Prof. Dr. Reinhold Hedtke

Dr Reinhold Hedtke is Professor Emeritus of Economic Sociology and Didactics of Social Sciences at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. From 2019 to 2021, he held a senior professorship at Goethe University Frankfurt, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science. Previously, he was Professor of Economics and its Didactics at Weingarten University of Education. His current focus of research includes indicator-based reporting on political education, conceptual foundations of political, socio-economic and transdisciplinary social science education, interest-based participatory political education and the economics/sociology of conventions and their potential for educational research.

Academic career

• 2019-2021 Senior Professor at the Goethe University Frankfurt
• 2002-2019 Professor of Economic Sociology and Didactics of the Social Sciences, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld
• 1998-2002 Professor of Economics and its Didactics at Weingarten University of Education
• 1996-1998 Temporary professor at Weingarten University of Education
• 1980-1996 Teacher at upper secondary level

Research interests

• Indicator-based reporting on political education
• Theory of socio-economic and social science education
• Political education, power asymmetry and interest representation
• Economics / sociology of conventions in educational research
• Socio-economic education in Germany, France and Europe
• Sociological market theory

Recent publications

• For recent and all publications see PUB Publications at Bielefeld University

Books

Concepts of economic education. 2nd ed. Frankfurt am Main 2023.

Economy and society. A theory of socio-economic education. Frankfurt am Main 2023.

Learning from crises in crises. Socio-economic education and science in the context of socio-ecological transformation. Wiesbaden 2022 (ed. together with Lisa-Marie Schröder; Harald Hantke, Theresa Steffestun).

Economy, society and politics. Socio-economic and political education in schools and universities. Wiesbaden 2021 (ed. together w. Fridrich, Christian; Hagedorn, Udo; Mittnik, Philipp; Tafner, Georg).

Crossing Borders, Daring Pluralism - Perspectives on Socioeconomic Teaching in Higher Education. Wiesbaden 2020 (ed. with Christian Fridrich and Walter Otto Ötsch).

Education in the social sciences. Politics - Economy - Society. Paderborn 2020 (together with Tim Engartner, Bettina Zurstrassen).

What is good economic education? Guidelines for socio-economic teaching. Frankfurt am Main 2019. Together with the authors' group Socioeconomic Education (Tim Engartner, Gerd-E. Famulla, Andreas Fischer, Christian Fridrich, Harald Hantke, Reinhold Hedtke, Birgit Weber, Bettina Zurstrassen).

Economic Sociology. 2nd ed. Constance 2019.

Historicity and Sociality in Socioeconomic Education. Wiesbaden 2019 (ed. together with Christian Fridrich and Georg Tafner).

The socioeconomic curriculum. Frankfurt am Main 2018.

Socioeconomic education and science. Lines of development and perspectives. Wiesbaden 2018 (ed. together with Tim Engartner, Christian Fridrich, Silja Graupe, Georg Tafner).

What is good political education? Guidelines for social science teaching. Schwalbach/Ts: Wochenschau 2016. together with. Autorengruppe Fachdidaktik (Wolfgang Sander, Sibylle Reinhardt, Andreas Petrik, Dirk Lange, Peter Henkenborg, Tilman Grammes, Anja Besand).
What is socioeconomics and why? Wiesbaden 2015.

Education for Civic and Political Participation. A Critical Approach. London, New York: Routledge 2013.

Economic Sociology. Constance: UVK/UTB 2014.

Concepts of economic education. Schwalbach/Ts.: Wochenschau 2011.

Article

• For more recent and all publications see PUB Publications at Bielefeld University.

Social Science Education in Schools: Neopragmatist Perspectives on Values and Actions in Classrooms. In: Diaz-Bone, Rainer; de Larquier, Guillemette de (eds.) (2023): Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions. Cham, 1-21 (together with Andrea Szukala).

Does critical historical thinking sponsor critique in civic education? In: Must, Thomas; van Norden, Jörg; Martini, Nina (eds.). History didactics in the debate. Contributions to an interdisciplinary discourse. Frankfurt am Main 2022, 94-110.

Scientific foundations of civic education - positions and controversies. In: Sander, Wolfgang; Pohl, Kerstin (eds.), Handbuch politische Bildung. Frankfurt am Main, 5th ed. 2022, 40-50.

Doing politics instead of playing politics. A plea for political education in pupils. In: Haarmann, Moritz Peter; Kenner, Steve; Lange, Dirk (eds.), Demokratie, Demokratisierung und das Demokratische. Tasks and approvals of civic education. Wiesbaden 2020, 141-156.

Teaching undisciplined thinking. The common as the basis of socio-economic plurality. In: Fridrich, Christian; Hedtke, Reinhold; Ötsch, Walter Otto (eds.): Crossing Borders, Daring Pluralism - Perspectives on Socioeconomic Teaching in Higher Education. Wiesbaden 2020, 51-69.

Interest formation instead of judgement formation? Inequality, participation and political education. In: Szukala, Andrea; Oeftering, Tonio (eds.), Participation and Protest. Baden-Baden 2020, 69-83.

