An International Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme for the Comparative Study of Productive Youth Development
The mission of this Collaborative Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programme is to stimulate innovative, interdisciplinary, and comparative research of productive youth development. Participating institutions include the Institute of Education in London, the Universities of Michigan, Stockholm, Helsinki, Jena, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. The major objective of the programme is to promote the next generation of researchers and facilitate a better understanding and discourse with different stake holders about how to equip young people for mastering the challenges of growing up in a changing social context.
PATHWAYS will investigate the antecedents, processes, and long-term outcomes of youth transitions, as well as the factors and processes promoting human competences, especially among young people deemed to be at-risk. Training and mentoring will be provided to enhance understanding of diverse approaches to the study of productive youth development and to engage in constructive debates with colleagues from different disciplines. It will help to foster international and interdisciplinary research and exchange of ideas, in order to gain up-to-date skills for addressing research and policy questions that require combined approaches and a synergy of ideas.
A 'Virtual Institute Approach' has been adopted, not limiting activities to one physical location, but pooling the expertise of several partner institutions that are connected by shared research interests, projects and existing collaborations. The administrative core is based at the Institute of Education but many of PATHWAYS' activities occur at the participating sites. There will be regular joint workshops and conferences, bringing together scholars from around the globe, facilitating international networking and exchange.
Since 2008 we have recruited and trained 15 Fellows who have published 64 papers in learned papers (15 are in press), eleven book chapters, as well as nineteen working papers and reports. A unique feature of the PATHWAYS programme is the international collaboration between Fellows and PIs, as reflected in 14 collaborative papers involving cross-country teams of Fellows and faculty members, and joint grant application. In addition we are currently editing two special sections in Developmental Psychology, one in the European Psychologist and one in the International Journal of Developmental Science, showcasing the work of the PATHWAYS Fellows. The Fellows have given 52 presentations at national and international conferences and have organised nine dedicated PATHWAYS symposia. Six of our Fellows have received rewards for their outstanding contributions and research excellence, including the 2011 Margret and Paul Baltes Award of the Developmental Section of the German Psychological Society which went to Julia Dietrich, the 2011 Jacobs Foundation fellowship award for excellent young researcher which went to Katja Upadyaya, and the 2011 Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Canadian government which was won by Angela Chow. The research conducted by the Fellows has been well received and endorsed by key policy makers, including the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, and the Finnish Ministry of Education. Our research has also attracted media attention in Germany, Finland, the UK and the USA. We feel immensely proud about the achievements of our PATHWAY Fellows, who are now in positions throughout North America and Europe as well as Australia, promoting international and collaborative scholarship.
This programme is funded by the Jacobs Foundation and runs from October 2008 - September 2012
