The study aims to generate empirical data on how future teachers think and feel about democratic values and their role as educators in that domain. It also seeks to develop an empirical instrument for evaluating the study course in this project and other teacher education programs focusing on value education. The study clarifies the rationale and concepts behind the development of value attitudes in initial teacher education and designs an instrument that can be easily utilized in different educational contexts.

The study involves an online questionnaire administered to participating teacher students and a control group across the three universities. The UEW leads the development of the instrument and data collection strategy, while the other university partners contribute their expertise in researching beliefs and value attitudes of teachers. Existing instruments in the field inform the questionnaire design, which is translated into the partners’ official languages. Data analysis is conducted at each university and qualitative data , translated into English, is categorized using a system prepared by UEW.

The empirical study’s findings and research instrument will be published in open-access scientific papers and presented at conferences, benefiting police stakeholders and universities in advancing value education for democracy in teacher education.

The project began on 01-04-2022 and is expected to conclude on 01-11-2024, with the result being published.

Result leading organization: Pädagogische Hochschule Weingarten (UEW)