How are they doing, our YELS funded projects? 

June 2024 

YELS has funded several interdisciplinary research projects since June 2023 (you can read more about them here and here). These projects are progressing nicely. Below you find a short update of some of them, as a sneak peak for more elaborate updates that will follow in the upcoming months as the projects progress.  

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 (starting date: September 2023)

by Hanneke Tuithof

Hanneke’s team was expanded by the addition of Joram Appel. He is a history teacher in secondary education and is fulfilling the role of research assistant. Hanneke visited Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in February 2024. She spoke with and observed teachers that are creating a meaningful history curriculum that allows students to feel more at home and better represented. Joram and Hanneke wrote several articles about this for teachers (Kleio, Dimensies). They will further explore what (history) teachers need to create a meaningful curriculum.

Citizenship in a digitalizing world: Exploring the connection between citizenship and digital literacy in educational research and practice (starting date: January 2024) 

by David van Alten and Saro Lozano Parra 

David and Saro’s team was expanded by the addition of Anouk Richters. She is a teacher in Digital Literacy in secondary education and will be fulfilling the role of research assistant. She has started coding and analysing the share of citizenship learning objectives in current digital literacy methods, to investigate to what extent these two themes are already offered integrated by these methods. 

Empowering Students’ Life Skills and Financial Education through Curriculum Renewal and Pedagogical Training – Evidence from The Gambia (starting date: September 2023) 

by Joost de Laat and Paul Schöpfer 

The team has designed three surveys aimed at collecting endline data from students, teachers, and school leaders as part of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Additionally, they plan to use a classroom observation tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The primary objective is to examine how changes in teaching methods, brought about by teacher training and curriculum changes, affect students’ life skills and financial literacy. The surveys, backed by the local research and implementation partners—The University of The Gambia (UTG) and ChildFund The Gambia—are set to begin at the end of June. 

Enhancing UU Students’ media literacy to evaluate the reliability of digital information (starting date: January 2024) 

by Eugène Loos, Marcel Boumans, Maryse Chappin, Bruce Mutsvairo, Rianne van Lambalgen and Marie-Louise Goudeau 

The project “Enhancing UU students’ media literacy to evaluate the reliability of digital information” is in full swing .  Their data collection is running at high speed. 

You can read more about their project on Eugene’s LinkedIn!

Equality of opportunity in the Dutch educational system: A research-policy network meeting (starting date: Jauary 2024) 

by Pomme van de Weerd and Lotte Henrichs 

Pomme and Lotte are organising an event on equal opportunities in Dutch education. The date for this interesting event, will be announced in due time. They are in contact with potential speakers and are working on the event’s program.  

Exchanging Ideas – A Collaboration on online and offline exchange interventions to reduce polarization among youth (starting date: February 2024) 

By Tjitske de Groot and Semiha Bekir 

Semiha and Tjiske are currently in the middle of a literature review in which they focus on exchange interventions and the different outcomes for people with a minority and majority background. This literature review is providing some interesting insights. 

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As these projects are nearing their completion, you will be updated about their findings and insights. Hopefully you get inspired to also jointly travel new interdisciplinary research roads related to Youth Education and Life skills when you hear the stories of the researchers involved!