Research Associate at the Institute of Art and Visual Culture to further develop the DiZ Research Academy

Career history

• May 2026: Awarded a PhD in Special Education at the University of Oldenburg; Thesis title: ‘Intersectional Sensitivity in Teacher Training with Particular Reference to Linguistic Diversity’ (Principal supervisor: Prof. Dr Ulla Licandro, Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr Michaela Kaiser)
• Since April 2026: Research Fellow at the Institute of Art and Visual Culture, working on the further development of the DiZ Research Academy
• 2022–2025: Research assistant at the Institute of Special Needs Education and Rehabilitation and PhD candidate at the DiZ Graduate College for Teacher Education 2040 within the Intersectional Sensitivity research cluster, University of Oldenburg
• 2020–2021: Student assistant at the School of Educational Sciences, University of Hamburg
• 2018–2021: Master’s degree in Multilingualism and Education at the University of Hamburg
• 2014 – 2018: Bachelor’s degree in Early Years Education at the University of Education, Freiburg im Breisgau

Publications

• Volknant, S. (2026). ‘The very fact that we name it is already a kind of small revolution’: Prospective teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism and inequality from an intersectional perspective and their potential for inclusion-oriented teacher training. Qualifizierung für Inklusion (QfI), 7(2). https://doi.org/10.21248/qfi.190
• Volknant, S., Licandro, U., Stefanie, S.-W., Thiele, A., Dunkel, M., & Janßen, R. (2026). Sensitivity and teacher training. In L. M. Staab, M.-A. Boger, & S. Freund (Eds.), Handbook of Intersectional Pedagogy (pp. 315–322). transcript.
• Arndt, A.-K., Bruwer, B. J., Volknant, S., & Huang, Z. (2025). Understanding yourself as an inclusive teacher: Teacher professional identity development. In A community project from all-means-all education (Eds.), All means all! Open textbook for diversity in education. https://book.all-means-all.education/ama-2025-en/chapter/teacher-professional-identity-development
• Volknant, S., Blattner, P., Bootsmann, J., Janßen, R., & Westerhorstmann, L. (2025). Democracy at its crossroads: Intersectional perspectives. Journal for Teacher Education (jlb), 25(4), 58–67. https://doi.org/10.35468/jlb-04-2025-04
• Volknant, S., & Licandro, U. (2024). Preparing teachers for linguistically diverse classrooms: A systematic review on interventions and intersectional perspectives. Education Sciences, 14(8), 846. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080846
• Volknant, S. (2024). Linguistic diversity and epistemic injustice: Intersectional perspectives in teacher education. In A. Goldbach, A. Langner, K. Mannewitz, S. Schuppener, & N. Leonhardt (Eds.), Power and Knowledge: Critical Reflections in the Context of Inclusion and Exclusion (pp. 130–140). Klinkhardt.