In this paper, we focus on teachers’ diversity awareness and teachers’ critical consciousness, as these competencies are central for understanding "HAND IN HAND: Empowering teachers across Europe to deal with social, emotional and diversity related career challenges"project’s stance on diversity. A large body of literature illustrates that the way how teachers teach diversity matters. In addition, the role of teachers in minority students’ achievement is well researched from the perspective of social psychology (e.g., Chin et al., 2020). However, there is a lack of research focusing on teachers’ awareness of diversity, inequality and social justice, as well as on their feelings of competence and preparedness for working in culturally diverse classrooms (Kim & Cooc, 2022). Following on Bell’s (2016) notion that diversity and inequality are inseparably connected, we reviewed literature that explored how teachers perceive and react upon diversity and inequality in their classrooms. We aimed at exploring diversity awareness and critical consciousness in education; why teachers’ diversity awareness and critical consciousness are important; and how these competencies can be supported. Regarding the theoretical perspective, we outline a conceptual model based on our understanding of teachers’ diversity awareness and critical consciousness, as an attempt to provide more conceptual clarity in this field. Our approach accentuates the transformative potential of teachers and their beliefs, behaviours and competencies for social justice in education. The majority of papers on teachers’ diversity awareness and critical consciousness that we included in our review has been published within the last few years, indicating a growing importance of the topic for educators. The growing interest in the topic is due to the increase of diversity in classrooms and the recognition of the teachers’ role in addressing diversity and inequality. However, large-scale studies would be a needed contribution to the field, as most of the existing studies are small-scale. Policy recommendations stemming from our literature review will also be discussed. In line with recommendations from recent international policy documents, such as the OECD policy framework on promoting inclusive education for diverse societies (Cerna et al., 2021; Santiago & Cerna, 2020), we argue that, if our aim is to make schools inclusive for all, both diversity awareness and critical consciousness need to be supported through preservice and in-service teacher professional development programs.

Bell, L. A. (2016). Theoretical foundations for social justice education. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, D. Goodman, & K. Y. Joshi (Eds), Teaching for diversity and social justice, p. 3 – 26. New York: Routledge. Cerna, L., Mezzanotte, C., Rutigliano, A., Brussino, O., Santiago, P., Borgonovi, F., & Guthrie, C. (2021). Promoting inclusive education for diverse societies: A conceptual framework, OECD Education Working Papers No. 260. Chin, M. J., Quinn, D. M., Dhaliwal, T. K., & Lovison, V. S. (2020). Bias in the air: A nationwide exploration of teachers' implicit racial attitudes, aggregate bias, and student outcomes. Educational Researcher, 49(8), 566-578. Kim, G. M. & Cooc, N. (2022). Student immigration, migration, and teacher preparation. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-23. Santiago, P. & Cerna, L. (2020). Strength through diversity: Education for inclusive societies. Design and implementation plan. EDU/EDPC(2019)11/REV2. Directorate for Education and Skills. Education Policy Committee