Prof. Dr. Constanze Berndt

Positions and Roles

  • Member of the German Society for Educational Sciences (DGfE)
  • Member of the German Society for Social Work (DGSA)
  • Faculty Liaison for the Heinrich Böll Foundation
  • Member of the editorial board of the Journal of Educational Research and Developmental Pedagogy (ZEP)
  • Reviewer for various academic journals

Research Topics and Areas of Focus

  • Theories and concepts of social education

  • Commons, commoning, and social work
  • Concepts and Approaches to Community Work
  • Global citizenship education and peace education
  • School Social Work

Projects
Ongoing Projects

Commoning and Social Work
in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Theresa Lempp (Dresden Protestant University of Applied Sciences)
Duration: since 10/24
Commons are collectively managed and stewarded resources essential to life. Traditionally, these include, for example, fishing grounds or pasturelands. As part of the ongoing struggle to reclaim essential resources, health, housing, sociocultural life, and an intact environment can also be understood as commons, provided they are self-organized and democratically structured. In recent years, commons have also garnered increased academic attention. The focus has also shifted to social practices of organization and management, known as “commoning.” Within the social pedagogy debate, commoning is regarded as a critical and emancipatory counter-movement to social work that serves regulatory, control-oriented, or governmental goals. In this research project, we examine connections between the commons, commoning, and social work. We are interested, among other things, in the positions of social work within the framework of other stakeholders, practices of social education and care, as well as tensions and contradictions between the demand for transformation and the reproduction of hegemonic patterns.

Paul Natorp’s Social Pedagogy: Historical and Systematic Connections.
in collaboration with Bernd Birgmeier, Markus Hundeck, Eric Mührel, Sara Remke, and Michael Winkler
Duration: 2021–2026

Completed Projects

School Social Work in Saxony During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A collaborative project of the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Dresden, the School Foundation of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church
of Saxony, the Diakonisches Werk of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Saxony e.V., the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Youth Ministry of Saxony, and the State Working Group for School Social Work in Saxony e.V.
Funding: Own funds
Role: Academic Director
Duration: 03/2020–08/2023
Website

Ethics of Educational Relationships
Research stay in Tehran, Iran
Funding: University of Rostock’s Women Professors Program
Duration: 02/2018

Subject-Specific and General Didactic Design of Learning and Teaching Processes in Heterogeneous Learning Groups
Collaborative Project “LEHREN in M-V” as part of the Quality Initiative for Teacher Education
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Role: Collaborator
Duration: 09/2016–01/2020
Homepage

External Evaluation of the Model Project “Productive Learning at Regional Schools and Non-Gymnasium Comprehensive Schools in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania”
Funding: Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Role: Collaborator
Duration: 09/2009–03/2013
Final Report

External Evaluation of the Pilot Project “Productive Learning at Middle Schools in Saxony”
Funding: Saxon State Ministry of Culture
Role: Collaborator (05/2011–03/2013)
Duration: 09/2009–03/2013
Unpublished;
Reference

Universal Elementary Education in India Against the Background of Historically Determined Power Reproduction and Cultural Patterns of Interpretation. An Empirical Micro-Study in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal
Funding: State Graduate Academy of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Position: Ph.D. candidate
Duration: 10/2004–09/2008

Publications

31 Entries

2010

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Activities

49 Entries

2026

2025

  • Commoning und Soziale Arbeit Berndt, C. (Speaker), Lempp, T. (Speaker) 2 Dec 2025 Activity: Talk or presentation at external institutions/events > Talk/Presentation > Invited
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About this page

Sabine Ellmann
Last modified: Oct 27, 2026