Study programme

Within the Youth Policy, Education and Prevention (YEP) track, you will complete an internship and focus your research on contemporary social issues in the area of childrearing and being raised within the current policy context in the Netherlands. The new Youth Law, the Suitable Education Law, and the recent transition of youth policy to the municipalities play an important role here. You will follow seminars specific to your track in which you read and discuss about the relevant literature for this track.

In addition to the evaluation of policy, you will also focus on developing, implementing, and evaluating (preventative) programmes. Internship institutions include knowledge centres such as:
 

• the Netherlands Youth Institute, the national institute on Youth Policy;
• the Trimbos Institute, a knowledge centre focussed on prevention of alcohol and drugs use for young people;
• the Alexander foundation; a non-profit Dutch research and advice bureau on youth participation;
• the Verwey-Jonker Institute, a knowledge centre focussed on issues as poverty, diversity, participation, sexual and domestic violence, sports, security, employment and income and care;
• local governments such as municipalities or the Ministry of Welfare, Public Health and Sport (VWS);
• the policy department of a Municipal Health Service (GGD) or a large youth care institution.

By attending the YEP masterclasses, doing a YEP specific practical you will get to know professionals who work in this field, you will learn to critically analyse relevant YEP practical issues by applying scientific knowledge and you will learn to contribute to potential solutions.

Within this track, your internship and thesis will be focused on the pedagogical aspects of international humanitarian cooperation. This includes international aid that is geared towards improving the living conditions, care, and educational environment of children. You will follow seminars specific to your track in which you read and discuss about the relevant literature for this track.

You will complete an internship and thesis study in an international cooperation organisation. This is usually abroad, but occasionally also in the Netherlands. To this end, we work with various partners including UNICEF, ministries of education and youth policies abroad, Save the Children, Oxfam Novib, the Liliane Foundation and Edukans (in Dutch).

The masterclasses and doing a PID specific practical will help familiarise you with this field and teach you to critically analyse how scientific knowledge in the discipline of Pedagogy can contribute to solving problems in situations marked by underdevelopment.

The EFIS track is a collaboration between the Youth Education and Society programme, the Graduate School of Teaching, and Educational Sciences.

It will prepare you to design inclusive pedagogical interventions, curricula, didactics, collaborative learning models, relational/teaching models and education policies that are needed to address increasingly diverse schools and classrooms as related to the (diverse) communities and settings they are situated in.

It provides you with conceptual-analytical as well as practical skills to deal with multicultural schools and classrooms as part of multi-cultural neighbourhoods and societies.

The track pays attention to the analysis of diversity and divergence/polarisation, inequality, and social justice at a variety of levels: from the micro-educational processes in classrooms to issues of multiculturalism, the politics of diversity in democratic societies and the role of education therein, including:
 

• learning interactions
• classroom dynamics
• teacher-student relationships
• school management
• family-school relationships
• education and social policy.

Analytical tools and hands on methodologies are offered to deal with and overcome polarisation and segregation that is related to different backgrounds, identities and competing claims to truth. You will follow seminars specific to your track in which you read and discuss about the relevant literature for this track. The masterclasses and doing a EFIS specific practical will help familiarise you with this field.

You will do your internship and thesis in an organisation that addresses these issues such as research programs, policy organisations, educational support, and expertise centres. You will be challenged in this track to work directly with practitioners in the educational field and co-design new interventions and methodologies, as well as design new policies.