Specialist in Education and Inclusion, Lecturer, Inquirer.

Anja Langer, alumna of the part-time degree program in Childhood Education, on professional and personal challenges.

Where am I and what do I do?

Since August 2017, I have been working at the Protestant daycare center Sterntaler in my hometown of
Breckerfeld. Since February 2018, I have held the position of inclusion specialist here and am
therefore, alongside my daily work as an educational specialist in group care, particularly
responsible for children with assistance needs. At present, we have two integration children who attend a
joint group in our facility. My tasks are varied and range
from designing group activities for early childhood education from the perspective of
participation, to small-group or individual activities that benefit all children but are
especially intended to reach children with support needs, to organizing
inclusive forest days. In addition, I am responsible for documenting participation and support planning, prepare the corresponding applications to the regional authority, and am
of course in constant communication with parents and other supporting institutions such as
early intervention centers. In order to always stay up to date and enable enriching exchange,
a working group in our church district has been established for all integration specialists,
which I attend regularly.

Alongside this work, I took the opportunity to pass on my acquired knowledge and
experience to interested participants and accepted a part-time position as a freelance
lecturer at Kolping Bildungswerk Essen. Here I have the opportunity to design my own day seminars
on topics that inspire and move me, and to gain initial experience as a lecturer.

And because I enjoyed the degree program in Childhood Education so much, I also
decided, alongside my professional activities, to pursue a further degree at Alanus University and, since September 2019, have been a happy student in the
master’s degree program in Educational Practice Research.

How did I get here?

After an average Abitur, I was initially rather clueless about what I actually
wanted to do professionally. More out of necessity, I decided to first
do an internship in the social sector. By chance rather than through a specific
intention of my own, I ended up in Dortmund at a Waldorf school for children with special needs as
a classroom assistant. The year at this institution was formative for me. The indescribable
appreciation shown to every pupil, every parent, every intern, every teacher, and everyone else involved, the understanding of what it means to be human, the sense of community, but also the rhythm of the year and the celebrations throughout the school year—all of this made me curious about this educational approach and also awakened in me the desire to continue this work in a different setting. On the recommendation of one of the class teachers responsible for me during that internship year, I began my training as a remedial educator in the summer of 2008 at the Camphill school community in Brachenreuthe near Überlingen on the beautiful shores of Lake Constance. After five instructive and enriching, exciting, wonderful, and unforgettable years in the south of Germany, I was drawn back to North Rhine-Westphalia. Here I took up work in the under-three group of an integrative daycare center.

Several years after completing my training, the urge for a new intellectual challenge grew ever stronger, and in 2016, after careful consideration but with a good feeling and much encouragement from family and friends, I decided to begin the part-time degree program in Childhood Education at Alanus University. For 2.5 years, this university became a very significant part of my life and set a great deal in motion within me. “Productive unrest,” as one professor once described it very aptly. Two job changes during my studies were probably a clear sign of my ongoing search. Now I have arrived here in my small town at the daycare center and, for the moment, feel that this is exactly the right place for me. The fact that I can also pursue a second activity on the side, which challenges me in a very different way, makes me very satisfied. After a year’s break from studying and several wonderful trips, I am now very happy to be back at Alanus and look forward to many great encounters and am curious to see where my path will still lead me.

To what extent did my time at Alanus University shape me?

Studying while working is a challenge and requires giving up a good deal of
free time! Nevertheless, these five semesters at Alanus were such an enrichment that I
would never want to be without them. From the encounters with my fellow students, a close-knit community emerged that I looked forward to seeing every weekend on campus and that played a major role in carrying the degree program. I found people with whom I could engage in intensive exchange and from whom I could learn a great deal. With some of them, I still share a deep friendship today. But it was not only the coming together of such special people that made the degree program so unique for me. My contact with the professors and lecturers was also formative. The respect and appreciation shown to us part-time students for our work must be mentioned here, as must the overall support throughout the degree program provided by those responsible for coordination and by the secretariat. As students, we were accepted by the university in our individuality, and through the close contact with lecturers and those responsible, there developed an atmosphere of learning and conversation that was always pleasant, focused, never without humor, and always humane.

My time at Alanus University made me aware of my own
questions and needs and, at the same time, trained me not to simply accept the circumstances I encounter in
my everyday work without a constructive-critical distance, but rather to ask questions and to continually subject my own actions to reflection.
Seminars on communication, conflict management, social psychology, and
organizational development sensitized me to the things that are sometimes said
between the lines and gave me tools to view my own conflicts with distance
and find ways toward solutions. Alongside all the new content I was able to take away from my studies, it is above all my personal development and the engagement with the big question, “What do I actually want?”, that continue to accompany me.