Diana Sahrai

Diana Sahrai is a Professor of Childhood Education at Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg, where she also serves as Head of the M.Ed. Teacher Training Program for Vocational Schools in Social Pedagogy/Education and Psychology. Since October 2023, she has been the Equal Opportunities Officer for Faculty I. Her work focuses on the intersection of childhood education, health literacy, migration, diversity, and inclusion.

Her educational background includes studies in sociology, ethnology, and English philology at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. She earned her PhD in December 2010 from Universität Bielefeld with a dissertation titled "Differenzen in der Wahrnehmung präventiver Angebote und von Elternpartizipation im Setting Kita" (Differences in the perception of preventive offers and parental participation in the kindergarten setting).

Diana Sahrai's research interests span childhood studies, socialization research, health research, migration, diversity and inclusion, and the analysis of interactions between different dimensions of inequality. She has a particular focus on health promotion and health literacy of children and families (family health literacy), as well as Afghanistan research. Her work often examines how social class and migration background influence access to and participation in preventive health services.

Her recent publications show a strong emphasis on health literacy in diverse contexts, particularly among migrant populations and in Afghanistan. She has conducted extensive research on how cultural, religious, and socioeconomic factors influence health behaviors and literacy. A significant portion of her work examines inclusion strategies in education and how they can serve as anti-discrimination measures. Her research often employs ethnographic methods to understand everyday health practices in diverse cultural contexts.

• Hope – strengthening Afghan-German-cooperation on tertiary education under difficult circumstances (2022-2023)
• Separation in the Integration? Perspectives of students with special educational needs in inclusive classes (2021-2022)
• Differenzsensible Lehre – analog, hybrid, online (2022-2024)
• Selbstvertrauen – Menschenrechte. Soziales Lernen und inklusive politische Bildung (2015-2022)

She has been involved in developing educational materials such as "Selbstvertrauen / Menschenrechte. VorBild 2. Soziales Lernen und inklusive politische Bildung" for classroom use, demonstrating her commitment to translating research into practical educational tools.