The article pursues the question of how students of pedagogical professions can acquire inclusion- and diversity-sensitive counseling skills with the support of digital media - such as generative AI or VR. Counseling can be understood as a ‘specific form of interpersonal communication’ and is considered a ‘cross-sectional method’ (Sickendiek et al. 2008) that plays an important part in all educational fields of action. Particularly with the implementation of inclusive educational landscapes, counseling is becoming increasingly central to realizing participation in schools and through social work often within multidisciplinary professional contexts. Counselling can therefore be seen as a central practice for dealing with inclusions and exclusions, especially in heterogeneous learning settings.

While digitalization plays an increasingly bigger role in counseling itself, as is reflected in online counseling services (Engelhardt, 2022), the use of digital applications such as generative AI, online simulations, and VR in university teaching to support counseling training in pedagogical contexts is still in its infancy. Initial projects show that future counseling in educational contexts can be supported in many ways by digital media and that a link with counseling experiences from practical phases can be productive here (Maurya, R. 2023). At the same time, the specific effects of digital learning environments on the hoped-for professionalization processes have hardly been documented or reflexively investigated. Initial empirical studies indicate that basic counseling skills can probably be learned as well or better in digital learning environments (Lowell & Alshammari, 2019; Uwamahoro, 2015). Several studies address a greater sense of security among learners with regard to their practice activities, enhanced learning strategies, and self-control over the learning process (Ilieva & Ergüner-Tekinalp, 2012; Lowell & Alshammari, 2019; Renfro-Michel et al, 2010). According to the authors, online simulations are particularly suitable for learning basic counseling skills (Lowell & Alshammari, 2019). The great advantage of practicing in online learning environments is that they are error-friendly and provide a kind of safe space for inexperienced learners (Stix, 2023).

This offers innovative potential for the training of educational professionals, which expands on previous work and results from the field of learning-material-related digital education (Lo et al.; 2024; McGrath et al., 2024; Okonkwo & Ade-Ibijola, 2021). At the same time, these developments must also be critically monitored (Bareis & Katzenbach, 2021), and the instruments must comply with legal requirements and be tied back to professional ethical reflections (Kieslinger & Nierobisch, 2024; UNESCO, 2021).

The analyses show that the question of which skills and abilities for dealing with inclusion and diversity can be acquired in digital counseling training must also be linked to reflection on which differences and inequalities the respective media or the way they are used create and/or stabilize themselves. This is because generative AI in particular, as a large language model, tends not only to repeat clichés and prejudices, but also to reinforce them, and the protected digital learning spaces can also be used to avoid reflection.

This article presents the results of a research project in which the use of digital and AI-supported approaches to counseling training was tested, evaluated, and analyzed in teacher training and with students of social work in higher education. Group discussions among the participants and individual interviews were conducted in which the students reflected upon their experiences and practices. In addition, the documented exercise sequences of the students are available in various formats (interaction protocols with generative AI, and 360-degree videos with VR). The article presents the initial results of an inductive, codebook-developing evaluation (Mayring 2015) of the data, which focuses on the question of whether a sensitivity for dealing with inclusions and exclusions in counseling activities can be developed in this exploratory setting, but also which (new) differentiations and categorizations may be introduced into these settings through the use of digital media. Those students' statements will also be linked to analyses of the practices in the implemented exercises.

Initial results indicate that the analysis of digital teaching and learning settings must be viewed from two perspectives: on the one hand, there are the activities of the students, their ways of using and reacting to the digital counseling training settings, and the question of learning and reflection processes concerning inclusion and diversity. On the other hand, there are specific implications of the digital media used in each case. AI-based media in particular bring out culturally specific categorizations of norms and deviations, such as gender stereotypes in interactions, which students can also potentially reflect on as a result. At the same time, the implemented media have a high (playful) appeal, which helps to initiate the learning of counseling in potentially challenging situations. Finally, the article will also reflect on whether human and artificial contributions to interaction can or must be separated, how they may flow into each other in such learning settings, how new ways of dealing with inclusions and exclusions or new boundaries between inclusions and exclusions are created, and what ethical implications this harbors for modern societies.

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