Science and cosmopolitanism. Against the nonsense of practice-orientated teacher training. In: Scheid, Claudia/Wenzl, Thomas (eds.): How much science does teacher education need? On the importance of science in teacher training programmes. Wiesbaden 2020, 79-108.

Situation versus comparison? A sketch of convention-theoretical methodology using the example of citizenship education in schools. In: Imdorf, Christian; Leemann, Regula; Gonon, Philipp (eds.), Education and Conventions. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2019, 281-307 (together with Andrea Szukala and Claude Proeschel).

The concordance principle as a domain-didactic guiding principle of social education. In: Lotz, Mathias; Pohl, Kerstin (eds.): Gesellschaft im Wandel! New challenges for civic education and its didactics. Frankfurt am Main 2019, 105-112.

The sociality of socio-economic education. In: Fridrich, Christian; Hedtke, Reinhold; Tafner, Georg (eds.): Historicity and sociality in socioeconomic education. Wiesbaden: 2019, 27-47.

Social scientificity as a socioeconomic didactic principle. In: Engartner, Tim; Fridrich, Christian; Graupe, Silja; Hedtke, Reinhold; Tafner, Georg (eds.): Socioeconomic education and science. Lines of development and perspectives. Wiesbaden: 2018, 1-26.

Economy and Economics. In: Davies, Ian; Ho, Li-Ching; Kiwan, Dina; Peck, Carla; Peterson, Andrew; Sant, Edda; Waghid, Yusef (eds.): The Palgrave Handbook of Global Citizenship and Education. London: Palgrave, Macmillan 2018, 315-329.

Adapt or enlighten? Financial education and socio-economic education. In: GW Unterricht 152 (4/2018), 14-30.

Education for Participation: Subject didactics as an agent of politics? In: Educação, Sociedade & Culturas (2016) 48, 7-30.

Participation as a political and pedagogical problem. In: Friedrichs, Werner; Lange, Dirk (eds.): Demokratiepolitik. Surveys, applications, problems, perspectives. Wiesbaden 2016, 133-146.

Education for participation: specialised didactics as a contractor for politics? In: Menthe, Jürgen; Höttecke, Dietmar; Zabka, Thomas; Hammann, Marcus; Rothgangel, Martin (eds.): Befähigung zu gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe. Contributions from didactic research. Münster 2016, 9-24.

Socio-economic education. In: Budget in Education & Research, 4 (2015) 3, 3-18.

Economy and society. Socioeconomic education as innovation through tradition. In: GW-Unterricht 140 (4/2015), 18-38.

My good as the common good. Lobbyism in economic education. In: Spieker, Wolfgang (ed.): Zukunft der ökonomischen Bildung (Tutzinger Schriften zur politischen Bildung). Schwalbach/Ts. 2015, 127-172.

The school as a place of political action. On the contradictions of education for participation. In: Harles, Lothar; Lange, Dirk (eds.): The age of participation. A paradigm shift in politics and political education? Schwalbach/Ts. 2015, 120-129.

Price or quality? How markets emerge and exist. In: Federal Agency for Civic Education (ed.): Ökonomie und Gesellschaft. Twelve building blocks for school and extracurricular education. Bonn 2014, 141-178.

What is socioeconomics and why? On the topography of a field of research. In: Hedtke, Reinhold (ed.): What is socioeconomics and why? Wiesbaden 2014, 19-69.

What is socio-economic education? Perspectives of a pragmatic didactic Philosophy. In: Fischer, Andreas; Zurstrassen, Bettina (eds.): Socio-economic education. Bonn 2014, 81-126.

Scientific foundations of civic education - positions and controversies. In: Sander, Wolfgang (ed.): Handbuch politische Bildung. Schwalbach/Ts. 2014, 40-50.

Economic learning. In: Sander, Wolfgang (ed.): Handbuch politische Bildung. Schwalbach/Ts. 2014, 310-318.

Socio-economic education in the social science domain. In: Society, Economy, Politics 63 (2013) 4, 597-604.

Scientific education

1995: Doctorate/PhD studies (Dr rer. soc.) at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University
1980: State exam(ination) in social sciences, economics and history of Bielefeld University

Academic-administrative positions

2012-2019: Chair of the Doctoral Committee of the Faculty of Sociology
2009-2019: Chair of the Board of the International Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Sociology
2007-2011: Dean of the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University
2005-2019: Member of the Board of the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology))
2005-2009: Director of the Centre for German and European Studies (ZDES), St. Petersburg/Bielefeld
2002-2025: Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Science Education
2025-present: Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social Science Education

Functions in interdisciplinary associations

2016-present: Member of the Board of the Association for socio-economic education and research (ASEER) - Society for Socio-Economic Education and Research (GSÖBW)
2012-2021: Deputy Chairman of the German Association for Citizenship Education (DVPB) (German Association for Citizenship Education)
2010-present: Member of the advisory board of the Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Gesellschaftswissenschaften (ZDG)
2010-present: Member of the Editorial Board of the journal Citizenship, Social and Economics Education (CSEE)
2006-present: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the quarterly journal Gesellschaft - Wirtschaft - Politik. Social sciences for political education
2010-2019: Member of the review board of the International Journal of Consumer Studies (IJCS)
2002 Founder of the Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE)
1999 Co-founder of the social science didactic transfer portal sowi-online