Marjan Halsberghe (°1983) graduated as a primary school teacher at the University College of Antwerp in 2006. For her bachelor thesis ‘Girls and the Right to Education’, she travelled to Arusha in Tanzania for 3 months. After several years of teaching experience in Antwerp primary education (equal opportunities teacher and class teacher International School) and secondary education (e. g. newcomers, semi-illiterate) she started her master study ‘Instructional and Educational Sciences’ in 2009 and obtained her master’s degree in 2012 with distinction. As a researcher, she builds up an initial experience during the writing of her master’s thesis, in which she mapped out the opinions and experiences of parents of those pupils retained in primary education.
Since 2012 she has been working as a researcher at the bachelor’s program Social Educational Care Work at Artesis Plantijn University College in Antwerp. For example, she conducted research into the leisure activities of children and young people with disabilities and young people in residential care facilities. She also coached groups of students with their thesis and was during 4 years a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Centre. At the moment she is part of the core team of the knowledge center Isos and project manager of Community-Based Learning, which tries to build bridges and partnerships with field organizations in the neighborhood.