Project

Towards life affirming Higher Education in urgent times

A starting point in this PhD project is that any type of innovation of Higher Education (HE) that is proposed in response to urgent environmental, social and economic challenges tends to reflect the educational perspectives and paradigms of those calling for the innovation (O’Brien et al., 2013; Weijzen et al., 2022).

From this starting point, educational innovation with a responsible orientation on sustainability will require more than adjustments in current educational systems and interdisciplinary education. It calls for a deeper questioning of both the assumptions and beliefs that frame both problems and solutions, alongside a reorientation of HE on ‘life’ beyond production, following the world of work.

This research addresses how to encourage the deeper, critical processes of inquiry as HE innovation. With a focus on Higher Professional Education (HPE) in the Netherlands. Building on concepts like whole school approach and transformative learning, the research will work towards a deep understanding why supporting critical inquiry as HPE innovation is an issue and what keeps it from changing. Alongside understanding of the barriers, the research will work towards leverage points for transcending paradigms in HPE.

As the research wants go beneath the surface of knowledge, methods or conditions facilitating paradigm level learning in HPE, the research approach is a critical approach of participatory action research using the arts, nature and spirituality as data.


About Saskia Weijzen
Saskia Weijzen is a pedagogical and educational scientist. She is head lecturer and researcher at the HAN University of Applied Sciences, and external PhD-candidate at the Chair group Education & Learning Sciences. She lectures in courses related to change management, critical thinking, design thinking, systems thinking and social learning. With her PhD research she aims to support HPE institutes in the Netherlands and education in general to enact their/our responsibility for a better society in a light and lively, but profound and radical way.

Project team

  • Saskia Weijzen, PhD candidate
  • Prof. Dr. Ir. Arjen Wals – Wageningen University, Chair group Education and Learning Sciences
  • Dr. Valentina Tassone - Wageningen University, Chair group Education and Learning
  • Dr. Wietske Kuijer-Siebelink – HAN University of Applied Science, lector Responsive Professional and Vocational Education