Seminar: Onderwijs co-productie & citizenship

The main task of education is to ensure that children, on the basis of knowledge and traditions, can participate freely, equally, and in solidarity in communities, thus continuously shaping and reshaping democratic society. One form that makes this possible, and for which there is more room these days, is inviting pupils to co-produce their schools’ organisation. This can be understood as a form of pupil participation, giving pupils a more active role and allowing them to participate in the preparation, design, and implementation of education and school policy. The expectation in policy theory concerning co-production is that inviting users to decide on the rules and on how exactly a service is implemented (per actor), as well as facilitating the service users in this process, leads to users feeling more empowered. Whether this is actually the case is as yet unclear, as far as the literature is concerned. Based on a systematic literature review, we will answer the following questions: “In what ways do schools shape co-production processes between pupils and school staff (manifestations)?”, and “To what extent do these manifestations of co-production lead to empowerment?”