Anja Loft-Akhoondi

Anja Loft-Akhoondi is a Research Fellow at Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, actively engaged in projects such as "Smart Schools – SMASCH" (since July 2022) and the OPAL research project (2021–2025), which focuses on sustainable digitalization in schools funded by the Center for Digitalization and Technology Research of the German Armed Forces (dtec.bw). Her work intersects with institutional analysis, teacher education policy, inclusion in education, and qualitative research methodologies.

Education:

• Social and Economic Communication, Berlin University of the Arts (2004–2014)
• PhD candidate in the graduate program "Inclusion-Education-School" at Humboldt University Berlin (since 2015), with a nearly completed dissertation titled "Transforming Teacher Education: A Discursive-Institutionalism Analysis of the Policy Process for the Unification of Berlin’s Secondary Teaching Profession" under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai (University of Augsburg).

Research Interests: Anja specializes in discourse-focused institutional analysis, examining teacher education policy, inclusion in the context of educational inequalities and participation, and digitalization’s impact on schools. Her methodological expertise lies in qualitative research methods, particularly in analyzing structural and policy-driven educational transformations.

Publications & Projects: Her 2016 publication in collaboration with others explores inclusive pedagogy and school structural development. Current projects like SMASCH and OPAL emphasize pedagogically meaningful digitalization concepts, aligning with her focus on institutional and policy analysis.

Scientific Networks & Contributions:

• Berlin Startup Fellow at Tatort Zukunft e.V. (2019–2020), advocating for justice and humane approaches to crime.
• External associate in the German Institute for Human Rights project on human rights education in kindergarten teacher training (2018–2020).
• Moderator of panels on inclusion-oriented school development at the 2019 Annual Conference for Inclusion Research.