In the historiography about education for Indonesian children in the Netherlands Indies, a legislative approach predominates. This causes a disregard for non-governmental educational initiatives,...Show moreIn the historiography about education for Indonesian children in the Netherlands Indies, a legislative approach predominates. This causes a disregard for non-governmental educational initiatives, and for those that that occurred outside Java. In this thesis, through in-dept analysis of schools in Java, the Minahasa and South New Guinea, educational ideologies and practices are researched while focusing on the question of how, and why, native childhoods were constructed in these contexts. 'Age' is a leading category of analysis here. This thesis shows that educational projects were not about 'uplifiting' children in the sense of social mobility. On the contrary, educators aimed at maintaining social hierarchies. This conclusion opens up space for a revision of the meaning of the Dutch 'civilizing mission' in the Netherlands Indies.Show less
Most high schools provide a diverse range of internationally oriented activities in which students are able to participate. These activities give students the opportunity to get to know other...Show moreMost high schools provide a diverse range of internationally oriented activities in which students are able to participate. These activities give students the opportunity to get to know other countries and develop their international interest. Hofstad Lyceum is a school that provides more than 20 internationally oriented activities to their students. The influence of these activities on the attitude towards globalization has been remained rather unclear. Using both a questionnaire and more various qualitative analyses of the activities the influence of these activities on the attitude towards globalization has been researched. The activities of Hofstad Lyceum can be put into three categories. International exchanges have more influence on the attitude towards globalization than international projects and international trips. The results of the questionnaire suggest that these activities have both positive and negative influence on the attitude towards globalization. It shows that internationally oriented activities do not or only marginally increase the political knowledge. On the other hand students seem to have more social willingness to experience the world. All in all, internationally oriented activities have to be seen as an incentive ‘to stimulate students’ interest in international affairs.Show less
An educational system is very complex and dynamic, that is why there are many differences in systems between countries, but it can also differ from school to school. Nevertheless, what most...Show moreAn educational system is very complex and dynamic, that is why there are many differences in systems between countries, but it can also differ from school to school. Nevertheless, what most countries have in common when it comes to education is that they are aiming for educational equality. They want for everyone to have equal educational opportunities and to be able to make the best out of their education. Japan is no exception and has educational equality as a goal. Japan’s educational system in the period before World War II was different from the current one. School was used to create and strengthen a sense of nationalism and to produce the kind of people to develop Japan as a nation state (Okano & Tsuchiya 1999, Rohlen 1983). After World War II the Allied occupation of Japan changed this. The Allied Forces wanted the nationalistic society replaced by a democratic one and saw education as one of the best way to do so. Japan’s educational system had seen many changes and improvements towards educational equality ever since (Okano & Tsuchiya 1999). Education of the individual became important and compulsory years of schooling were increased to nine years to give more people a chance at a better education. Japan also improved the educational equality by making it a law that everybody should get equal educational opportunities, creating a national curriculum for public as well as private schools and making education accessible for everyone, regardless of one’s sex or ethnicity. However, even with such improvements, the goal of educational equality is still yet to be reached. Educational equality proofs to be difficult to acquire as inequality exists in many different forms, even some which are yet to be fully recognized and maybe some that have not even been recognized at all. In this thesis the focus will be on the inequality in educational opportunity as well as in educational attainment and outcome, that ethnic minority groups in Japan face because of their ethnic identity. Even though minority groups are technically able to have the same education, a significant difference in educational attainment and outcome exists between minority groups and majority Japanese (Okano 2011, Boocock 2011, Okano & Tsuneyoshi 2011). In this thesis I look more into this and answer why, despite the fact that Japanese education has become more accessible for everyone, a lower educational attainment and outcome exists among minority groups in Japan. To answer this question I will start in the first chapter with examining what the general existing explanations are for these educational inequalities that ethnic minority groups experience when it comes to attainment and performance. In the second chapter I will discuss the general situation of minority groups in the Japanese education and the educational equality they might be facing. Thereafter, in the third chapter I will try to look at it from the perspective of students themselves to identify factors related to their ethnicity that may have an impact on their education. I will use case studies from Yasunori Fukuoka’s research (2000), on young ethnic Korean people in Japan and their ethnic identity, and look at their school experience. I chose for this ethnic minority group because it is an invisible minority group as they physically do not differ from the majority Japanese and thus blend in well. Another reason for this group is, the fact that it is one of the largest minority groups in Japan and for a long time had been the largest group, and also because there are Korean schools in Japan. This can be used to compare the school experience at a Korean and a Japanese school and to get a better picture. Lastly, with the outcome of the previous chapters, I will come to a conclusion to answer the research question of this thesis.Show less
