Inequality of opportunity in education is a ‘wicked problem’: despite the investment of a great deal of money and effort in recent years, it has proven difficult to reduce educational inequalities. Individual stakeholders do not always feel the responsibility, ownership and/or agency to deal with the issue. Tackling it requires collective effort that, occasionally, might conflict with individual interests. As such, educational inequality of opportunity can be viewed as a collective action problem.

The objective of this project is to map out the possibilities that different stakeholder groups (such as teachers, parents and local administrators) see for themselves in realizing equality of opportunity, as well as the obstacles they face, that are limiting their individual and collective efforts. Moreover, we will test whether participation in a collective action network, using a policy game, contributes to the individual and collective agency of different actors.

This project received funding from NRO (Netherlands Initiative for Education Research)

prof. dr. E.J.P.G. (Eddie) Denessen  | Promotor