School education must therefore seek to overcome socio-economic inequalities throughout societies while at the same time utilise the benefits that diversity brings to schools and classrooms. A successful programme treats diversity as a source of potential growth rather than an inherent hindrance to student performance.
One way to do this is to use teachers’ strength and flexibility. Of course, for this to be effective, teachers need to be given appropriate support and training. This volume stems from the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI ) project, Teacher Education for Diversity (TED). This activity focused on how teachers were prepared for the increasing diversity in their classrooms, and aimed to identify the common challenges and benefits which countries are currently experiencing in their teacher education in response to increasing cultural diversity. The analysis focuses on:
• pre‑service teacher education
• in‑service teacher education
• training for teacher educators
This focus is deliberately broad as no matter how confident teachers feel about their pre‑service education, it cannot prepare them for the evolving challenges they will face throughout their careers. Teacher education should thus be a continuum of development that includes pre and in‑service training.
System change and development involves the support of and dialogue with a wide variety of actors, including the teacher educators. Crucially, effective professional development is on‑going and includes training, practice, feedback, and follow‑up support.
This introductory chapter sets the stage for this volume by focusing on the concepts, themes, and definitions central to the discussion of teacher education for diversity. It discusses different approaches to diversity in the
various OECD country contexts, explores reasons underlying these interpretations, and offers an analysis of how contextual factors have shaped country responses to increasing diversity in their classrooms and society.
It looks at key challenges facing OECD teachers and classrooms with respect to diversity and the evidence base available to guide policy approaches to this issue. It also introduces an online consultation with practitioners that was conducted by the CERI TED team in order to better understand the challenges and strategies of those in the field. It concludes with an overview of the publication.
Underlying the analysis of and contributions to this chapter and the volume more generally is an important transversal theme: the conception of diversity as complex but potential positive, both for educators and societies in general. This contrasts with an approach that views diversity as a problem that needs to be “solved”.
Defining diversity
It is important to state at the outset that “diversity” is a multi-faceted concept that can contain as many elements and levels of distinction as required. Work on the topic includes but is not limited to: age, ethnicity, class, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, religious status, educational background, geographical location, income, marital status, parental status and work experiences. In order to constrain the discussion and work of this volume to manageable levels and to recognise the specific focus on education, the definition of “diversity” for this work has been framed as: characteristics that can affect the specific ways in which developmental potential and learning are realised, including cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious and
socio-economic differences.
Implicit in this definition is a distinction between diversity and disparity, wherein “diversity” per se is a neutral concept that is an inevitable reflection of the richness of human experience (i.e. one can be short, tall, lefthanded, right-handed, etc.). This it is thus distinct from “disparity”, in which diverse characteristics are associated with different outcomes or differential treatment. All OECD school systems inherently contain diversity of socioeconomic status, parental educational attainment and student abilities; what differs among them is how these differences are related to cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity, and the disparity associated with the various factors in particular societal and historical contexts.
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