Dr. Jessica Meyn
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Research Group Sustainability Education at Leuphana University Lüneburg. In teacher training for the subject of “Sachunterricht,” an integrative subject combining the social and natural sciences in primary education, I am responsible for developing, coordinating, and researching our new module “Bezugsfach Sachunterricht,” a new subject-specific and didactic course that will start in the 2025 summer semester. With this course primary teacher training at Leuphana will now include the opportunity to learn about social sciences in a way that integrates different subject-specific perspectives while linking these to education for sustainable development (ESD). I am also responsible for further anchoring ESD in Leuphana’s other teacher training beyond “Sachunterricht” by creating a new ESD-specific profile in Leuphana’s profile studies program which offers an additional qualification course for pre-service teachers. Here, too, my tasks include course development and coordination.
The thematic focus of my research and teaching is in social sciences, mainly political science, with an emphasis on democracy education in primary schools. I am particularly interested in how to create better conditions for student participation and inclusion. Methodologically, I work with qualitative research approaches, especially ethnography and grounded theory. For my doctoral dissertation, I researched participation processes in heterogeneous learning groups at the interaction level by participating in and observing class councils (“Klassenrat”) in inclusive primary school classes.
After completing my teacher training in special education and social sciences, I initially worked as a middle school teacher teaching social studies. I received my PhD from the University of Hamburg where I was a research associate in the field of education for students with disabilities and disadvantages, working in a research project on the inclusion and participation of people with complex disabilities.