Personal Data

After attending the “Freie Waldorfschule Dresden” (Rudolf Steiner School), Katharina Schumann received her M.A. in Education Studies (Erziehungswissenschaft), Phonetics/Phonology and Biology at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (2006). During her studies she was

- a member of the student representatives (2000-2001),

- an intern in an institution working with difficult children and teenagers (2004),

- a tutor at the Chair of General Education and Theory of Social Education: preparing and conducting the seminar “Mind, Brain and Education” (2005),

- a tutor at the Chair of School Education and Didactics: co-founding the project “Pedagogical Town Walk/Sight seeing“ (2005-2006).

M.A. thesis on Free Will from a philosophical and pedagogical perspective (2006). Teaching Fellow in Neuroscience and Education at the University of Jena (2006-2007).

From April 2007 to August 2009 Recipient of a Scholarship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the Postgraduate Program “Bioethics – On Human Self-Design by means of Biotechnologies”, International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities,

University of Tübingen.

From April 2009 to July 2009 Visiting Research Student am Institute of Education, Department of Educational Foundation and Policy Studies, Philosophy Section, Philosophy of Education (Prof. Paul Standish) in London.

From September 2009 to December 2012 Research Assistant at the Chair of General Education (Allgemeine Pädagogik), Institute of Education, University of Zurich.

On March 2013 Defence of Thesis (Kolloquium) at the University of Zurich (Grade: Highly honorable with praise ("Summa cum laude"), on April 2015 publication of the thesis (Title: "Menschenbilder in Erziehungswissenschaft, Neurowissenschaft und Genetik. Eine vergleichende Analyse").

Selected lectures

■ Defining Educational Theory, Educational Doctrine and Education – a Proposal. Philosophy of Education Research Day, Institute of Education, London (2009)

■ The designed Child? Images of Human Nature/ of the Child in Educational Theory, Neuroscience and Genetics. Summer Conference Doctoral School of the Institute of Education, London (2009)

■ “The designed child?” The idea of the Child in Educational Science. International Summer School „Menschen-Bilder/Images of Human Nature”, University of Marburg (2008)

■ “The designed child?” The Idea of the Child from a pedagogical, a neuroscientific and a genetic Perspective. Summer School “Bioethics in International Perspective” University of Tartu, Estonia (2007)

Selected publications

■ Schumann, Katharina (2011): Concepts of Human Nature, especially of the Child, in Three Different Disciplines: An Interdisciplinary and Comparative Contribution to Research on Science and Humanities. Research Note. In: Educate: The Journal of Doctoral Research in Education 11,1, p. 48-51

■ Schumann, Katharina (2009): The "Designed Child"? Images of Human Nature/of the Child in Educational Theory, Neurosciences and Genetics. Abstracts IoE Summer Conference June 2009. Educate: The Journal of Doctoral Research in Education 9, 2, p. 57

■ Schumann, K./Dannecker, J. (2009): Pädagogischer Stadtspaziergang. Eine Projektmethode an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. Unter: www2.uni-jena.de/erzwiss/stadtspaziergang/home.htm

■ Dannecker, J./Schumann, K. (2009): Der ,Wandertag’ kommt aus Jena oder: Wie man sein Studienfach mit seinem Studienort verbinden kann. Unter: www2.uni-jena.de/erzwiss/stadtspaziergang/home.htm