Even today vocational choice is of fundamental importance regarding an individuals’ permanent positioning in society. Beinke describes it even as a vital act (2006: 12). At that, youths in the transition system are often forced to modify their vocational aspiration for example due to supply of training places. In this context it is largely unknown how vocational aspiration of pupils in the transition system changes in the course of a school year. Socialization theory assumes that attending these educational programs generates new action orientations for the youths. Furthermore, development models that describe the process of vocation choice as a concretization of vocational aspiration in the life course (Gottfredson 1981; Herzog/Neuenschwander/Wannack 2006). Additionally, it has to be emphasized that this process is reciprocal. Thus the positioning of the youths in different practices of socialization is an expression of the relation between personal action orientations and social action orientations (Grundmann 2006: 218). According to that youths concretize their vocational aspiration in the course of the school year. Assumingly, these concretizations move towards the focus of the educational program.

To answer these questions regarding the vocational orientation in the course of a school year a panel study at a business college in North Rhine-Westphalia is carried out. All pupils in prevocational education programs and vocational basic education programs were surveyed four-times during the school year 2011/12. In total the sample includes pupils form 18 classes in the transition system.

In cooperation with Sylvia Müller.

The project’s epistemological interest is mainly studying different actors’ (policial) perception and individual attitudes towards the Bologna Process. Due to the elevated (power political) position of professors at universities – and thus during the reforms – this group is focused initially. According to that, professors are the status group which played a key role during establishing the new bachelor and master study programs. Notwithstanding this key role, the importance of professors during the reforms was examined occasionally (Fischer/Minks 2007). This projects aims at reducing this research gap.

Starting with these basic assumptions we aim at studying the professors’ perception of the Bologna Process in a sophisticated manner. At that not only the impact of different facets of the Bologna Process but also the impact of other reforms of recent years on everyday work at universities will be analyzed. Moreover, the professors’ contribution to the reform will be focused. By this means major causes of (persistent) contradictions and (ongoing) resistance against the reforms are identified. Likewise, the results might hint at solutions strategies. In the wake of the interconnections it can be assumed that not only inter- and intrapersonal but also contextual factors determine the perception of the Bologna Process. For this reason, a comparative design is chosen which accounts for the reforms’ different implementation at universities.

In cooperation with Björn Wendt.

The doctoral project focuses on the German vocational education system, especially on the so-called “transition system” (Übergangssystem) which is not sufficiently considered in empirical education research. At the heart of the project are indirect ways to fully qualifying vocational education – that is the first threshold. In this context quantitative data will be used to give an overview about the transition system and the transition chances, respectively the transition difficulties. These analyses will be complemented by guideline-based interviews that focus on the perspective of pupils, for whom the transition phase is characterized by uncertainty mainly. Besides it will be shown how the general framework for the transition to the market for vocational education changed since the 1960s in Germany. At that one focus will be the reconstruction of actions of educational politics that were passed to ease the transitions for disadvantaged groups. Finally, an attempt to establish a fit of different stakeholders’ interests is made. That way a foundation to develop measures to reduce difficulties regarding the transition of youths in the transition system to fully qualifying vocational education.