ABOUT
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Iceland, contributing to the ERC-funded project EDUCHANGE. My responsibilities include the development, coordination, and evaluation of a comparative experimental study that examines educational transitions from lower to upper secondary education and into tertiary education across Iceland, Germany, Denmark, and Hungary. Before this, I held positions as a research associate at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Duisburg-Essen and at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories in Bamberg.
I obtained my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Leipzig and earned my PhD at the University of Duisburg-Essen. As a sociologist, I employ quantitative analysis to identify the underlying causes of educational inequalities. My research focuses on the challenges of educational upward mobility in stratified education systems from an intra- and intergenerational perspective. In particular, I am interested in educational transitions and the subsequent educational attainment of upwardly mobile students. A key aspect of my work is understanding social mobility among children of immigrants and examining how educational trajectories are shaped by structural and family factors in migratory contexts.
You can reach me at mkohlmeier@hi.is
PUBLICATIONS
Peer Reviewed
Kohlmeier, M. & Fischer-Neumann, M. (2024): Upward track mobility into academic upper secondary education: effects of challenging parental expectations, immigrant origin, and older siblings on students‘ educational choices. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2024.100892
Kohlmeier, M. (2024): Aiming High: Learning Investments in German Upper Secondary Education. Differences between Immigrant and Non-immigrant Youth. European Educational Research Journal.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041241235988
Kohlmeier, M. (2024): Challenges of Upward Track Mobility into German Upper Secondary Education for Students‘ Academic Self-Concept. European Journal of Psychology and Educational Research.
https://doi.org/10.12973/ejper.7.1.11
Book Chapters
Kohlmeier, M. (2022): Bildungsaufstiege im Erfahrungsraum von Sphären- und Schichtdifferenzen. Eine quantitative Betrachtung der biografischen Herausforderungen von Jugendlichen mit und ohne Einwanderungsgeschichte. In M. Schmitz-Vardar, A. Rumpel, A. Graevskaia, L. Dinnebier (Eds.), Migrationsforschung (inter)disziplinär: Eine anwendungsorientierte Einführung (pp. 181-209). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839460948-009
Kohlmeier, M. (2020): Geflüchtete Kinder und Jugendliche im deutschen Bildungssystem. In A. Schulz, T. Schwertel (Eds.), Der lange Sommer der Flucht – 2015 und die Jahre danach: Diskurse, Reflexionen, Perspektiven (pp. 209-222). Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Verlag Barbara Budrich.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv153k59d.13
Dissertation
Kohlmeier, M. (2024). Aiming High. Essays on the Challenges of Upward Track Mobility into German Academic Upper Secondary Education.
https://doi.org/10.17185/duepublico/82109