Désirée Wägerle, M.A.

Désirée Wägerle is Doctoral Candidate at the Methods Center at the University of Tübingen. She studied Social Work at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart with an ERASMUS-Stay in Gothenburg (SWE). After that she received her master’s degree in research and development in social pedagogy at the University of Tübingen. Her main research interests are difference, poverty, and social inequality research as well as Theories of Social Work. Parallel to her PhD-project, she is a lecturer at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, works for the city council of Stuttgart in counselling for pupils aged 15-25 and volunteers in the youth work of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg.

Research Project

In her doctoral project with the working title “Post-doc, hoc habet? – An examination of the processes of reproduction/non-reproduction of social inequalities in the postdoc phase”, she is dealing with social inequalities and disparities in the post-doc phase as a transitional phase.
Transitions in German higher education – as well as life transitions in general ‒ are marked by a series of interrelated, overlapping and reproducing social inequalities. One transitional phase that has not yet been adequately researched is that between the completion of a doctorate and an intended appointment to a professorship, which is also termed ‘postdoc phase’ in transition research. Inequalities in this phase seem to be constituted and reproduced in and from an interwoven structure on a structural-institutional and individual-subjective level in relation to the temporal and interpersonal dimension. The present doctoral project is dedicated to the exploration of these interconnections and interweavings using a methodologically triangulated research design. It examines the processes of reproduction and non-reproduction of social inequalities. The temporal-institutional constitutional logic ‒ encapsulated within the idea of a chrononormative life course ‒ is to be explored using a retrospective pilot analysis of academic CVs of professors from human medicine and educational science. The analysis is aimed towards being representative and provided with explorative and explanatory components. The data obtained in this way will be examined over time in a group-comparative manner with regards to gender, publication activities and mobility with a combination of ‘event history analysis method’ and ‘sequence analysis method’. Conclusions about the interpersonal couple-dynamic dimension of decision-making processes in the postdoc phase and overlapping transitions of different actors within the family construct are to be gained through partial narrative couple interviews with postdocs and their partners from the above-mentioned academic fields. A panel design with two survey waves is planned. The evaluation will be carried out within the frame work of a method combination of narrative analysis (Schütze) and documentary method. The theoretical perspectives of reflexive transition research, doing transitions, intersectionality, subjectification and a psychological theory of motivation are considered fruitful for sensitising the theoretical perspective. Considering the relational aspect of constitutional circumstances of the postdoc phase, this work seeks to fill a gap in transition research and not least to sharpen the concept of transition in the postdoc phase.

Publications

Bauer, Petra/Blick, Teresa/Gakos, Sofia/Gödel, Celina/Nietsch, Sarah/Wägerle, Désirée (2022): Families as addressees in Early Childhood Intervention. Summary report on the teaching research project in the Master’s programme „Research and development in social pedagogy / social work“.

Presentations

Wägerle, Désirée (2023): Methodological Relationing in the Context of Mixed-Methods Studies. Lecture in the context of the working group on methodological-methodological exchange of the Empirie-AG 2023 of the German Educational Research Association (DGfE) research network Social Pedagogy, Bielefeld.

Wägerle, Désirée (2023): Post-doc, quo vadis? An examination of social inequalities in the postdoc phase. Poster presentation at international conference „Doing Transitions in the Life Course“, 11^th Mai 2023, Frankfurt am Main.

Gakos, Sofia und Wägerle, Désirée (2022): Presentation of the research results of the teaching research project “Families as addressees in Early Childhood Intervention” under the direction of Prof. Petra Bauer. Presentation to the Youth Welfare and Education Committee in the district of Böblingen.

Nietsch, Sarah und Wägerle, Désirée (2022): Presentation of the research results of the teaching research project “Families as addressees in Early Childhood Intervention” under the direction of Prof. Petra Bauer and presentation of the results of the study on improving cooperation between gynaecologists in private practice and the network coordinators in the Early Childhood Intervention Network. Presentation at the Central Round Table Early Childhood Intervention in Böblingen.

Teaching

Bachelor seminar “Propaedeutics – Introduction to Studies and Science” (Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, winter semester 2022/2023)

Bachelor seminar “Propaedeutics – Techniques of Scientific Work” (Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, winter semester 2022/2023)

Memberships in Professional Organizations

The German Association of Social Work (DGSA)

German Educational Research Association (DGfE) (associated), research networks „Social Pedagogy and Early Childhood Education“, „Empirical Educational Research“