Raffaella Esposito studied Educational Sciences, Economics and Law at the University of Fribourg and Basel.

In 2020, she completed her PhD, a comparative study on school types on upper secondary level in the field of health that lead into health professions on tertiary level. Her main research interests are sociology of education, transformation of educational institutions, governance of education and the segregation of general education and vocational education and training (VET).

Since July 2020, Raffaella Esposito has been working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Secondary Education of the School of Education FHNW and is doing research in a project on governance of educational transitions (GovTrans).

Find out more about Raffaella Esposito’s background, research and publications here.

Current research

Governance of Transitions in the Swiss Education System. A Study on the Political Regulation of Moving from Primary to Lower-Secondary and from Lower-Secondary to Upper-Secondary Education (GovTrans).

This study applies a governance perspective to examine how in the Swiss system of educational federalism the transition from primary to secondary education (transition 1) and from lower-secondary to upper-secondary education (transition 2) is governed – that is, regulated, organised, reformed, and legitimised; how differences in governance between the cantons can be explained; what kinds of tensions arise within and between the cantons as a result; and how these are addressed by the relevant actors involved in the governance process.

Find out more about this research here.

Past research

The upper secondary specialised middle/specialised baccalaureate school as a separate educational track besides vocational education and training and general baccalaureate school - processes and outcomes of its positioning and profile raising.

In a long-term transformation process from the 1970s onwards, the specialised middle/specialised baccalaureate school has established itself as the third federally approved educational pathway alongside VET and the Gymnasium. The study examines the controversial process of institutionalising the school as an access to tertiary education. How has the school succeeded in positioning itself alongside VET and general baccalaureate school? How does the school profile itself as a way of complementing VET and general baccalaureate school? To investigate the positioning and profiling of the school, we refer to document analysis, interviews and quantitative statistical data.

Find out more about this research here.

More information about the chair of educational sociology at the School of Education, its ongoing research, its courses, exams and bachelor or master thesis you can find here.