Katrien Van Poeck has a PhD in educational sciences (University of Leuven, 2013), a Master’s degree in social work (Ghent University, 2006) and completed social sciences teacher training (2006). As a research professor focusing on the role of teaching and learning in the pursuit of building a more sustainable world, she coordinates the Centre for Sustainability Studies’ research programme on sustainability education. Theoretically and methodologically, her work has been largely inspired by pragmatist didactic theory and transactional analytical frameworks. She is particularly interested in developing methodologies for empirical research that contributes to opening up the black box of teaching and learning processes and applying these to a variety of case studies. Katrien conducts and coordinates research projects and networks on sustainability education in schools and universities as well as on ‘the making of’ sustainability transitions and the role of learning in such processes of social change, e.g. in the ongoing LESTRA-project funded by the European Research Council. She also has a special interest in the relation between sustainability education research and practice and establishes initiatives to foster the co-creation of better sustainability education in collaborative settings with researchers and practitioners, e.g. through Lesson Design Workshops. This nourishes her curiosity about how such initiatives can contribute to teachers’ professional development and to change of educational practices. Katrien is also a member and co-founder of the international research collective TePlab - The Laboratory for Teaching Practices.
Before joining the Centre for Sustainability Studies in 2015, Katrien worked in NGOs and youth work organisations (1999-2002). As a policy advisor for the Flemish government, she was responsible for sustainability education policy preparation and implementation and related capacity building initiatives (2002-2015). She also worked as a voluntary scientific staff member at Leuven University's Laboratory for Education and Society (2009-2015), was affiliated to Uppsala University (Sweden) with a Marie Curie individual fellowship (2020-21, part-time) and worked as a visiting researcher for Saskatchewan University (Canada, 2015), Uppsala University (2019, 2021-2024) and Malmö University (Sweden, 2024-2027).
