Policies and practices for teaching sociocultural diversity – A framework of teacher competences for engaging with diversity

Future teachers require specific training on democratic culture and social cohesion. By focusing on reflective thinking, training can enable them to situate themselves in diverse environments, develop a clearer sense of their ethnic and cultural identities and examine attitudes to different groups.

Improving diversity management at school in Europe begins with initial teacher training establishments. This book is designed to provide a basis to help ensure that the needs of future teachers in this regard are met. It puts forward 18 "diversity competences" that were identified by a team of European specialists in teacher training between 2006 and 2009.

In order to open up the debate on competences, four consultation sessions were organised in Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Estonia. These sessions provided an opportunity to discuss these competences with key players (civil servants, government representatives, teacher trainers, head teachers, researchers, teachers and students) from a national and topic-based perspective.