Centre for Applied Research in Education
Promising School Careers in a Diverse City
The focus of this research group is on issues determining the success or failure of study careers in higher professional education. This professorship is led by professor Louise Elffers.
The Promising School Careers in a Diverse City research group studies the course of school careers before and during higher professional education among students from a range of educational (senior secondary vocational education, senior general secondary education, pre-university education) and personal backgrounds (e.g. differences in cultural background and education level of parents).
This research group identifies the opportunities and obstacles encountered by these different groups of students, investigating which form of education and supervision enables them to develop themselves during higher professional education. In doing so, the research aims to help safeguard the quality and accessibility of higher professional education. By paying attention to the opportunities for students who moved on to higher professional education from vocational education and first-generation students (whose parents did not undertake higher education studies), the emphasis is on safeguarding the emancipatory function of higher professional education.
The core question is always how to offer a realistic chance of success to students who have the ambition and potential to obtain a higher professional education degree certificate, by optimising educational design at the macro-level (the design of our education system), the meso-level (the school organisation) as well as the micro-level (the primary teaching process).
The research group team includes four researchers: Louise Elffers (professor), Mieke van Diepen, Daphne Wiersema, Lieve de Coninck, Jasmijn Vosbergen en Izaak Dekker
If you have any questions about the professorship or an individual project, please send an email to lectoraatKS@hva.nl and we will put you in touch with the researcher(s) in question.