With one million euros prize money, this UvA pedagogue wants to teach children about inequality
How do children experience the inequality in the world in which they grow up? With the Mercator Sapiens Stimulus 2026 worth one million euros, UvA psychologist and educationalist Eddie Brummelman has been given carte blanche to investigate this question. “There are deeply rooted ideas about inequality that often do not correspond with reality.”
What is it like to win such a prize?
“A bit in line with my research project, haha: it broadens your horizons. It is rare – especially in times of cutbacks in higher education and science – to have the opportunity to do ‘blue-skies research’, research where you can ask big questions without knowing what the outcome will be. Gaining that trust is very special.”
What will you be researching?
“Children worldwide are growing up in an era of enormous economic inequality. Imagine that families all over the world would stack their possessions in 100-pound notes and sit on top of the pile. Then the poorest families would be sitting on the ground and the richest families would be outside the atmosphere.”
Eddie Brummelman is an associate professor of pedagogy at the University of Amsterdam. With his lab, Kidlab, he investigates the nature, origin and consequences of self-image in children, such as self-esteem and narcissism. He also investigates the role self-image plays in society. Brummelman is chair of The Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Not to be confused with the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, the oldest scientific society in the Netherlands, which annually awards the Mercator Sapiens Stimulus.
How do you want to change the definition of success?
“I want to give children a structural perspective: to show them that the world is an uneven playing field. Of course, hard work pays off, but some children have to work much harder than others to achieve the same things because of their disadvantaged backgrounds. In this way, children learn that the world is not a place of winners and losers and that other people are not just obstacles or tools for success. But that we need each other and that if we work together, everyone can make a valuable contribution to society. With this project, I hope to create a repertoire of imagination for children from both poor and rich families, so that they can see a broader range of future possibilities and work towards them.”
What does that look like in concrete terms?
“First, I would like to work with Kidlab to investigate whether offering a structural narrative does indeed give children more hope. And then we would like to introduce that narrative as a targeted intervention in schools.”
How meaningful is a short intervention if a child grows up in inequality for years?
“That’s a good question that I also struggle with. How do you turn something incidental into something structural? Previous research shows that you have to implement the intervention at a life-changing moment. If you want to quit smoking, you should do so when you move house, because then your ashtray will be in a different place. For children, that moment could be when they move from primary school to secondary school. Research shows that when children from a primary school in a poor neighbourhood move to a secondary school in a wealthy neighbourhood, their well-being declines. They are suddenly exposed to inequality, and that is a critical moment to show children: this is a different way of looking at inequality. In this way, I hope to set a positive spiral in motion.”
