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University of Regensburg
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Sara Hassunah

Curriculum Vitae

Since January 2026
Research assistant at the Chair of Education for Sustainable Development

Since 2023
PhD student at the Institute for Biology Education, University of Regensburg

2021 – 2023
M.Ed. in Biology and English, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

2020 – 2021
B.Ed. in Biology and English, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

2019
Semester abroad at the University of Newcastle, Australia (funded by a PROMOS scholarship)

2017 – 2020
Studied for a teaching qualification for upper secondary schools in Biology and English at the University of Regensburg

2016 – 2017
Studied Law at the University of Regensburg

2015
A-levels at the Karl-von-Frisch Gymnasium, Dußlingen

Doctoral research project 

My doctoral research project examines the importance that trainee biology teachers attach to biology teaching that is sensitive to diversity and critical of discrimination, how they view their own role and responsibility in implementing this, and what challenges they anticipate.

Raising awareness of diversity is normatively regarded as a component of democracy education in schools and, from this perspective, also as a task of contemporary biology teaching. Adopting a (self-)critical and (self-)reflective approach, the opportunities and challenges of diversity-sensitive biology teaching are examined from a socio-critical and cultural-critical perspective (Fereidooni & Simon, 2020; Kanu, 2006). From a scientific propaedeutic perspective (‘Nature of Bioscience’, Dittmer & Ehras, 2024), we explore the potential of biology as a life science to raise awareness of the individuality of biological phenomena and the ethical dimension of the life sciences. We argue that a focus on individuality and variability as essential characteristics of biological phenomena can help to critically reflect on the interrelationships between biological research and issues of socio-cultural diversity in the context of addressing racism, sexism or ableism.

In order to make the engagement with the socially critical aspects of one’s own profession – as well as one’s own involvement in social structures – negotiable, in the spirit of a reflexive professionalisation that takes differences into account (Aufschnaiter, Fraij & Kost, 2019; Balzter et al., 2016; Helsper, 2007), a module on ‘Diversity Education and Critique of Discrimination in Biology Teaching’ has been offered since the winter term 2024/25, with the aim of enabling students to engage critically with the socially critical aspects of their own profession and to reflect on their own involvement in social structures.

Publications

Hassunah, S. & Dittmer, A. (2025). Intersektionalität und naturwissenschaftliche Bildung: Einstellungen angehender Biologielehrkräfte zum diversitätssensiblen und diskriminierungskritischen Biologieunterricht. Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Biologie (ZDB) – Biologie Lehren und Lernen, 30(2), 52-66. doi: 0.11576/zdb-7358

Poster presentations

Hassunah, S. & Dittmer, A. (2025). Diversity Education in Biology Classes: 
A Design-Based-Research Study to Foster Self-Reflection and Discursivity in Biology Teacher Education auf der ESERA Conference 2025 in Kopenhagen

Hassunah, S. & Dittmer, A. (2025). Entwicklung eines Seminars zur Förderung von Diversitätssensibilität im Biologieunterricht: Selbstreflexivität und Diskursorientierung auf der 26. Internationalen Frühjahrsschule der Fachsektion Didaktik der Biologie vom 04.03.-07.03.2025 an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Hassunah, S. & Dittmer, A. (2024). Science Capital aus intersektionaler Perspektive Ein Seminar- und Fortbildungskonzept für Biologielehrkräfte auf der 25. Internationalen Frühjahrsschule der Fachsektion Didaktik der Biologie vom 04.03.-07.03.2024 an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

Sara Hassunah

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