Increasing globalisation in Europe, where large numbers of people have moved across national borders, has meant that societies consist of a plurality of people with different cultures and backgrounds. In Sweden immigrants increased from one million to two million between 2000 and 2020 and immigrants in Swedish compulsory Schools, increased from 12 % to 24 % (SCB, 2020). One argument for embracing diversity is that human cultural diversity as a source of exchange, new ideas, and creativity is as essential to humanity as biological diversity is to nature (UNESCO, 2001). Diversity awareness refers to differences in cultural or ethnic communities and other life experiences, such as gender, sexual orientation, functionality, or age (Unesco, 2021). The European Commission (2017) points out that teachers need to be prepared to deal with diversity in their classrooms. However, TALIS results (OECD, 2019) show that teachers across the EU do not feel well prepared for teaching in diverse settings. There is also an argument pointing at the importance of teachers' conscious diversity work for promoting school inclusion (Miklikowska, 2018). The HAND Empowering teachers program targets this pressing urge to give teachers increased preparedness to deal with and teach in the increasingly diverse classrooms. One way of preparing teachers has shown to be increasing teachers' wellbeing by working with teachers social, emotional and diversity awareness (SEDA) (Kozina, 2020). The program developed includes those three dimensions. However, this presentation targets diversity awareness. One way of working toward embracing diversity is to increase the understanding of each other. Being curious, listening and asking questions is a way to increase such an understanding and can be called empathic curiosity (Mattson, 2019). In the program, the concept of empathic curiosity is used to understand the other in the classroom and to understand oneself. Programs aimed at embracing diversity should work closely with perspective taking and empathic concern (Miklikowska, 2018). The classroom is an excellent place to develop environments that promote conversations that focus on understanding each other and resolving contradictions instead of having debates on who is right or who is wrong. What we cannot handle among students in the classroom will be challenging to deal with in tomorrow's society (Mattson, 2019). With this approach, the HAND: Empowering teachers can support teachers in shaping future inclusive classrooms.

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