The presentation puts up theses for discussion which are concerned with an understanding of the facilitation of achievement which is orientated towards diversity. Thereby, the question of what denotes school cultures that acknowledge diversity and at the same time address all learners as capable and potentially highly achieving has priority. The background for this are considerations and findings on which children are exposed to a particular risk of underachievement in the German school system and how this can be dealt with in school development research. 

It is known that the capability of children in the German education system has so far been looked at in relation to their milieu. For example, this is reflected in the structure of the body of pupils in separative gifted pupils classes (eg. Horvath 2014; Weigand 2014; 2018). For a long time, pupils especially profited from programmes to facilitate achievement (giftedness). These conform with a mono-habitual pattern (Stamm 2014). It is also shown that learning provision for female pupils whose family has a migration history is often linked to the assumption of learning deficits rather than potentials and talents (Gomolla & Radtke 2007; Gomolla 2012). Finally, lower expectations towards their children’s educational achievements are ascribed to parents if they only show a small knowledge of the complex German education system (Sievert, Slupina & Klingholz 2012). However, programmes for a support of “disadvantaged people” are subject to the problem of a notion of social normality and a standard biography which play a part because of the group-related constructions of the risks of failing or underachievement (Kelle et al. 2017). Thereby, inevitably they are reinforced.

Based on this there is a wide desire for research on the question what a school’s practice in which every child and adolescent, irrespective of their origin, can develop their different potentials, in which they can transform these into educational achievements - and a practice that relieves itself of such risk constructions - might look like (Seitz et al. 2016).

In the presentation, we will follow up on this question and in doing so we will draw on findings and hypotheses from an ongoing research project, which aims to generate findings on how a school culture orientated towards diversity and the facilitation of achievement can become the lever of quality for school development processes. The research project „LEiF-KoNews“ ( “School and mission statement development and network formation”) is located in the research association LemaS (Achievement catches on in schools”; Federal Ministry of Education and Research”; BMBF). The aim of the subproject is to generate and test formats to facilitate schools in the process of developing respective school cultures.

Stimuli for the development of a school culture orientated towards diversity and the facilitation of achievement are particularly effective when they focus on content and when they are compatible with already developed believes and orientations of teachers (Darling-Hammond et al. 2017). Hence, a more specific knowledge on this is highly relevant. However, teachers acquire these orientations in the institutional context of the respective type of school and they are thus shaped by evolved, socially shared practices, rules and principles. Research-methodically, teaching staff can thereby be seen as a conjunctive realm of experience (Asbrand 2010; 2013). It can be assumed that in such conjunctive realms of experience a preformation of potential, achievement and risk takes place in the educational context. Thus, their relevance for the communicative (re-)production of educational achievement is immediately evident.

In the presentation, we will show imposing pictures and findings from our research project to create theses that encourage discussion.

The research approach of the study which is essentially drawn on takes into account the dynamics of a school development that focusses on the facilitation of achievement, considering the context conditions within the German education system at selected primary and secondary schools. In order to be able to make statements about the educational players’ orientations, mindsets and attitudes about the development of a school culture that facilitates achievement, we – in our research – follow an established approach of the Sociology of Knowledge which uses the tested qualitative evaluation method of the Documentary Method. We take into account orientations which are developed in school communities, understood as conjunctive realms of experience (Asbrand 2010), and which profoundly shape the development of school cultures. In this way, implicit knowledge structures shall also be made accessible for description and analysis (Bohnsack, Nentwig-Gesemann & Nohl 2007; Przyborski 2013).

In the presentation we will put theses up for discussion which pick up on first findings from the project. Furthermore, we will put these into the context of current findings, own preliminary work (Seitz et al. 2016) and the current state of research. Trenchant statements on school development processes focussing on school cultures that facilitate achievement and focussing on the “(re-)production” of potentials and risks in educational discourses of knowledge are at the heart of this.

Asbrand, B. (2010): Dokumentarische Methode. In: http://www.fallarchiv.uni-kassel.de/wpcontent/uploads/2010/07/asbrand_dokumentarische_methode.pdf, letzter Zugriff am 10.07.2017. Asbrand, B. (2013): Die dokumentarische Methode in der Governance¬‐Forschung: Zur Rekonstruktion von Rekontextualisierungsprozessen. In: Maag-Merkl, K., Langer, R. & Altrichter, H. (Hrsg.): Educational Governance als Forschungsperspektive. Strategien, Methoden, Forschungsansätze. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, S. 177-¬198. Bohnsack, R., Nentwig-Gesemann, I. & Nohl, A.-M. (Hrsg.) (2007): Die dokumentarische Methode und ihre Forschungspraxis. Grundlagen qualitativer Sozialforschung. 2. Aufl. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Darling-Hammond (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development. In: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Effective_Teacher_Professional_Development_REPORT.pdf, letzter Zugriff am 30.01.2017. Euler, D. (2014). Design-Research – a paradigm under development. In: D. Euler & P.F.E. Sloane (Hrsg.): Design-Based Research. Stuttgart: Franz Stei- ner Verlag, S. 15-44. Gomolla, M. & Radtke, F.-O. (2007): Institutionelle Diskriminierung. Die Herstellung ethnischer Differenz in der Schule. 2. Auflage. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Gomolla, M. (2012): Leistungsbeurteilung in der Schule: Zwischen Selektion und Förderung, Gerechtigkeitsanspruch und Diskriminierung. In: Fürstenau, S. & Gomolla, M. (Hrsg.): Migration und schulischer Wandel: Leistungsbeurteilung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, S. 25-50. Horváth, G. (2014). Die doppelte Illusion der Hochbegabung. Soziologische Perspektiven. In: Hoyer, T., Haubl, R. & Weigand, G. (Hrsg.): Sozio-Emotionalität von hochbegabten Kindern. Weinheim: Beltz, 101–123. Kelle, U., Langfeldt, B., & Reith, F. (2017). Mixed Methods in der Organisationsforschung. In Handbuch Empirische Organisationsforschung (pp. 325-357). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. Seitz, S., Pfahl, L., Steinhaus, F., Rastede, M. & Lassek, M. (2016): Hochbegabung inklusive. Inklusion als Impuls für Begabungsförderung an Schulen. Weinheim: Beltz. Sievert, S., Slupina, M. & Klingholz, R. (2012): Nach Punkten vorn: Was Deutschland von der Zuwanderungs- und Integrationspolitik Kanadas lernen kann. Berlin: Institut für Bevölkerung und Entwicklung. Stamm, M. (2014). Minoritäten als Begabungsreserven. In: M. Stamm (Hrsg.): Handbuch Talententwicklung. Theorien, Methoden und Praxis in Psychologie und Pädagogik. Bern: Huber, S. 375-384. Przyborski, A. (2013). Gesprächsanalyse und dokumentarische Methode. Qualitative Auswertung von Gesprächen, Gruppendiskussionen und anderen Diskursen. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. Weigand, H.-G. (2009, 2014, 2018). Didaktik der Geometrie für die Sekundarstufe I. 1., 2. 3. Auflage. Heidelberg u. Berlin: Spektrum-Verlag.