Dr. des. Lucas Joecks

• Education and School Development in the Digital Age
• Educational Governance
• EdTech Consulting
• Privatization and Commercialization of Schooling
• Private Actors, including EdTech Startups and IT Service Providers
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• EdTech Testbeds

• Since February 2026: Postdoctoral researcher at Helmut Schmidt University in the project MEET (“Co-creating Meaningful Edtech: An Investigation of Edtech Testbeds”). Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Sigrid Hartong.
• 2022-2026: External doctoral researcher at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, Professorship for Transformation of Governance in Education and Society. Funded through a research stipend by the Hans-Böckler-Foundation
• 2021–2026: Secondary School Teacher (Social Sciences and English) at Wilhelm-von-Humboldt-Gemeinschaftsschule and Heinz-Brandt-Schule in Berlin-Pankow (Recipients of the German School Award; 2024 and 2011).
• 2020: Visiting student at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), USA; Main focus: Critical Ed-Tech Studies and Urban Education Policy
• 2018-2021: Master of Education (Political Science and English Philology) at Freie Universität Berlin; Thesis: “The Activities of EdTech-Businesses in the German School System: Discursive Strategies of SMART Technologies”
• 2019-2021: Student assistant for Political Affairs and Communications at the German Children’s Fund (DKHW)
• 2017-2019: Student assistant for the scientific board (Prof. Petra Stanat and Dr. Sofie Henschel) at the Institute for Educational Quality (IQB), Berlin
• 2015: Erasmus exchange semester at the University of Edinburgh, UK; Main focus: International Relations und Linguistics
• 2014-2018: Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and English Philology) at Freie Universität Berlin; Thesis: “Crisis of Representative Democracy? A Systems-Theoretical Approach to Democratic Threats and Political Support”

MEET – “Co-creating Meaningful Edtech: An Investigation of Edtech Testbeds” (February 2026 – January 2029)

MEET is a research project in cooperation with the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zürich), funded through the WEAVE program by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). The project is dedicated to the phenomenon of edtech testbeds. It examines the current emergence of settings for the testing and/or (re-)design of edtech. In doing so, the project investigates the collaboration between (edtech) companies, educational practice, and research within testbed initiatives. It explores the shaping of new governance structures and actor constellations in the field as well as the discourses and practices around edtech “impact”.

Journal articles

• Joecks, L. & Hartong, S. (2026). Beyond products and policies: Transformative consultancy for schooling in the digital age. Learning, Media and Technology (Online First Publication). https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2026.2630186
• Joecks, L. (2025). Fobizz als „Schlüssel zur KI-Welt”? Wie ein Unternehmen die Integration von KI im deutschen Schulwesen prägt. Pädagogische Korrespondenz, 72(2), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.3224/paek.v38i2.01
• Joecks, L. & Hartong, S. (2025). ‚Einer muss es machen’? – Staatliche und private Medienberatung für Schulen und Schulträger. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 71(5), 686–704. https://doi.org/10.3262/ZP2505686
• Decuypere, M., Brandau, N., Hartong, S., Joecks, L., Ortegón, C., Loft-Akhoondi, A. & Vanermen, L. (2025). Tracing the infrastructural unfolding of (edtech) events through hybrid team ethnography. Learning, Media and Technology, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2025.2458667
• Decuypere, M., Hartong, S., Brandau, N., Joecks, L., Loft-Akhoondi, A., Ortegón, C., Tierens, T. & Vanermen, L. (2024). Maneuvering constellations of valuation: A critical investigation of the edtech startup sector. Critical Studies in Education, 66(3), 429–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2024.2362196
• Joecks, L. (2024). Exploring the intermediary role of ed-tech consulting in Germany: In-between policy, pedagogy, and economics. Research in Education, 120(1), 14–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/00345237241242993

Further essays and contributions

• Decuypere, M., Hartong, S., Joecks, L., Knox, J., Ortegón, C., Schmidt, R. & Williamson, B. (2025). Critical Edtech Studies. Defining the field; envisioning the future. 2025 Position statement after the inaugural edition of the European Conference on Critical Edtech Studies (ECCES). Zurich University of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17672486

• Joecks, L. (2026). Brückenbauer zwischen Bildungssystem und Big Tech? Die Rolle des Beratungs- und Dienstleistungssektors an den Schnittstellen von Schulen und Märkten. Presentation in the context of the annual conference of the German Educational Research Association (DGfE), Munich, 23.-25.03.2026.
• Joecks, L. (2025). How AI Intermediaries Bring ChatGPT Into Schools – A Case Study of the Company Fobizz. Presentation in the context of the European Conference on Critical Edtech Studies (ECCES), Zürich, 18.-20.06.2025.
• Joecks, L. (2023). Navigating Ed-Tech Integration: The Role of Consultants in the Digital Transformation of German Schools. Presentation in the context of the symposium “Platforms and Pedagogies: Digital Technologies and New Perspectives for Youth and Education”, Utrecht, 14.-15.12.2023.
• Joecks, L. (2023). In-Between Policy, Pedagogy, and Economics: Exploring the Intermediary Role of Ed-Tech Consultancy in Germany. Poster presentation in the context of the Emerging Researchers‘ Conference (ERC) of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), Glasgow, 21.-25.08.2023.
• Joecks, Lucas & Ortégon, Carlos (2023): Hybrid Team Ethnography – A Framework for Ethnographic Social Research of/through Digitality. Presentation in the context of the workshop “Education & the Digital Transformation of Social Research”, PH Zürich, 21-23.6.2023.
• Joecks, Lucas (2022). Das wachsende Feld der EdTech-Akteure in der Steuerung des deutschen Bildungssystems. Guest presentation in the context of the seminar „Bildung steuern – Einführung in bildungspolitische Kontexte“ by Benedict Kurz, Bielefeld, 12.12.2022.
• Joecks, L. (2022). EdTech-Consulting: Vermittlung zwischen Pädagogik, Politik und Wirtschaft. Guest presentation in the context of the seminar „Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung – M.A. Bildungswissenschaften“ by Nick Oelrichs, Berlin, 08.12.2022.

• Joecks, Lucas & Brandau, Nina: “Who Governs the Education System? – Insights into Educational Governance”, Autumn Term 2024, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg

Associate member of the German Society for Educational Science (DGfE)

Network member of KriDiFoSch – Netzwerk Kritische Digitalitätsforschung im Kontext Schule