Christian Gräbner studied sports and educational sciences at the German Sport University in Cologne and philosophy at the University of Cologne and passed the first state examination for teaching at academic high schools and comprehensive schools. He completed his second state examination at an academic high school in Cologne. He then worked for two years as a teacher at a vocational college. As a doctoral researcher he is engaged in the working group on Research on Teachers and Teacher Education (Prof. Dr. Colin Cramer) with questions of democracy education in schools and teacher education (Demo).

Since 10/2020 he represents the interests of doctoral students in the Institute Advisory Board for Educational Science.

From 2023 he will be responsible for supervising and evaluating portfolio work in teacher training.