The institute conducts basic and applied research on central scientific and social issues in formal, non-formal, and informal educational contexts such as school, family, the work environment, or youth work. This is done with historical, qualitative, quantitative, and theory-building approaches and with the support of public and private institutions: the Swiss National Science Foundation, foundations, companies, the Federal Government, cantons, and municipalities. The list of current publications provides an overview of the internal research.

A large part of the research at the Institute of Education is organized in research groups at the individual chairs. The research that is conducted at the currently thirteen chairs at the institute covers a broad spectrum of educational science topics:

• General Education Studies (Prof. Dr. Roland Reichenbach)
• Historical Research in Education and Governance of the Education System (Prof. Dr. Lucien Criblez)
• Extracurricular Education (Prof. Dr. Peter Rieker)
• Educational Science with focus on Social Pedagogy (Prof. Dr. Catrin Heite)
• Educational Science with focus on Theory and Empirical Research of Educational Processes in Schools (Prof. Dr. Katharina Maag Merki)
• Research on Learning, Instruction and Didactics (Prof. Dr. Anna Praetorius)
• Inclusion and Diversity (Prof. Dr. Franziska Felder)
• Special Education with focus on Inclusion and Instruction Research (Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Moser Opitz)
• Upper-Secondary Education Studies and Research on Learning and Teaching (Prof. Dr. Fritz Staub)
• Teaching in Upper Secondary Education in General Academic and Economic Subjects with a Special Focus on Digital Learning (Prof. Dr. Doreen Flick-Holtsch)
• Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education (Prof. Dr. Katrin Kraus)
• Teaching and Educational Technology (Prof. Dr. Dominik Petko)
• Science and Sustainability Education (Prof. Dr. Kai Niebert)
• Educational Technology (Prof. Dr. S. Schneider)
• Research Methods in Developmental and Educational Sciences (Prof. Dr. M. Tomasik)

This research is complemented by research at the research center and the office for research methods:

• Research Center (Dr. phil. Michèle Hofmann)
• Office for Quantitative Methods (Dr. phil. Urs Grob)
• Office for Historical-Textanalytical Methods (Dr. phil. Rebekka Horlacher)
• Office for Qualitative Methods (Dr. phil. Silke Werner)

In order to address questions regarding educational science in a manner that encompasses chairs and personal, research clusters are initiated that provide a network for scientific collaboration among researchers from the Institute of Education. This lateral structure complements research conducted at the individual chairs, the office for research methods as well as the research center and can be supplemented by other researchers or institutions working in the respective fields. Research clusters help to bundle competencies and research activities, enabling a multi-perspective approach to research questions in selected areas of common interest. The goals of the research clusters are to establish, support, and maintain (research) communication and (research) collaboration. Activities in the research clusters encompass colloquia, conferences, peer support, academic career development or collective research projects, etc.

At the moment, the following three research clusters exist at the Institute of Education:

• Public Education Between the State and the Market
• Education and Digital Transformation
• The Future of General Education