Empowering Teachers to Deal with Classroom Diversity

Abstract

In the age of globalization, teachers need to have special skills to deal with classroom diversity represented by the different cultural, socio-economic backgrounds of students in a class. Studies have shown the need to train teachers with respect to several dimensions related to dealing with diversity in class: respect for cultural differences and diversity, confidence in interactions with students from different cultural backgrounds, manifesting interest in interactive contexts. This paper briefly presents an educational intervention program focused on empowering teachers to deal with classroom diversity and results obtained following its implementation at undergraduate students preparing for a teaching career, attending the Pedagogy of primary and preschool education B; study programme at Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacau, Romania. Our findings show that the educational intervention program enhanced the trainees' knowledge, skills and attitudes in terms of their ability to successfully approach classroom diversity and risks of conflicts based on discrimination and differences in the class of students.