Katrien Van Poeck

Katrien Van Poeck is affiliated to Uppsala University as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow. She conducts research on environmental and sustainability education, in particular on experiential learning in the context of urban sustainability transitions, on open schooling in relation to sustainability challenges and on sustainability in higher education. Her Marie Skłodowska-Curie project focuses on ‘University education as a driver for sustainability transitions’.

Katrien Van Poeck has a PhD in educational sciences (2013, University of Leuven) and a Master in social work (2006, Ghent University). During her Master studies that she did after having worked for some years as an educator and as a policy advisor for the government of Flanders (Belgium), she developed a strong interest in research on environmental and sustainability education (ESE). When returning to her job at the Flemish government, she combined her function there with doctoral studies at the University of Leuven (2009-2013). Since then, her research has focused on the role of education in relation to building a more sustainable world.

Since 2016, Katrien coordinates the Centre for Sustainable Development’s research line on sustainability education at Ghent University. There, she conducts and supervises several ESE research projects and she is the coordinator of the International Thematic Network SEDwise (‘Sustainability Education – Teaching and learning in the face of wicked socio-ecological problems’) and the scientific research network ‘Public pedagogy and sustainability challenges’.

From 2020-2024 she is half-time affiliated to Uppsala University as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow where she conducts research on how university education can fruitfully contribute to sustainability transitions. She is a member of the research group SMED – Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourses.

Katrien Van Poeck conducts and supervises research on environmental and sustainability education. Theoretically, her work has been inspired by authors in the fields of educational theory, political theory, sustainability transition studies and science and technology studies. Methodologically and empirically, pragmatist analytical methods largely inspire her recent work. Katrien has a special interest in the relation between ESE research and practice and aims to foster the co-creation of better ESE in collaborative settings with researchers and practitioners.

Her ongoing and previous research projects focus on experiential learning in the context of urban sustainability transitions, on open schooling in relation to sustainability challenges and on sustainability in higher education:

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project ‘University education as a driver for sustainability transitions – UNI4ST’ (2020-2024)
• Work package leader and local network leader in the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project ‘Science education for action and engagement towards sustainability – SEAS’ (2019-2022)
• Principal investigator of several work packages in the FORMAS-funded research and development project: ‘Open schooling for sustainable cities and communities’ (2019-2021)
• Coordinator of the research and development project funded by the Flemish government: ‘Climate change in higher education’ (2019-2021)
• Expert in the project coordinated by the Universidad Nacional de Educación (UNAE) ‘Education for sustainable development: pilot experiments with locally relevant teaching (LORET-methodology) in Ecuador’ (2018-2019)
• Researcher (2018-2019) in the project funded by the Swedish Research Council ‘Manners of teaching about controversial sustainability issues and students learning’ (2018-2021)
• Coordinator of the International Thematic Network ‘SEDwise: Sustainability education – Teaching and learning in the face of wicked socio-ecological problems’ funded by Ghent University (2016-2020)
• Principal investigator of the research project ‘Urban sustainability transitions as spaces for experiential learning’ funded by Ghent University (2016-2019)
• Principal investigator of several work packages in the FORMAS-funded research and development project ‘Wicked problems and educative spaces for urban sustainability transition’ (2017-2019)
• Coordinator of the scientific research network ‘Public pedagogy and sustainability challenges’ funded by Research Foundation Flanders (2017-2021)
• Promoter of the research and innovation project ‘Sustainability in education at Ghent University: Up-scaling pilot experiments’ funded by Ghent University (2017-2019)
• Promoter of the research and innovation project ‘Sustainable engineering practice. Re-desiging a project-based course and integrating sustainability in the curriculum of electro-mechanical engineering programme’ funded by Ghent University (2017-2018)
• Expert in the project ‘Upscaling short food supply chains’ funded by the municipality of Ghent (2017-2018)
• Promoter of the research project ‘System analysis of sustainability in higher education in Flanders (Belgium)’ funded by the Flemish government (2017-2018)
• Principal investigator of the research and innovation project ‘Sustainability in education at Ghent University’ funded by Ghent University (2015-2016)
• Doctoral research project ‘Practices of environmental education in the context of the United Nations Decade of education for sustainable development.’ (2009-2013)

Publications: https://biblio.ugent.be/person/001998783414

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4244-5596

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.be/citations?user=9KbQRgwAAAAJ&hl=nl