Institutions and Organizations as Learning Environments for Participation and Democracy Opportunities, Challenges, Obstacles

Reingard Spannring is lecturer and researcher at the Institute for Education Science at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Vienna. Her main research areas include youth research with a special focus on transitions from school to work and political participation, as well as environmental education research.  In both areas, participative and critical approaches to learning in institutions and other social contexts are central. The most recent project "Surviving the Anthropocene" (2019-2022), funded by the Austrian Science Foundation FWF and the Slovenian Science Foundation ARRS, develops a citizens' science project to research and facilitate young people's engagement for ecologically just communities. 

Wilfried Smidt is a Professor in Education with a main focus on Early Childhood Education at the Faculty of Education, Department of Psychosocial Intervention and Communication Studies, University of Innsbruckin Austria. He holds a doctorate in Educational Science from the University of Bamberg and habilitated in Educational Science at the University of Bamberg. His main research interests have focused on professionalization in early childhood education, leadership in early childhood education, academic success and career success of early childhood pedagogues, personality traits of early childhood pedagogues, educational quality in preschool and family, and early literacy. The most recent project “Quality of Children´s Interactions in Preschool“ (2018 - 2021, funded by the Austrian Science Fund, FWF) investigates the quality of children’s interactions in preschools in Austria. He is board member of the commission Early Childhood Education in the German Educational Research Association.

Christine Unterrainer is researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Austria. She holds a PhD in Work- and Organizational Psychology from the University of Innsbruck. Her main research areas include organizational democracy and climate, participative leadership practices, and employee orientations and behaviours (e.g. employee participation and voice, employees’ prosocial and democratic orientations, employee well-being). Just recently she published a meta-analysis about the effects of organizational democracy on individual, organizational, and societal outcomes.