The Centre’s main goal consists in the documentation and research of South Tyrol’s educational history, based on defined key points and connected to over regional and international perspectives. The theoretical foundation used for this research is the conception of school as “institutional actor“ theorised by Helmut Fend (2006), using a widened concept based upon action-theoretical (Weber), system-theoretical (Luhmann) and institution centred approaches (Scharpf; Schaefers).  This scientific background designs a theoretical concept of school fitted for the social and pedagogical research field. 

The main research interest is the genesis of school, as a history of directives with political and educational intention and pedagogical principles at the macro level, as an institutional history at the meso level and as a decisive factor for the individual educational biographies, for the life and work of the protagonists at the micro level (pupils and teachers with their cultural life experiences). The Centre researches formal learning environments, but also informal and non-formal learning environments, as contexts, alongside the political and cultural economies, where individual and collective identities and competences are developed.