Imke Friedrich

Imke Friedrich is doing her doctorate at the Research Training Group "Welfare State and Interest Organizations".
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Overview of Imke Friedrich's dissertation project: Representing the interests of children and young people from immigrant families in education policy

According to Olk, educational poverty represents a new social risk in the knowledge-based economic society, which is characterized by the model of an activating investment state (cf. Olk 2007: 45). The new demands of the (labor) markets and the opportunities for social participation represent a major challenge, particularly for people with a low level of education. As the results of the international comparative studies PISA and IGLU reveal, children and young people with a migration background are particularly affected by educational and certificate poverty in Germany. (cf. Solga/Dombrowski 2009: 7f)

The dissertation deals with the organization and representation of the interests of children and young people from immigrant families in education policy in a comparison between Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. The focus is on those with a Turkish or Italian migration background. It is of particular importance that the interests of these groups must be classified as weak in the sense of association research (Willems/von Winter 2000). These are large and heterogeneous groups that have comparatively few resources at their disposal. This raises the question of how the interests of these people can be represented. It is assumed that they are dependent on alliances. For this reason, the representation of interests by those education policy actors who advocate for the interests of children and young people from immigrant families is analyzed. The following questions guide the investigation:

1. Which network structures have formed in the field of investigation?
2. What role do administrative-political actors play with regard to the organization of interests?
3. To what extent do the "traditional" representatives of socio-political interests take on the educational policy interests of the study group?
4. Which strategies of the stakeholders are promising and where do problems arise?

The study also examines how the demands of the stakeholders are received by politicians. Are they perceived and relevant in political decisions or are special methods required to ensure that the articulated interests are taken into account? These questions will be examined using a combined data analysis of primarily collected data (expert interviews), document analyses (e.g. parliamentaria) and a secondary analysis of the research literature.

Literature
Olk, Thomas (2007): Children in the "social investment state", in: Journal of Sociology of Education and Socialization 27, pp. 43-57.

Solga, Heike/Dombrowski, Rosine (2009): Arbeitspapier 171, Soziale Ungleichheiten in schulischer und außerschulischer Bildung, Stand der Forschung und Forschungsbedarf, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (ed.), Düsseldorf.

Willems, Ulrich/von Winter, Thomas (eds.) (2000): Poltische Repräsentation schwacher Interessen, Opladen: Leske + Budrich.

since 10/2013

Doctoral scholarship holder of the Hans Böckler Foundation, doctoral candidate in the HBS Graduate School "Welfare State and Interest Organizations"

Dissertation topic: Representing the interests of children and young people from immigrant families in education policy

4/2013

First state examination, grammar school teaching degree

since 10/2012

Student assistant at the Department of Comparative Politics

winter semester 2012/2013

Tutor for the lecture "Introduction to Comparative Politics" (Prof. Dr. Sabine Ruß-Sattar)

2011-2013

Studies at the University of Kassel: Politics & Economics and German Studies

06/2009 - 03/2011

Student assistant at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Section Gerontopsychiatric Research at the ILSE project

2006-2011

Studies at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg: Philosophy, German Studies and Political Science

2006

Abitur at the Albert-Schweizer-Schule grammar school, Kassel

"Representing the interests of children and young people from immigrant families in education policy"