Professor Eddie Denessen

Wednesday 26 February | J1 Lecture Theatre |5.00 – 6.00pm

In a context of increasing gaps between social groups in Europe, inequalities of educational opportunities are gaining attention from education policy. Figures show that not only in the society at large, but also in schools, gaps between social groups are widening. In the Netherlands, for example, an increase in the connection between students’ background and their academic performance has been observed by the Dutch Inspectorate of Education. The national government calls for measures to counter the growing levels of unequal educational opportunities.

To combat educational inequalities, current policies are framed within contexts of differentiated, personalised and adaptive teaching. Education that takes differences between students into account is suggested to be more fitting with the educational needs of students and is assumed to increase the educational opportunities of pupils from lower socio-economic and minority ethnic backgrounds. With differentiated and adaptive teaching, teachers can indeed help to optimise students’ learning. However, education research points to some risks of differentiation for equality of educational opportunities, because differentiation may exacerbate inequalities rather than reducing them. It is a challenge for school leaders and teachers to implement differentiation to promote equal opportunities in their schools.

In this contribution, I will address primary and secondary school teachers’ perspectives on differentiation in the context of educational opportunities. I will present findings from Dutch research to illustrate how teachers struggle with differentiation in their schools and classrooms. I will also propose some directions for education policy and practice.

Bio

Eddie Denessen is Professor of Socio-cultural Diversity and Differentiation in Education at Leiden University and Associate Professor of Educational Sciences at the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

His expertise lies in various related domains regarding sociocultural contexts of education, such as educational inequalities, teacher expectations, differentiation in schools and classrooms, school choice, cultural-ethnic segregation, and parental involvement in education. He has published many empirical research papers, book chapters, and conference papers.

In his research, he applies multidisciplinary analyses of education, with a focus on the societal effects of day-to-day education practices. His work is rooted in theories on educational inequalities, scientific pragmatism and sociocultural and critical theory. In his empirical work he employs quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Since 2018, he is chair of the Education & Society division of the Dutch Education Research Association.