Nicolette van Halem​​

Nicolette van Halem is Assistant Professor of Educational Innovation and Lifelong Learning at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on how schools and teachers can design sustainable educational innovations that foster student agency, equity, and collaboration. She explores systemic change in education, with a particular interest in school culture, leadership, and professional learning within research-practice partnerships.

A core theme in her work is agency—how students and school teams use and shape the space they have to learn and innovate. Nicolette works internationally, studying how schools navigate complex challenges such as teacher shortages and student diversity. Her experience spans multiple contexts, from supporting schools in the transition to student-centered learning to leading research on teacher collaboration through approaches like Lesson Study. Her current work examines how research-practice partnerships can drive network-wide change towards more inclusive, learner-centered education.

Nicolette’s research and teaching work is deeply aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in educational leadership and change. She studies how schools can create equitable learning environments that support diverse student needs and aspirations. By engaging school teams in co-design processes, she ensures that research benefits both academic knowledge and practical implementation. This aligns with the LIFT project’s mission of strengthening equity-centered leadership networks within broader learning ecosystems. More about her research and publications can be found on her academic website.