2026
Leren van (en in) weekendscholen. Hoe leerders van diverse achtergronden ondersteunen. Book
Blansefloer Coudenys
How community-organised education can help address inequality and how education becomes a site for change.
Critical education scholar working on educational inequality, community-based
education, and education for social justice, through participatory research with
migrant and minoritised communities.
Currently a postdoctoral research fellow at New York University's Metropolitan
Center. Joining Utrecht University's Dynamics of Youth programme in November 2026.
About
I'm a critical education scholar working on educational inequality, community-based educational spaces, and education for social justice. My research centres on participatory work with migrant and minoritised communities, and asks how community-organised education can help address structural inequalities in and through education systems.
Methodologically, I work with participatory and engaged approaches that foreground knowledge production with, rather than about, communities. Theoretically, my work draws on critical, decolonial, and anti-racist traditions, with a particular focus on race, racism, and power in education and on education as a site for critical reflection, emancipation, and social change.
I completed my PhD at the University of Antwerp in 2025, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), with a dissertation titled Where Silenced Spaces Speak: The Role of Community-Based Educational Initiatives in Addressing Educational Inequality. I hold an M.Ed. in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, completed as a Fulbright and Frank Boas fellow, and I trained and worked as a secondary-school teacher in Belgium. I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow at New York University's Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, and I will join Utrecht University's Dynamics of Youth programme in November 2026.
My full CV is available here.
Research
Community-based & supplementary education
How communities organise education alongside mainstream schooling, and the role these spaces play in the lives and futures of minoritised young people.
Educational inequality & social justice
The structures that reproduce inequality in and through education systems and the practices that work to interrupt them.
Race, racism & power in education
Education read through critical, decolonial, and anti-racist traditions, with attention to whiteness and epistemic justice.
Participatory & engaged methods
Research designed with communities and young people, from participatory action research to qualitative social-network mapping.
Projects
From November 2026 · Utrecht University
Dynamics of Youth
Joining an interdisciplinary programme studying how young people in secondary schools encounter and make sense of one another across difference, and how everyday encounters with the other can become moments of learning and broadened perspective.
2025–2026 · New York University, Metropolitan Center
Community-based education and mainstream systems
A BAEF-funded postdoctoral project examining collaborations between mainstream education systems and community-based initiatives as incubators for equity-oriented practice, with an empirical focus on migrant and minoritised communities across school–community contexts.
2025– · with Dr Hettie Burn, UCL
Community-based, out-of-school education in the UK
With Dr Hettie Burn (UCL), I've been building a renewed programme of research on supplementary and community-organised education in England: the volunteer-run 'Saturday' and heritage-language schools that support minoritised young people outside the school day. Funded by a YERUN Researcher Mobility Award and starting in London, we mapped provision through Freedom-of-Information requests across the boroughs, visited schools and spoke with initiators and funders, and convened a co-production roundtable at the UCL Institute of Education in May 2026. The work sets out a five-part research agenda to make an under-recognised sector legible to policymakers and funders.
2026 · with Prof. Noel Clycq
Books & chapters
A chapter with Prof. Noel Clycq, "Leren van (en in) weekendscholen. Hoe leerders van diverse achtergronden ondersteunen," on supporting learners from diverse backgrounds in weekend and supplementary schools, in the Vlaamse Onderwijsraad volume Recht op leren in onderwijs (Politeia, 2026); and a chapter in preparation for Teaching and Learning Arabic in the European Diaspora, with an international team spanning Michigan State, Dalarna, Inland Norway, Antwerp, and Helsinki.
2021–2025 · University of Antwerp & KU Leuven
PhD: Where Silenced Spaces Speak
My doctoral dissertation, Where Silenced Spaces Speak: The Role of Community-Based Educational Initiatives in Addressing Educational Inequality, examined how community-organised education functions as a pedagogical infrastructure for minoritised young people in the Flemish education system. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative research, it showed how these initiatives support educational trajectories, build social and cultural capital, and challenge dominant, deficit-oriented views of minoritised pupils. The work was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and defended in November 2025. Supervised by supervisor names.
Publications
2025
The impact of part-time community education on the academic achievement of minoritised pupils: evidence from Flanders. Read
2024
The invisible support of community schools in a highly unequal education system: exploring the experiences of minority pupils and teachers. Read
2022
On the path toward lifelong learning: an early analysis of Taiwan's 12-year basic education reform.
In review
In review
Supporting minoritised youth: the social fabric of community-based educational initiatives.
In review
Cultivating cultural capital: the invaluable work of community-based educational initiatives in Flanders.
Grants & honours
2025–26
Postdoctoral Fellowship, New York University.
2025
YERUN Research Mobility Award for supplementary education.
2023
Workshop & training on decolonising research.
2022
Workshop & training on anti-racist research practices.
2021
PhD Fellowship.
2020–21
Fulbright & Frank Boas Scholarships.
Contact
I'm always glad to hear from researchers, students, and community partners working on education, equity, and belonging. The best way to reach me is by email.