In view of the increasing tendency toward isolation in many countries (Surkalim, 2022, p. 1), particularly among young adults (Osborn et al., 2021, p. 54), and the growing socio-political challenges in schools, future teachers need the ability to engage in collective experiences of exchange and cooperation that enable them to collaboratively develop solutions to complex issues. Against this backdrop, a university in Rhineland-Palatinate has established the project-based submodule “collaboratively socially engaged" as part of its BA Primary Education program. Within the practical project, all 400-450 university students (students in the following) per year collaborate in pairs or groups to implement semester-long projects at schools or in extracurricular learning settings. This network aims to contribute to social engagement, community building and participation, both for students and for primary school children. In the spirit of peer-to-peer learning, trained student tutors guide groups of 12 students in processing their experiences through collegial case consultation at five points during the project period. Focusing on peer-to-peer consultation, the objective is to explore how professionalization impulses arise in the project-accompanying student groups, identify the conditions required for their emergence and reflect the implications of these findings for teacher education in an international context.

Based on the approach of structural-theoretical professionalization (Helsper, 2021), professional action by primary school teachers refers to action characterized by various areas of tension that contain conflicting orientations. A typical tension in the context of the project, for example, is the desire to meet children's needs for closeness while at the same time maintaining a role-based distance. These conflicts embed processes of education and reflection. Education is conceptualized here in the sense of transformative education (Koller, 2021). Transformative educational processes can be triggered by experiences of crisis, e.g., by irritations, when established patterns of behavior lose their effectiveness and prompt reflection on alternative ways of acting. Reflection is understood as directed attention to something remarkable or irritating (Dewey, 1910). For Dewey, reflection begins with an irritating experience. These crises, triggered by experiences of foreignness and irritation, require a productive response to the demands of the foreign (ibid.). The fact that dealing with crises can be relevant to professionalization has been empirically documented on several occasions. Specifically, it has been shown that crisis experiences can both lead to the establishment of familiar patterns and initiate processes of change. Drawing on the first project results presented here, it is assumed that the collaborative case consultation in peer-to-peer reflection groups creates a platform in which experiences of foreignness can be processed and lead to new perspectives.

Thus, collaborative peer-to-peer case consultation groups serve as a form of collective processing of irritations and uncertainties that are internationally recognized as core professional challenges for teachers (Bonnet & Glazier, 2025). Collegial case consultation is understood as a comprehension-centered process of equal and appreciative reflection on a case (Grabosch 2020). Current empirical studies discuss the effect of collegial case consultation. What is striking about more recent publications is that collegial case consultation is presented less as a tool for professionalization and more as a means of promoting psychological well-being. Grounded in these theoretical considerations as well as current research, the question arises to what extent professionalization impulses emerge in the peer-to-peer reflection groups and what conditions are necessary for their development.

For the study, reflection sheets from 200 participating students were evaluated at three points in time during the summer semester 2024, and eleven peer-tutors were questioned using guided interviews (Moenandar et al., 2024). The 600 reflection forms and the transcribed interviews were examined using qualitative content analysis with inductive category for-mation to structure the content (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2020) and triangulated (Noble & Heale, 2019). Accompanying the implementation of the social projects, the students documented their ex-periences at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the semester. They reflected on specific experiences with children, their conditions for a sense of security and the ability to act in challenging pedagogical situations, personal development, and wishes for their further educational practice. In analyzing the reflection sheets, an iterative approach was taken us-ing inductive category formation (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2020), focusing on the students' areas of interest. A quarter of the reflection sheets were first coded by four encoders on a trial basis to create the coding system. To ensure the highest possible level of traceability, the catego-ries were then compared with one other and adjusted through a communicative validation process. Subsequently, a coding guide with definitions and anchor examples was created. In the context of a master's thesis, a computer-assisted analysis of all the reflection forms was conducted using MAXQDA. Furthermore, guided interviews were conducted with eleven student tutors about their expe-riences in the peer-to-peer reflection groups. The guide contains open-ended questions with narrative elements (Moenandar et al., 2024) and focuses on the tutors' organization of the meetings and their impressions of the students’ development over the project period. After transcription, the data was evaluated using qualitative content analysis with inductive cate-gory formation in MAXQDA to capture latent meanings as well. During the evaluation pro-cess, the categories were continuously adapted to the material. The data obtained was then triangulated (Noble & Heale, 2019) with regard to the significance of the student reflection groups in the practical project.

Initial results show that students experience irritation and unmet expectations in the projects, where their usual routines and actions no longer apply, leading to uncertainty. In this context, the students regard the peer-to-peer group as a protected and safe space that enables them to share their experiences and challenges, developing new perspectives. Similarly, the analysis of the interviews shows that the peer-tutors strive to create a space without grading, pressure, or shame, which is seen as a prerequisite for working together. Therefore, the analysis of the data and the subsequent triangulation highlight the importance of the safe space created by the students and peer-tutors. The experience of a protected, non-judgmental space, along with the opportunity to work together as a group to find solutions to challenging situations, is unusual in the university context from the students’ perspective and thus particularly note-worthy. This suggests that it is the safe environment created by the peer-tutors that enables students to engage in a change of perspective and dare to discuss challenging situations in the group. Interdisciplinary studies from different countries on peer learning in higher educa-tion (Boud & Cohen, 2014; Hanson et al., 2016) similarly emphasize its pedagogical and psychological benefits. The empirical results presented here reveal the difficulties students encounter when con-fronting uncertainty and irritations, pointing to the need for a safe environment that helps students experience community and freedom from judgment. Consequently, the discussions in the student reflection groups indirectly contribute to professional development, as the safe space created provides a secure framework for rethinking one's own strategies and learning about new options for action. Amid increasing social isolation across education systems, the findings highlight the need for further international research on the relevance of pedagogical approaches that enable collective engagement with uncertainty in peer-to-peer contexts serv-ing as a safe space.

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