The reproduction of racial inequalities in the educational process. A mixed methods analysis of inequality trends and explanatory mechanisms in Germany

In her doctoral project, Josefine Matysiak is concerned with the construction of categories in empirical educational research, with a focus on racial and migration-related inequalities. The project has a cumulative structure:

1) The first article examines processes of demarcation from the subjective perspective of social scientists using the example of the category migration background. This provides insights into which social groups are covered by the category and which research questions are (not) considered relevant. It also shows why migration background is not a suitable category for identifying individuals affected by racism in statistical data.

2) Based on the resulting data gap, the second article introduces the concept of reflected ascription. This concept captures the perception of external racial ascriptions. The article documents the development process of a corresponding survey instrument for the National Education Panel and presents first survey results.

3) The third article examines the extent to which educational inequalities exist in Germany along the lines of 'reflected ascription'. It also examines the interactions with the already well-researched educational inequality along the lines of migration background.

The project ties in with the discourse on anti-discrimination and equality data collection and identifies a number of challenges in category construction in empirical research practice.