معرفی
Dr. Simone Plöger is a Junior Professor for Educational Science with a focus on School Research/Inclusion at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz since October 2023. She leads the School Research/School Pedagogy working group within the Institute of Educational Sciences, where she conducts research on inclusion, diversity, and social inequality in school education. Her work focuses particularly on the experiences of newly immigrated students and the challenges of multilingual education in German schools.
Dr. Plöger earned her doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Hamburg in February 2022 with a dissertation on "New Immigration, Language Education and Inclusion." Prior to her current position, she worked as a Research Associate in Intercultural and International Comparative Education at the University of Hamburg from 2017 to 2023, and as a Permanent Lecturer in the DaZ (German as a Second Language) module at WWU Münster from 2017 to 2020. She completed her Master's degree in teaching French and educational science for secondary schools at WWU Münster between 2014 and 2017.
Dr. Plöger's research centers on inclusion, diversity, and social inequality in school education, with particular emphasis on discrimination-critical and inclusion-oriented teacher training. She employs ethnographic methods to study schooling experiences of newly immigrated students and investigates migration-related multilingualism and language education. Her work examines how schools can better support students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, particularly focusing on the transition from preparatory classes to regular classrooms. Her monograph "Neuzuwanderung, sprachliche Bildung und Inklusion. Eine ethnographische Studie im Sekundarschulbereich" (2023) represents a significant contribution to this field.
Analysis of her recent publications (2021-2025) reveals a consistent focus on ethnographic approaches to understanding classroom dynamics for newly arrived immigrant students. Her work spans multiple educational contexts across Germany, with notable case studies from Hamburg schools, and addresses both theoretical frameworks and practical implications for inclusive education. She frequently examines the tension between inclusion and exclusion processes, particularly during transitions from preparatory to regular classes, and investigates how multilingualism can be leveraged as a resource rather than treated as a deficit in educational settings.
Dr. Plöger actively supervises bachelor's theses in educational sciences and teaches courses on performance, differentiation, and counseling with a focus on inclusive education in German schools. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the International Association for Intercultural Education (since 2024), the Council for Migration (since 2024), the International Migration Research Network (since 2022), and the German Society for Educational Science (since 2019).
Her scholarly work is organized around the School Research/School Pedagogy working group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where she collaborates with colleagues on projects related to heterogeneity and inequality, school development, and school effectiveness research. She frequently presents her findings at national and international conferences, with upcoming presentations scheduled through 2025 on topics ranging from multilingualism in schools to regional disparities in implementing inclusive education.
