Our Research Consortium
Who are we?
The consortium is made up of a multidisciplinary group of research teams made up of linguists, teacher trainers and political scientists. The members of the consortium are based in Belgium (VUB and KUL), The Netherlands (University of Amsterdam), Sweden (University of Gothenburg), Spain (University of Cordoba) and Aruba (University of Aruba) and have extensive and complementary research experience on language acquisition in different type of educational settings, technology in education and the impact these different settings and approaches have on the formation of (language) identities on both contextual, teacher and pupil level, using survey methodology, experiments, observations and interviews. This will ensure the achievement of the Pluridentities goals in due time and will guarantee standards of excellence. The structure of the project was designed in such a way that each member of the consortium can focus on his/her area of expertise, so as to achieve complementarity of disciplines, knowledge and methods across the entirety of the project.
The Team
Below you can find more information about our team
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Jill Surmont
Project leader
Jill Surmont works at the interdisciplinary institute of teacher education (MILO) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research is focussed on multilingualism in the classroom and how we can support teachers (and learners).
Esli Struys
Promotor
Esli Struys is a full professor of applied linguistics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His expertise lies in the study of multilingualism from cognitive and educational perspectives.
Dimokritos Kavadias
Promotor
Dimokritos Kavadias (°1969) is an Associate Professor at the Political Science Department of the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB). His research focuses on social integration and socialization. He worked on the influence of schools and teachers on the shaping of political attitudes and knowledge of adolescents. His main interest remains on the domain of the political effects of socialization and schooling.
Marrit van de Guchte
Promotor
Marrit van de Guchte is a teacher educator and researcher in modern foreign language education. She is the founder of the Amsterdam Lab for Language Education and Technology (ALLET) at the University of Amsterdam, where she collaborates with modern foreign language teachers and other researchers to conduct research on i.a. task-based language teaching and technology. Additionally, she is the host of the podcast for language teachers, 'Taal Gewoon Doen'.
Eric Mijts
Promotor
Dr. Eric Mijts studied Linguistics and Literature at the Universities of Antwerp and Ghent and is specialized in sociolinguistics. In 2000 he joined the University of Aruba where he works as coordinator of the UA-research center and as initiator of educational innovation and multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research programs such as the Sustainable Island Solutions through project. His research and publications focus on multilingualism, language policy and planning, education and research for sustainable development and inclusion/exclusion processes
Liss Kerstin Sylvén
Promotor
Liss Kerstin Sylvén is full professor of language education at the University of Gothenburg, Department of Education and Special Education. Her primary research interests involve learning English as a second language, particularly in connection with Content and Language Integrated Learning and extramural exposure to Lx English, with a specific focus on language learning motivation and individual differences among young learners.
Cristina A. Huertas Abril
Promotor
Dr Cristina A. Huertas-Abril belongs to the Department of English and German Philologies of the University of Córdoba (Spain), where she teaches at the Faculty of Education Sciences and Psychology. She is the Principal Investigator of the Research Group HUM-1122 Research in Languages, Technology and Education (RELATED). Her research mainly focuses on Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Bilingual Education and Teacher Training
Victoria Van Oss
Project coordinator/researcher
After having obtained a PhD in Linguistics on the multilingual policy dynamics of early childhood health care professionals in Belgium, Victoria Van Oss coordinated the interdisciplinary research project TACOS, a study into the effects of a blended professional development program on preschool teachers' language stimulating competences at Ghent University. Within the Pluridentities project, she is part of the team of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her Pluridentities-role is twofold: on the one hand, she is in charge of coordinating the project (under supervision of Jill Surmont) and on the other hand, she works as a researcher, investigating the role of educational policies in fostering multilingualism and minority language maintenance at the different levels of governance and the way they relate to each other.
Kris Van den Brande
Promotor
Kris Van den Branden is a Professor of Linguistics at the Faculty of Arts at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and the current Head of the Teacher Education Department of the Faculty of Arts at the same university. He teaches courses in language policy, language education and interaction in language acquisition at master’s level.
At the same university, he is the academic promoter of the Centre for Language and Education (which supports schools in Flanders with regard to the education of Dutch as a second language, including adult education). He is the supervisor of the international research project Certificate Dutch as a Foreign Language. He currently supervises several PhD dissertations on additional language acquisition and education. He is co-editor of the journal TASK and the editor of the webbased blog "duurzaam onderwijs"
Francisco Javier Palacios Hidalgo
Scientific collaborator
Dr Francisco Javier Palacios-Hidalgo belongs to the Department of English and German Philologies of the University of Córdoba (Spain), where he teaches at the Faculty of Education Sciences and Psychology. He is a member of the Research Group HUM-1122 Research in Languages, Technology and Education (RELATED). His research focuses on the teaching of English as a foreign language, language and bilingual education teacher training, educational technologies, teacher digital literacy and queer pedagogy
Margaux D'hulster
Researcher
Margaux D'Hulster is working on this project as a PhD student as part of the team from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She holds a Master’s degree in French-Spanish language and linguistics, as well as a Master's in Education, with research on the learning of French as a foreign language. Her research focuses on the impact of educational programmes such as CLIL on the identification of pupils.
Kaat Buelens
Researcher
Kaat Buelens holds a Master’s degree in Slavic and East European Studies, a Master’s degree in Interpreting and a Postgraduate degree in Conference Interpreting. She has several years of experience as a teacher of Dutch as a foreign language, both in academic and school contexts, for both children and adults. In the Pluridentities project, Kaat works as a doctoral researcher under the supervision of Prof. Van den Branden. Her research focuses on multilingual educational programs and their influence on language identity; identifying how teachers perceive and manage linguistic diversity in their classrooms, and how pupils perceive the impact of the school environment on their (language) identity. Together with the Pluridentities team, Kaat hopes to contribute to evidence-based recommendations for fostering multilingual education in Europe.
Rocío Luque González
Scientific collaborator
Rocío Luque-González is Assistant Professor at the Department of Education (Area of Theory and History of Education) at the University of Cordoba and member of the Laboratory of Studies on Coexistence and Prevention of Violence (LAECOVI). She is also part of the project ‘Decision-making and moral sensitivity in the framework of peer networks and the phenomenon of bullying: a longitudinal study’ (PID2020-1139RB-I00) and the project ‘The moral dimension as a key to the understanding and prevention of bullying and cyberbullying’ (PDC2021-121741-I00).
Indira Wakelkamp
Researcher
Indira Wakelkamp is a teacher educator in modern foreign language education at the University of Amsterdam and a junior researcher in the Multilingualism and Education research group at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. She has nearly a decade of experience as an English teacher in secondary education. Additionally, she organises professional development sessions for in-service modern foreign language teachers and is an editor at Litlab, where she co-creates educational materials for English literature with other educators.
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Researcher
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