PhD Defence Esther Margaretha Antonia Geurts

Keywords: Student participation, vocational education and training, citizenship, decision-making 
 

"Have a little faith: Validating student voices in vocational education"
 

Involving students in shaping their own education allows for more suitable education, more engagement and motivation, and increased relevance and quality of education. However, student perspectives have been marginalised in teaching and learning.  

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better, healthier and more promising position for vocational education students by promoting student voice activities, in particular by involving students in organising, designing and delivering citizenship education classes for their peers. 

This thesis is centred around three research questions:  

1) Who are these VET students and what makes them tick? 
2) What kind of beliefs and expectations do these students have about themselves and how are they perceived by those around them? 
3) How do these beliefs and expectations influence their participation in citizenship education development? 

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