Despite their crucial role, Flemish teacher educators remain an under-researched professional group with particularly limited fundamental knowledge on how they deal with diversity (Vanderlinde et al., in press). This is rather surprising since Flemish policy documents increasingly stress the need for teacher education to prepare teachers to teach in diverse contexts. Similarly, the Flemish government pays explicit attention to teachers’ competence to deal with diversity in their so-called ‘professional profile for teachers’. The latter document presents an overview of the needed competences for (future) teachers. The most recent policy report on the evaluation of the Flemish teacher education programmes highlights that student teachers feel unprepared to deal with diversity. Moreover, the same report states that teacher educators themselves also feel rather uncertain to deal with diversity (Evalo, 2012). Like in research, teacher educators are given little attention in Flemish policy documents. Provision for their professional development by the government is today rather ad hoc than structural (Tack et al., 2018). Nevertheless, policy makers have started to acknowledge the importance of teacher educators and their professional development to guarantee qualitative education. Empirical evidence on Flemish teacher educators’ competence to deal with diversity is urgent to further research, policy and practice. As such, this study focuses on two research objectives: to map the Flemish policy background in which teacher educators deal with diversity (RO1), and to assess teacher educators’ competence to deal with diversity (RO2). To target RO1, a document analysis of existing policies was performed. It resulted in a better understanding of the national context in which higher education-based teacher educators develop their competence to deal with diversity. To target RO2, a large scale quantitative study was conducted with over 400 Flemish higher education-based teacher educators. First, an already validated instrument to assess teachers’ competence to deal with diversity (Vantieghem et al., in press) was adapted to the teacher educator context. This instrument measures, among others dimensions, teachers’ self-efficacy to deal with diversity. Based on a systematic literature review on teacher educators’ practices to deal with diversity, the instrument was further supplemented with other dimensions. Second, the new instrument was used to study teacher educators’ competence to deal with diversity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were applied. This study adds to the field by providing (1) the start of a common language to discuss teacher educators’ dealing with diversity, and (2) insights in how Flemish teacher educators deal with diversity.

-Evaluatie Lerarenopleidingen Vlaanderen. (2012). Als het krijtstof neerdaalt… Een bijdrage aan de beleidsevaluatie van de lerarenopleidingen in Vlaanderen [When the chalk dust settles… A contribution to the policy evaluation of the teacher education programmes in Flanders]. -Tack, H., Valcke, M., Rots, I., Struyven, K., & Vanderlinde, R. (2018) Uncovering a hidden professional agenda for teacher educators: A mixed-method study on Flemish teacher educators and their professional development, European Journal of Teacher Education, 41(1), 86-104. -Vanderlinde, R., Smith, K., Murray, J., & Lunenberg, M. (Eds.). (in press), Teacher Educators and their Professional Development: Learning from the past, looking for the future. Routledge. -Vantieghem, W., Roose, I, Goossen, K, Schelfout, W., & Van Avermaet, P. (in press). Education for all in action: A validation of holistic measuring instrument for teachers’ competences in inclusive education.