Hester Hulpia

Hester Hulpia is a senior researcher at VBJK, Centre for Innovation in the Early Years.

She is an expert on quality of ECEC. In Flanders, she was part of the MeMoQ-team, a project in which a pedagogical framework, a baseline study on the quality of ECEC (0-3), a self-evaluation and a monitoring instrument were developed.  Internationally, she was also involved in a study examining the quality of ECEC in Georgia, and a Study on the effective use of ECEC in preventing early school leaving.

Next, her expertise is on integrated working in services for young children. Both national (e.g. publication on ‘Huizen van het Kind', buurtgerichte netwerken) and international (e.g. INTESYS project, an Erasmus+ project on Together supporting vulnerable children through Integrated early childhood services). Hester is also involved in projects on valuing diversity in ECEC (e.g. the VALUE project, an Erasmus+ project on interdisciplinary learning in ECEC).

Hester Hulpia is also an expert in school leadership. In 2009, she got her PhD on Distributed leadership and organizational outcomes in secondary schools (Ghent University, promotor prof. Dr. Geert Devos). The PhD and a selection of the articles published in SCI-journals can be found at http://ugent.academia.edu/HesterHulpia. In 2009, she won the VOR/VFO-grant for best PhD-research (at the Onderwijs Research Dagen in Twente). And according to Gumus, Bellibas, Esen and Gumus in Educational Management Administration & Leadership (2016) she is in the top 10 of the most published scholars on leadership models in educational research.

For further inquiries, contact Hester Hulpia.