After studying educational science, Prof. Dr. Tanja Salem worked in youth association work, where she carried out projects on political education with the aim of empowering young people with a migration background. As a research assistant, she worked in the field of science-practice transfer for integrated language education at the interface between elementary and primary education at the F?rMig Competence Centre at the University of Hamburg. For three years, the professor worked on a socio-spatial programme for the continuous monitoring of children's educational processes in educational networks. In 2018, she joined the BMBF joint research project "Sprachbildungsprofis in mehrsprachigen Kitas ¨C SprabiPiKs" (Language Education Professionals in Multilingual Daycare Centres ¨C SprabiPiKs), in which she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg. Before taking up the professorship for Theory and Practice of Childhood Education at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, she held the professorship for Childhood Education with a focus on early childhood development and educational processes at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.

"As a professor, I would like to contribute to ensuring that the social and linguistic-cultural prerequisites of all children are taken into account in the German education system in order to enable them to participate successfully in education and society. I see a key to this in language education, which is not only related to German, but to all the languages with which children grow up and in which they are educated. I am particularly keen to strengthen students' awareness of the interests, abilities and questions of individual children, as well as their practical ability to reflect."

Name
Tanja Salem (*1981 born between the seas in Schleswig-Holstein)

Title/function/department
Prof.in Dr.in 
Professorship for Theory and Practice of Childhood Education
Department of Social and Educational Sciences (FB 1)

I earned my first money as a...
babysitter and co-trainer in artistic gymnastics.

I chose the University of Applied Sciences because ...
it is a dynamic university that is very student- and research-orientated and committed to research-based learning.

What my students appreciate about me is that ...
I accompany and support them individually, e.g. through constructive feedback, and that we create a space for appreciative, open and trusting communication in my courses.

I forget the time when ...
I dance. Or cook. When I'm cooking, however, it's not so favourable, so the egg timer is always running.

What drives me crazy is ...
city traffic ¨C from the perspective of a cyclist.

My greatest success was ...
that at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, I planted what is now a beautiful garden without any prior knowledge and got to know lots of people from my neighbourhood as a result.

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