Non-material factors, such as a person’s ideas and values concerning Europe, are very influential with respect to the way persons perceive Europe (Vollaard, n.d., p. 2). These associations with...Show moreNon-material factors, such as a person’s ideas and values concerning Europe, are very influential with respect to the way persons perceive Europe (Vollaard, n.d., p. 2). These associations with Europe are formed by a person’s upbringing, but also through education. Several studies have researched the relationship between a person’s level of education and his or her support for Europe. These researchers show that generally the higher educated Dutch people are the more positive they are about Europe (Dekker et al., 2007, p. 19; Dekker and Ridder, 2012, p. 56; Hakhverdian et al., 2013, p. 531; Op de Woerd, 2014, section para. 13, own translation; Dekker and Den Ridder, 2014, p. 25)? Could the reason for this be that the way Europe is represented at lower education levels is different from the representation of Europe at higher education levels? The main research aim of this thesis is to find out if lower educated obtain different information than higher education concerning Europe in social studies’ textbooks used at VMBO-bk, VMBO-kgt, HAVO and VWO in Dutch secondary education. It is also possible that the amount of information students receive about Europe differs from one education level to the next. As such, a possible explanation of the relationship between a person’s level of education and his or her support for Europe may be the way Europe is framed in different social studies textbooks. This thesis uses content analysis to explore and describe how Europe is represented in social studies textbooks in the Netherlands. Firstly, this work analyses how much information about Europe can be found in Dutch social studies textbooks by counting the number of pages. The results show that the lowest amount of information about Europe is found at VMBO-bk where, on average, 9.33 pages per book refer to Europe. The highest amount is found in VWO social studies text books with an average of 56.76 pages per book referring to Europe. Secondly, this thesis examines the positive and negative associations with Europe occurring in these textbooks. The outcomes are that at VMBO-bk and VMBO-kgt no specific positive associations prevails, whereas at HAVO and VWO, the focus lies on European economic and trade benefits. At VMBO-bk and VMBO-kgt no negative notion prevails, whereas at HAVO and VWO, the negative association ‘loss of sovereignty’ took prevalence over the other negative associations. Thirdly, the thesis analyses how the Netherlands is portrayed in the 12 textbooks, because the views of the nation itself and its relation to Europe also influences the way Europe is perceived (Harmsen, 2008, p. 318). The research finds that many different associations with the Netherlands exist in these books: from an international trade perspective, to a heaven for freedom, to a welfare state. Moreover, the fit between the associations with Europe and with the Netherlands have been explored. It was discovered that at both education levels a clear fit could not be found.Show less
Education is becoming increasingly digital. However, the scientific foundation for this trend does not seem to be very strong. It is in no way certain that digital materials enhance learning...Show moreEducation is becoming increasingly digital. However, the scientific foundation for this trend does not seem to be very strong. It is in no way certain that digital materials enhance learning outcomes. This thesis researches ways of representing knowledge through digital text, with a specific focus on education. When digitising a text, different elements of that text might change, like the structure and its navigational options. This thesis examines those elements with the help of literature research and practical examples of digitised text. Theories of reading are discussed, and the relationship between medium and message is seen to be central. Case studies exemplify different possible elements of digital text. Next, educational theory related to digital text is discussed to assess the potential of those elements in digital educational material. A conclusion is that developers should be careful adopting digital material without proper research into the consequences. Multimedia material seems the most promising of the options discussed. Learning to read long-form text seems to remain crucial, even though shorter texts are the trend. Deep, sustained and active reading is required for a good learning experience. When developing new learning materials, the quality of that material should come first, before the choice of the medium. This evaluation should be made carefully, and right now paper seems to offer better educational potential.Show less
Educating visitors and sharing knowledge are some of the major goals of museums and leading factors in the decisions that museums make regarding their policies. Communicating with visitors and...Show moreEducating visitors and sharing knowledge are some of the major goals of museums and leading factors in the decisions that museums make regarding their policies. Communicating with visitors and making sure that multiple audiences are successfully reached asks for a careful approach that requires a museum to understand their visitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen educational methods and presentation. The field of visitor studies offers the tools museums need to assess their educational efforts and exhibition not only in regards to overall visitor experience but also in their perceived educational value. This research deals with the question how visitor studies play a role in the evaluation of museum education, and through interviews, survey research and questionnaires attempts to show how visitor surveys are used by museums to study educational programs and methods, which alternatives there are, and advocates a more intensive and detailed approach that could lead to both a better understanding of a museum visitor’s educational needs as well as the strengths and weaknesses of a museum’s educational approach.Show less
Recent studies in political demography have concluded that young adults, when overrepresented in a country's population, form an obstacle to democracy. After performing linear regressions on a new...Show moreRecent studies in political demography have concluded that young adults, when overrepresented in a country's population, form an obstacle to democracy. After performing linear regressions on a new global database using data from Polity IV, UNPD, and IIASA/VID, it is demonstrated that the role of young adults cannot unanimously be dismissed as obstructive in the democratization process. Instead, a new variable indicating the percentage of a country’s population that is both young and highly educated is introduced. This variable is proved to offer stable predictions on that country's level of democracy across time and space.Show less
Research master thesis | History: Societies and Institutions (research) (MA)
open access
German migrants have a reputation of creating a blooming associational life in their places of settlement. Therefore, a better understanding of German migrant life might be acquired if we better...Show moreGerman migrants have a reputation of creating a blooming associational life in their places of settlement. Therefore, a better understanding of German migrant life might be acquired if we better understand the associational life of these migrants. This thesis tries to provide a functionalist account of German associational life abroad based on case studies of the sailors homes and German schools in the German colonies of Antwerp and Rotterdam in the early twentieth century. Though it is often assumed that nationalist considerations and pressures from sending states are decisive in shaping the functionality of migrant organizations, I argue that the economic, moral and class related interests of the local environment provide a more elucidating picture of the functioning of the researched migrant organizations.Show less
