This paper reports results of a case study in the framework of the research project NOESIS to evaluate an Austrian school reform program, the “New Middle School” (NMS). The overall goal of the school reform project is to limit marginalizing processes and to improve transitions and trajectories within an inclusive school setting. Pilot schools are provided with financial resources for team-teaching, teacher training, instructional media, additional support for special needs learners, etc. The evaluative research project investigates under which conditions the new measures are perceived as successful. Within the framework of the study, the author focusses on students’ experiences of schooling and classroom instruction.

The presentation discusses two cases of the study which represent schools that work under very different conditions. School A is located in an urban area, competing with several further schools and it has a high number of immigrant students. School B is in a rural area and faces hardly any competition. Both schools participate in the reform project, trying to realize the ideas of the reform as good as possible. Concerning the evaluation study, I refer to a theoretical approach that defines the task of schooling as preparing the students for their future lives within society (e.g. Schleiermacher, 1826/2000; Langeveld, 1960). According to Langeveld, the world of schooling is a world in-between. It can be regarded as the transition from the private world of the family to the partly public life as a citizen within society, and the task of the school is to prepare and introduce the child to this certain society and culture (Langeveld 1960). Drawing on Schütz’s life-world theory, these different worlds represent sectors of the outer world, in which human beings share common interests, relevances and a vivid presence. Students who participate in these sectors develop a common scheme of reference which is always connected to the individual’s biographic situation and stock of experience. This stock of experience is the most important resource for the students’ learning at school (cf. Schütz 2010; Hörmann 2013). Due to their manifold life-worlds, the milieus in which they grow up, their social and cultural capital and special needs, students face different “conditions of realization” (Otto & Schrödter, 2010) which can open them up to different opportunities. From this perspective, the goal of education can therefore be defined as helping students to develop capabilities that lead them to a life that is desired and intended by the individual. However, students whose biographically determined previous stock of experience differs to a big extent from what is expected of them at school face severe difficulties in learning and schooling. In order to realize their idea of a good life and develop the necessary abilities and skills, they need teachers who understand their personal life-world and can carefully help them to understand the schools’ expectations.

The study therefore investigates the students’ lived experience of schooling and asks how they conceptualize schooling. Furthermore, it is of interest how the students’ concepts differ between the two school sites called A and B.

Hopmann, S. T. (2007). Restrained Teaching: the common core of Didaktik. European Educational Research Journal, 6(2), 109-124. Hörmann, B. (2013). "Das ist kein Unterricht!" Wie Schülerinnen und Schüler ihren schulischen Alltag konzeptualisieren. In Projektteam NOESIS (Ed.), Die vielen Wirklichkeiten der Neuen Mittelschule. Zur Evaluation der Niederösterreichischen Mittelschule (pp. 101-124). Graz: Leykam.