Tertium Comparationis: Issue 1/2026, 32. Volume

This paper examines teachers and their transnational professional biographies as an access point to educational spaces in the France–Germany border region. It investigates whether (dis)continuities between the transnational educational spaces of German schools abroad and schools in the border region can be reconstructed. The study is based on a biographical-narrative interview. The grounded theory analysis reveals, first, a continuity in the need for decolonization in the educational spaces invoked in the professional biography. Second, central moments of everyday pedagogical practice can be reconstructed as professional-biographical continuities, indicating a realization of transnationalization in and of schools. Against this background, the paper raises the question of whether the concept of transnational educational spaces provides a viable theoretical framework for connecting German schools abroad and schools in border regions.

Keywords
Transnational educational space, German schools abroad, schools in the Germany–France border region, professional biographies, teachers, decolonization