Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology

GUIDE

History lessons on the topic of inclusion, diversity, and exclusion

Our Goal

In the research project GUIDE, we aim to study and improve history teaching on the topics of inclusion, diversity, and exclusion. Additionally, the goal is to provide teachers with open-source materials for their lessons.

The Challenge

Why were certain women persecuted as witches in the early modern period? Why have people in different eras enslaved others? And how did societies in past ages treat migrants?

Questions like these, concerning the social inclusion or exclusion of different groups, play an important role in history education. The interdisciplinary GUIDE project team investigates how these topics can be effectively addressed in the classroom, what expertise teachers can draw on, and how this affects students.

Our approach

The project team initially follows a design-based research approach. This means that, building on existing history education concepts, we develop a systematic teacher training framework that includes practical teaching resources on topics such as exclusion, inclusion, and diversity.

In a subsequent randomized field study, we examine the effectiveness of the training. In this study, teachers are randomly assigned to two groups: one group receives the training immediately, while the other receives it after a certain delay. This allows us to assess the impact of the training on both teachers and students.

 

Background

In history classes, teachers can show students how diversity has always shaped and enriched societies, but also challenged them. History lessons can also illustrate how exclusion occurs, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and the destructive effects it can have on individuals and society. History teaching is considered especially valuable when it enables students, through concrete historical cases such as migration, slavery, or the persecution of witches, to gain broader insights into the processes, mechanisms, and target groups of exclusion and inclusion. In the GUIDE project, the research team will work closely with teacher training centers and educators. It builds on findings from psychology, instructional quality research, history education, and inclusion studies to develop a new concept for diversity-sensitive history teaching.

The main measure of success for the teaching resources will be an improved understanding among students of historical and contemporary processes of inclusion and exclusion of social groups. The concept also aims to foster a fear-free learning environment in diverse classrooms and to strengthen teachers’ professional competencies. The tested teaching materials will then be made available online as free Open Educational Resources (OER) for history teachers.

Further Reading

Publications

Bardach, L., Röhl, S., Oczlon, S., Schumacher, A., Lüftenegger, M., Lavelle-Hill, R., Schwarzenthal, M., & Zitzmann, S. (2024). Cultural diversity climate at school: A meta-analysis of relationships with intergroup, academic, and socioemotional outcomes. Revise and resubmit at Psychological Bulletin.

Bertram, C., Wagner, W., & Trautwein, U. (2017). Learning historical thinking with oral history interviews. A cluster randomized controlled intervention study of oral history interviews in history lessons. American Educational Research Journal, 54(3), 444–484. https://doi:10.3102/0002831217694833 

Gaspard, H., Parrisius, C., Piesch, H., Kleinhansl, M., Wille, E., Nagengast, B., Trautwein, U., & Hulleman, C. S. (2021). The potential of relevance interventions for scaling up: A cluster-randomized trial testing the effectiveness of a relevance intervention in math classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 113(8), 1507–1528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000663 

Jaekel, A. K., Wagner, W., Trautwein, U., & Göllner, R. (2022). The teacher motivates us–or me? The role of the addressee in student ratings of teacher support. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 71, 102120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2022.102120 

Kim, Y., Gaspard, H., Fleischmann, M., Nagengast, B., & Trautwein, U. (2023). What happens with comparison processes when „the other“ is very similar? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 72, 102138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2022.102138 

Trautwein, U., Golle, J., Jaggy, A.-K., Hasselhorn, M., & Nagengast, B. (2023). Mutual benefits for research and practice: Randomized controlled trials in the Hector Children’s Academy Program. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15074 

Trautwein, U., Gaspard, H., Parrisius, C., Bertram, C., Wagner, W., Zachrich, L., Golle, J., Ruth-Herbein, E., Schifer, J., Jaggy, A.-K., Kleinhansl, M. & Nagengast, B. (2022). Optimierung schulischer Bildungsprozesse: Welche Beiträge können randomisierte Feldstudien leisten? In N. McElvany, M. Becker, F. Lauermann, H. Gaspard & A. Ohle-Peters (Hrsg.), Optimierung schulischer Bildungsprozesse – What works? (S. 9–32). Waxmann.

 

Timeline

October 2025
Project start
March 2030
End of der Funding period

Project team

Verbundprojekt der Universitäten Tübingen und Oldenburg

  • Verbundkoordination: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Trautwein (Hector-Institut, Universität Tübingen)

  • Projektleitung Oldenburg: Prof. Dr. Clemens Hillenbrand (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg)

  • Prof. Dr. Waltraud Schreiber (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)

  • Johanna L. Donath (Hector-Institut, Universität Tübingen)

Funding

This project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth (BMBFSFJ).