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Research Spotlight: Leonie Seebach on networking among first-time academics

"Many have very similar experiences"

Foto von einer Frau und sie trägt ein weißes Oberteil © private
Leonie Seebach has been a research assistant at DoProfiL at TU Dortmund University since 2020.

Leonie Seebach conducts research on the religious sensitivity of teachers at the Faculty of Human Sciences and Theology. She was the first in her family to decide to study, and is currently working on her dissertation. To exchange ideas with others, she has participated in numerous events and network meetings and has co-organized digital writing groups. In the interview, Leonie Seebach talks about her experiences as a first-time academic and why networking with others is so important in the process.

Ms. Seebach, why did you decide to do a doctorate?

I studied to become a teacher for special needs education and find the topics covered there very important: How can we design lessons in such a way that they appeal to everyone equally, even with a very heterogeneous student body? Inclusion-oriented teaching takes into account many aspects such as language, gender and ethnic origin, but also religion, for example. Towards the end of my studies, I wished I could devote myself more extensively to religious education topics. To be honest, however, I thought it was rather unlikely to do a doctorate: I was the first in my family to study at all, so you don't immediately think about adding a dissertation after the master's thesis. Today I see things differently, and fortunately my examiner encouraged me at the time. In the meantime, I am conducting research on the religious sensitivity of prospective teachers in the DoProfiL project - the Dortmund Profile for Inclusion-Oriented Teacher Education. I hope that I can contribute to better preparing future teachers for religious diversity in the classroom.

You regularly exchange ideas with other doctoral students - what do you find particularly helpful?

I think there are questions in every phase of the doctorate that almost all doctoral students deal with at some point. You have to find your topic, develop a methodical approach, organize the writing process or prepare lectures. In my opinion, it is enormously helpful to exchange ideas, especially if there is no experience of this in the family environment. This is even more true in times of a pandemic: For example, I participated in a digital event of the Graduate Center on the topic of "Doing a PhD in times of Corona" and got to know the network "Als Erste*s promoviert" ("Doing a PhD as a First*"), which is specifically aimed at first-time academics. During this exchange, we realized that we share many experiences and also face similar challenges. At one of the meetings, a professor who is also a first-time academic in his family also told us about his career path and the hurdles it has faced - that was also very exciting.

What do you think is important for networking to work well?

First of all, of course, you have to know in the first place that there are networks or like-minded people with whom you could network. In this regard, the support provided by the Graduate Center was very valuable for me, especially during the pandemic: It made me aware of topics and offers that I might otherwise have heard about casually in conversations. For the networking itself, it's not so crucial for me whether it takes place digitally or in person. Of course, you're more likely to build personal contacts with real meetings, but you can also network virtually across regions without having to travel long distances. But it's always important to have good organization and therefore people who invest time in the planning and keep the whole thing "running". I definitely plan to be active in such networks in the future.

 

About me

  • 2012-2020 Study of special education teaching at the TU Dortmund University of Technology
  • 2017-2019 Pedagogical teaching assistant, Raphael School, Recklinghausen, Germany
  • 2019-2020 Substitute teacher, Hermann-Gmeiner-School, Hamm, Germany
  • Since 2020 research assistant at DoProfiL, Institute for Protestant Theology at TU Dortmund University

 

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