From Hong Kong to Lüneburg with a Humboldt Award: Dr. Sedat Gümüş
2025-05-15 International cooperation in educational science: How can school leadership be made more socially just? In 2022, professors Marcus Pietsch (Leuphana), Mehmet Bellibaş (Leuphana/Sharjah) and Sedat Gümüş (Education University of Hong Kong, EdUHK) started exploring the impact of school leadership on students with high and low socioeconomic status in an international study. They found out that leadership can make a difference. Now they can intensify their collaborative work at Leuphana due to the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award that Prof. Gümüş received on the recommendation of Prof. Pietsch.
Sedat Gümüş looks forward to deepening the collaboration with his Leuphana colleagues: “I am currently engaged in two projects in Hong Kong, exploring socially just instructional leadership and future-ready leadership development for school leaders. During my visits, we plan to adapt and study these concepts within the German context, further investigating these innovative leadership approaches and their theoretical and practical implications.” With this research, they want to contribute to developing an instructional leadership that is beneficial for reducing achievement gaps within and between schools, e.g., by discussing ramifications for policy, practice, and education research.
The Associate Professor at the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership at EdUHK describes their previous cooperation as very fruitful: “We met a few years ago while I was working at Aarhus University in Denmark. We began collaborating on a joint paper, which was highly successful. Since then, our partnership has grown, and we have worked together on several projects, fostering a productive and rewarding scholarly collaboration.” For example, Marcus Pietsch travelled to Hong Kong earlier this year where they developed a call for a special issue for the journal Leadership and Policy in Schools and a joint application for a renowned Spencer Foundation Vision grant about AI use in culturally responsive school leadership. Now, Sedat Gümüş will come to Leuphana for several research stays, with the first being planned for summer 2025.
The educational scientist is enthusiastic about exploring the town of Lüneburg and engaging with the broader academic and cultural opportunities in Germany: “While I am familiar with the European context, this will be my first research engagement in Germany, and I am eager to immerse myself in the experience. I look forward to deepening my understanding of the German education system, particularly school leadership development and research. Beyond collaborating with Marcus Pietsch, I am keen to work closely with the next generation of educational researchers at Leuphana.” Prof. Pietsch from Leuphana’s Institute of Educational Sciences is equally delighted: “Good News! Our first Humboldt Bessel Award winner will come to Leuphana and conduct joint research on the topic of social justice leadership. We are so lucky to have such an outstanding colleague on-site! This is a huge opportunity for educational research in Germany and a fantastic asset for all of us.”
Each year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation presents the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Awards to internationally recognised scholars from abroad. It is awarded to researchers who are expected to make a lasting contribution to their field through further outstanding research achievements beyond their immediate area. Award winners are invited to conduct research in cooperation with colleagues at a German research institution. The prize is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).