Aiming for equality of educational opportunities

Inequality of opportunities in education is a 'wicked problem': despite the efforts of a large number of diverse actors and considerable financial investment, it remains challenging to develop an effective approach. Wicked problems require collaboration among stakeholders in the form of collective action networks. This project examines how various educational actors are currently working on equality of opportunities in education. Additionally, it examines whether a serious policy game can contribute to the creation of collective action networks aimed at achieving equality of opportunities in education.

In the first part of the project, it is investigated how educational actors—parents, teachers, school leaders, school boards, and policymakers—relate to the problem of inequality of opportunities in education. We examine how each actor group perceives the problem (vision), the extent to which they feel responsible for the problem (ownership), and the extent to which they feel they can successfully take their perceived responsibility (agency).

The second part of the project is a design study. A serious policy game is designed to assist education actors in establishing collective action networks focused on addressing inequality of opportunities in education at the municipal level. This game is played and evaluated in two mid-sized cities in the Netherlands. The serious policy game will be made available to all municipalities in the Netherlands at the end of the project.