Heated public debates about the education system are frequent in Germany. Especially social inequalities in the education system often emerge in public debates. In Germany the educational system selects 10-years-old students to explicitly tracked school types. One consequence is frequently segregation in social and spatial separated school environments. The Educational Reporting Consortium (2006) reports also an interconnection of social and ethnic segregation in lower secondary schools. Especially the lowest school type is attended by immigrant students of families with lower social status. Also some educational researchers describe different emerging school environments that constitute differential developmental environments (Baumert et al. 2009). The aim of the study is to do research in different developmental environments, and to grasp young people’s point of view about schooling and society.

The research project explores how young people experience educational inequality and social and ethnic segregation in school and its urban surrounding. It takes into account how they debate the education they got and how they negotiate fears and privileges for their future lives: how do students experience differences in daily life and what do they think about the education they got, the chances they will have and the role in society they face?

In semi-structured interviews the students talk about their experiences in transition from primary school to secondary school. They reflect on both different stages of the decision-making processes and trajectories, including some changes to lower and upper school types within the secondary school level. Thus they discuss the image of the schools they attend, through the public opinion they perceive. Following the students, similarities and differences occur, concerning their experiences of educational inequality and social segregation and in their perspectives on dimensions of inequality like culture, religion or gender.

The analysis focuses on collective orienting frameworks (Bohnsack 2008) students anticipate in their school environment, and it includes the role of place in the formation of belongings and attitudes.

Baumert, Jürgen/ Kai Maaz/ Petra Stanat und Rainer Watermann (2009). Schulkomposition oder Institution – was zählt? Schulstruktur und die Entstehung schulformspezifischer Entwicklungsverläufe. In Die Deutsche Schule, 101 (1). Bohnsack, Ralf (2008). Rekonstruktive Sozialforschung. Einführung in qualitative Methoden. Opladen. Educational Reporting Consortium (2006). Education in Germany. An indicator-based report including an analysis of education and migration. Summary of important results (www.bildungsbericht.de). Kolokitha, Magdalini and John Preston (2009). Inequalities at a ´glance´. Llakes Newsletter, Issue 2, Autumn 2009. Lee, Jo and Tim Ingold (2006). Fieldwork on Foot: Perceiving, Routing, Socialising. In Simon Coleman and Peter Collins (Ed.). Locating the Field. Space, Place and Context in Anthropology. New York. Messerschmidt, Astrid (2009). Weltbilder und Selbstbilder. Bildungsprozesse im Umgang mit Globalisierung, Migration und Zeitgeschichte. Frankfurt.