Sanne Akkerman works as a Professor of Education and Learning Sciences in the Department of Education at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视. Her research focuses on how education and scientific practices can relate to an ever-changing society, including at the individual level of the diverse learning, working, and living environments in which students and professionals find themselves. The challenge that many practices and people face is often described internationally by the term "boundary crossing." She wrote a dissertation on this topic (2006, cum laude) and two literature reviews (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011; Bronkhorst & Akkerman, 2016), in which she mapped out the nature of the challenge, effective strategies, and learning outcomes of boundary crossing in education, science, and work. Her empirical research often focuses on students and professionals who are particularly confronted with multiple perspectives and forms of participation, such as in dual or multidisciplinary programs, academic roles, regional or international projects, and partnerships.
Akkerman is currently theorizing results of an ERC project (2016) titled "Lost in Transition? Multiple Interests in Contexts of Education, Leisure and Work." In this study, she and her team examined the challenges adolescents face in:
pursuing their often multiple and diverging interests,
the potentially conflicting social support they receive from school, peers, and home environments, and
the school, study, and career choices they must make.
(See an interview about the grant here: /organisatie/faculteit-sociale-wetenschappen/interview-sanne-akkerman-erc-laureaat).
A central tool in this research is a smartphone app called inTin, which uses the Experience Sampling Method to capture daily experiences of interest.
As a follow up of her ERC project, she leads an NRO-funded project titled "Interest in Diversity," in collaboration with the 木瓜福利影视 of Amsterdam (UvA). This project includes two PhD trajectories focused on the relationship between interests and engagement both inside and outside of school.
In 2021, she started a Comenius Leadership Project titled "UniCity." In this initiative, she works with a team of staff members and students on a UU wide master program with a new form of education and research embedded in urban life. The project aims to develop a model for community and public engagement at the intersection of education, science, and society. A key principle of this program is the continuous reflection on what is happening and what matters in an ever-changing world. She and her colleagues have referred to this principle as "ontological synchronization" ().
Links
For an overview of publications see publication page or:
Chair
Educational Sciences