In the period 2021-2025, eight doctoral students from the doctoral programme SPARK ("Special Education Research: Participation, Adaptation, Risk, Communication") worked on cross-institutional dissertations (special education, social sciences, education). The focus was on children and young people with special educational needs and multiple risk burdens as well as questions about their development, education and participation.

At the SPARK closing event on Friday, 10 October 2025, at The Smart House Oldenburg, the fellows presented their theoretical and methodological approaches as well as the initial results of their research work. Meike Rau gave a lecture entitled "School Absenteeism & Family from the Perspective of Social Workers - Insights into Family Dynamics and the Cooperation between School, Family and Social Work"

Sven Broschinski, Michael Feldhaus, Heinrich Ricking & Christine Sälzer (2025): Research note on PISA 2012-2022: Analyses of the influence of family background on school absenteeism, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Volume 77, Pages 247-269.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-025-01008-x

Michael Feldhaus, Friederike Koehler, Eva Schurig, Suvi Saarikallio & Gunter Kreutz (2025): Music learning and skill development: a replication study of Hille and Schupp (2015), Taylor & Francis Group, Educational Psychology

https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2025.2477181

Michael Feldhaus, Meike Rau, Heinrich Ricking & Christine Sälzer (2025): School absenteeism from a human ecological perspective – current analyses with PISA 2022, Journal of Educational Sciences, Volume 28, Pages 781–804

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-025-01292-5