Methodological Perspectives on Researching Home Schooling due to the Corona Pandemic: An Invitation to Think Further

Abstract

This article presents two quantitative studies examining the influences of the Corona pandemic for home schooling in Germany. Subsequently, the first impulses for a more profound qualitative oriented educational research should be given. In this way, this article attempts to identify the possibilities and limits of qualitative educational research, as was painfully demonstrated by the “ad hoc” interests of society in the example of the Corona pandemic. The article thus poses the overarching question of what contribution qualitative educational research can make for a better understanding of the consequences – the social in general and the educational in particular – the pandemic causes. Categories as sensitizing concepts emerging from the studies are presented: learning time and time regimes; feedback and support services; as well as the maintenance of communicative and pedagogical components of teaching in digital formats in terms of educational theory. We would like to invite the reader to methodologically discuss these categories in order to think further.

Keywords

• educational science research, home schooling, Corona Pandemic, qualitative research, sensitizing concepts, general pedagogy