7 new projects off to start

In June, our colleagues had the opportunity to apply for funding and support to help create activities that fit the scope of Youth Education and Life Skills. We are very happy to announce that the following seven projects have been granted financial support and will start soon. In our community, we focus on how education empowers young people and these projects will help get a better understanding of this.

The seven new projects that received funding are:

Co-Creating inclusive imaginaries for youth wellbeing and life-skills in Curaçao by Ajay Bailey, Patricia Wijntuin, Wiebe Bor, Ashley Duits and Royla Pierre.

Project outline:

Young people face crucial transitions and are at higher risk of experiencing long term inequalities due to substance abuse, mental health/disorders and coercive peer/family environments. Schools and school environments can be both havens and spaces of contestations for children and youth. With this project we want to understand the root causes and triggers for inequalities from the perspective of the youth, the educators, social workers, and the social networks. Secondly what life skills youth currently possess and where are the gaps in life skills education and how these life skills can be deepened? Our focus will be on young people from 8 to 18 on the island of Curacao who are currently in school in different socio-economic neighborhoods. Our focus will be on learning how young people are resilient, and what we could learn from their experiences.

Names applicants and faculties:

Ajay Bailey (Geosciences, department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning), Patricia Wijntuin (Law, Economics and Governance, Organizational Science (School of Governance)), Wiebe Bor (Geosciences, department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning)

Names societal partners: Ashley Duits, Professor Institute: Curaçao Biomedical Health Research and Drs. Royla Pierre, Director Institute: Stichting Rooms Katholiek Schoolbestuur 

Project duration: one year

Exchanging Ideas – A Collaboration on online and offline exchange interventions to reduce polarization among youth by Manja Coopmans and Tjitske de Groot

Project outline: 

Polarization is a societal challenge faced by many youth. Manja Coopmans and Tjitske de Groot both study interventions that promote contact between young people through exchange to decrease polarization. Dr. Coopmans focusses on an online exchange and Dr. de Groot focusses on real life exchange. The current project is a collaboration between the two, in which they work with the following question: How can we combine our expertise (of us as researchers, of our colleagues, our departments, our societal partners) to come up with more creative, innovate and inclusive ways to approach the topic of polarization amongst youth? 

Names of applicants and faculties: Manja Coopmans (Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science) and Tjitske de Groot (Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Education and Pedagogy)

Project duration: 1 year (Feb 2024-feb 2025)

Empowering Students’ Life Skills and Financial Education through Curriculum Renewal and Pedagogical Training – Evidence from The Gambia by Joost de Laat and Paul Schöpfer

Project outline:

This research project examines the impact of integrating a life skills and financial education program into the school curricula of grade five in The Gambia. Specifically, it addresses three key research questions:

• Will infusing life skills and financial education into academic subjects, coupled with teacher training, enhance children’s corresponding competencies?
• Does the provision of follow-up training for teachers influence the program’s effectiveness?
• What is the relationship between teachers’ life skills and financial competencies and children’s proficiency in these areas?

These questions will be examined using a randomized controlled trial across 90 schools in The Gambia, involving 450 teachers and 2,700 students. The schools will be randomly assigned into high-intensity and low-intensity teacher training and a control group adhering to the conventional curriculum. The study’s success may lead to the nationwide implementation of this curriculum starting in 2024.

Names of applicants and faculties: Paul Schöpfer (Law, Economics and Governance), Joost de Laat (Law, Economics and Governance), Tomohisa Miyamoto (Aflatoun) and Hamidou Jawara (School of Business & Public Administration at the University of Gambia).

Names of societal partners: Aflatoun, The Netherlands; ChildFund, U.S.A.; The Gambia Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), The Gambia; University of The Gambia, The Gambia.

Project duration: September 2023 – June 2024

Enhancing UU Students’ media literacy to evaluate the reliability of digital information by Eugène Loos, Marcel Boumans, Maryse Chappin, Bruce Mutsvairo, Rianne van Lambalgen and Marie-Louise Goudeau.

Project outline: 

Aims: (1) understanding how UU students (Bachelor and/or Master) find, assess and use digital sources; 2) getting insight into how to enhance their critical thinking which is important for their teachers. We collaborate with Sourcer, an organisation that offers a browser extension that informs the user of the digital news they read. It helps users by enhancing their awareness of the reliability of digital information, to assess the reliability of information, and to read news articles critically. The project will evaluate how UU students use this tool to find, assess and use digital sources for a paper or Bachelor- and Masterthesis.

Names of applicants and faculties: Eugène Loos (Law, Economics and Governance) [coordinator], Marcel Boumans (Law, Economics and Governance), Maryse Chappin (Geosciences), Bruce Mutsvairo (Humanities), Rianne van Lambalgen (Humanities) and Marie-Louise Goudeau (Utrecht University Library)

Names of societal partners: Sourcer

Project duration: 01.01.2024 – 31.12.2024

National or regional canon as a unifying tool in history education or how the curriculum can play a role in making young people feel at home in education by Hanneke Tuithof

Project outline:

Our research focusses on how to create a meaningful history curriculum that allows students to feel more at home at school and better represented. This research takes place in the Netherlands, Flanders, Curaçao and Bonaire, all locations where an educational canon has been, or is being, developed. In our pilot study in Curaçao and Bonaire we worked with two different canons, one already developed, the other one created by students and teachers together. In both cases this lead to more engagement with the history curriculum. We will further explore these possibilities at several schools on the primary and secondary level.

Name of applicant and faculty: Hanneke Tuithof (Humanities UU)

Name of Societal Partners: In cooperation with Bart Wagemakers of the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht; schools on Bonaire, Curaçao and in Utrecht; the Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences Antwerp.

Project Duration: September 2023- September 2024

Citizenship in a digitalizing world: Exploring the connection between citizenship and digital literacy in educational research and practice by David van Alten and Saro Lozano Parra

Project outline:

Digital literacy and citizenship are both urgent, yet separate topics of debate in public policy about education. Because the learning objectives are formulated within their respective learning areas, it appears that a much-needed societal perspective on what it means to live together and be part of a digitalizing world is somewhat lacking. Our goal is to connect both fields by enabling exchange of expertise between scientists, schools, and societal partners in practice. In doing so, our aim is to strengthen teachers in their work to develop students’ essential life skills, enabling them to become active and critical citizens in an increasingly digitalizing world.

Research question: How can the integration of digital literacy and citizenship education in secondary schools strengthen teachers to develop students’ life skills of becoming active and critical digital citizens, and what strategies can facilitate the practical implementation of this integration?

Names of applicants and faculties: dr. David van Alten (Social and Behavioural Sciences) and dr. Saro Lozano Parra (Humanities)

Names of societal partners: More information will follow soon

Project duration: 1 year (start January 2024)

Strengthening Adolescents’ Reading Experience of YAL by Ewout van der Knaap and Cathelein Aaftink

Project outline:

Despite the ongoing decline in long-form (book) reading in the Netherlands, sales of Young Adult Literature (YAL) are on the rise, especially of novels written in English. This exploratory project investigates, firstly, the ways in which Dutch adolescents’ engagement with English YAL correlates with their emerging sense of meaning in life. Secondly, it maps the role that YAL written in German currently plays in secondary education. Thirdly, we will develop a community engaged learning-project in collaboration with the Literatuurmuseum. Ultimately, this project aims to contribute to strengthening adolescents’ engagement with (young adult) literature. 

Names of applicants and faculties: prof. dr. Ewout van der Knaap & dr. Cathelein Aaftink, Faculty of Humanities 

Name of societal partners: Schools, Literatuurmuseum 

Project duration: February – June 2024