The doctoral research will be carried out within the research unit Education, Culture and Society (ECS) at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and the Architecture and Design Sint-Lucas unit. ECS conducts research on the meaning and role of educational practices in relation to social and cultural developments. Research at ECS brings together a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches to study these practices, with continuous attention to the public dimensions of education. The Architecture and Design (A&O) unit conducts research on the meaning, imagination, and design of the built environment. Design is central both as a research practice and as a way of investigating spatial, material, social, and cultural issues. ECS and A&O aim to embed their research activities at both the international and local levels. This research project is situated within a unique collaboration between these two research units. The SchoolStudies initiative is also part of this collaboration (see the link on the ECS website).
Website unit
Project
How is a school made? Not only through policy, curricula, or professional development, but also through the concrete ways in which time, space, materials, rhythms, rules, gestures, language, care, and attention are organized. Schools consist of arrangements: classrooms, playgrounds, corridors, seating plans, daily schedules, rituals, agreements, materials, and pedagogical choices that together make a particular way of living and learning possible. This doctoral project (within the framework of a C2 research proposal) starts from the question of how such school arrangements take shape today, how they are pedagogically considered, and how they can be reimagined in light of contemporary challenges such as digitalization, diversity, sustainability, care, authority, and changing forms of living together. The project invites doctoral candidates to engage with this research question from a pedagogical, architectural, and design-oriented perspective. From a pedagogical perspective, the focus is on how schools articulate their pedagogical way of life: what conceptions of freedom, equality, education, attention, protection, community, or openness are embedded in their everyday practices? The school is not approached merely as a functional learning environment, but as a distinctive public and pedagogical form in which young people can encounter time, the world, and themselves. From the perspective of architecture and design, the question is how spatial, material, and design practices actively participate in the making of school. Design is understood here as an exploratory practice: a way of making possible futures imaginable.
The research is situated at the intersection of the Education, Culture and Society (ECS) research unit and the Architecture and Design (A&O) research unit. This collaboration makes it possible to study schools not only as pedagogical institutions, nor merely as built environments, but as living constellations in which pedagogical, spatial, and material dimensions continuously interact. Three interconnected research strands structure the project: 1. Atlas of School Arrangement: This strand maps concrete school practices and makes visible how different schools shape their pedagogical lives spatially, materially, temporally, and organizationally. 2. Grammar of School Arrangements: This strand develops a language for articulating the underlying pedagogical considerations, tensions, and assumptions without reducing them to a single model or norm. 3. School Design Studio: This strand investigates how schools, together with researchers and designers, can study, reconsider, and potentially redesign their own arrangements.
The project seeks researchers who are willing to venture into the unknown—not to produce quick solutions for schools, but to learn, together with schools, to look more slowly, precisely, and attentively at what makes a school a school today.
Candidates are challenged to connect empirical, conceptual, and design-oriented research, thereby contributing to a pedagogical and architectural reconsideration of the school as a public form of living together, learning, and educational formation.
Profile
During your four-year appointment, you will:
- Conduct research leading to the award of a doctoral degree, combining theoretical work with empirical research/fieldwork.
- Actively participate in the project team and in the activities of the involved research units.
- Publish articles in scientific journals.
- Contribute through your research to the societal impact goals pursued within the project (namely the development of an atlas, a grammar, and a design studio).
- Participate actively in national and international conferences and assist in organizing local study days, seminars, and conferences.
- Provide teaching assistance (approximately 10% of your time) in courses within Educational Sciences, Educational Studies, the Faculty of Architecture, or the Educational Master's programme (depending on your background).
Requirements:
- You hold a Master's degree in Educational Sciences, Educational Studies, Pedagogy, or a related discipline such as Architecture and Design Sciences, Social Sciences, Anthropology, Philosophy, or Arts and Humanities, in case you have demonstrable expertise in education acquired within or outside your degree programme.
- Students who will graduate in September 2026 (after the application deadline) may also apply, provided they can demonstrate a strong likelihood of successful completion.
- You are willing to be part of an interdisciplinary research team.
- You can work independently, show initiative, and are prepared to collaborate.
- You are willing to take steps into the unknown yourself and bring this open, investigating attitude to the collaborative work with participating schools and other stakeholders.
- A good command of Dutch is essential, as well as a good command of at least English.
Offer
- A full-time doctoral scholarship position (100%) for an initial period of one year. Following a positive evaluation, the appointment will be extended by three additional years (total duration: four years).
- Supervision by two experienced supervisors and membership in a dynamic research team.
- Preferred starting date: October 2026.
- Opportunities to participate in national and international conferences and present your own research.
- Information on salary and benefits: https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/werken-bij-kuleuven/werken-bij-kuleuven
Interested?
For more information please contact Prof. Maarten Simons, mail: [email protected] or Prof. Robin Schaeverbeke, mail: [email protected].
Interviews will take place in Leuven on Thursday, 10 September 2026. As part of the selection procedure, a written test will also be held in Leuven on Monday, 7 September 2026, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon.
A few days after the application deadline, candidates selected for the written test and interview will be contacted by email. The email will also include further information about the test.
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