Agnes Tarnowski Receives Doctorate

In December 2024, Agnes Tarnowski successfully defended her dissertation, “Schule und Schulleitung in der Migrationsgesellschaft: Eine Mixed-Methods-Studie zum schulischen Umgang mit migrationsbedingter Diversität,” exploring the central role played by school leaders in integrating ethnic minorities at secondary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. As German schools become more culturally and linguistically diverse, Tarnowski examines how school principals define integration, how they deal with interethnic challenges, and what strategies they develop in response. Using an innovative mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative student data with qualitative case studies, she identifies both obstacles and success factors for creating culturally inclusive schools. Her study combines findings from integration and education research with organization theory, delivering practical insights for school integration design. Her research was supervised by Clemens Kroneberg, Professor of Sociology at the University of Cologne. Agnes Tarnowski was a doctoral researcher at the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy (IMPRS-SPCE) from 2018 to 2024.