, T. /Edelmann, D. (2016). ‘Taking culture seriously’: implications for intercultural education and training. In: European Journal of Teacher Education 39 (3), p. 388-400. Mayring, P. (2014). Qualitative content analysis: theoretical foundation, basic procedures and software solution, seen under: https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/39517, viewed on 07/16/2018. Newman, J. /Cherney, A. / Head, W. B. (2016). Do Policy Makers Use Academic Research? Reexamining the “Two Communities” Theory of Research Utilization. In: Public Administration Review 76 (1), p. 24-32. Schachner, M. K./Van de Vijver, F. J. R./Noack, P./Eckstein, K. (2016). Cultural Diversity Climate and Psychological Adjustment at School—Equality and Inclusion Versus Cultural Pluralism. In: Child Development 87 (4), p. 1175-1191. Watkins, R. /West Meiers, M. /Visser, Y. (2012). A guide to assessing needs: Tools for collecting information, making decisions, and achieving development results. Washington, DC: World Bank. Weiss, C. H. (1980). Knowledge Creep and Decision Accretion. In: Weiss, C. H. /Bucuvalas, M. H. (ed.). Social Science Research and Decision-Making. New York City: Columbia University Press, p. 381-404.