Across Europe in the first decades of the twenty-first century, schools and other educational settings in urban contexts, are having to respond to increasingly diverse communities of learners, reflecting the experiences of both recent migrants and more settled communities of Black and Minority Ethnic heritage.  These newly developing cultural contexts are characterized by complexity, by intersectionality of ‘race’, class, gender and disability, interwoven with interculturality and multiple dimensions and processes of exclusion and inclusion.

Preparing teachers to deal successfully with the complex challenges of responding to diversity issues in urban classrooms is key to schools' role in promoting confident learners and community cohesion.  Of prime concern is how the teaching work force - predominantly white, monolingual, female and middle class - can be enabled to be more effective and culturally competent in teaching an increasingly diverse pupil population in terms of ethnicity, culture, language and economics (OECD, 2010). Research suggests that teacher attitudes can be critical in influencing how they work with diverse pupil populations and deal with issues such as ‘race’, sexual orientation or class differences within their pedagogy and practice (Arshad et al, 2008).  Yet unless teacher educators are able to offer a degree of conceptual clarity, student teachers may remain in a position of ‘functional ambiguity’ whilst engaging with these issues in the classroom

This symposium aims to provide a forum in which these complexities of interculturality and intersectionality can be explored in relation to ‘race’ in/equality in particular, and in which the following questions can be addressed:

·         How far can the notion of ‘intercultural education’ be extended to encompass both the experiences of more recent migrant communities and those of more settled communities of Black or Minority Ethnic heritage in Europe?

·         What kinds of contextual differences shape the contours of  intersectionality and interculturality for teacher educators in Europe – and between Europe and an emergent ‘biculturalism’ in New Zealand?

·         What kinds of knowledge, experiences and resources do teacher educators identify as supportive in enabling them to develop greater confidence in addressing issues of ‘race’ in/equality in their practice?

·         What do the experiences of trainee teachers reveal about how successfully teacher educators are engaging with diversity issues?

References

Arshad, R., Runs-Engelhart, A and Solbue, V (2008) Teacher Educator Perceptions on Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination: Issues for Consideration. Association of Teacher Educators in Europe. Available online at: http://www.atee1.org/research_and_development_center/6/rdc_on_social_justice_equity_and_diversity#documenten (Accessed 2nd September2010)

Bhopal, K., Harris, R., And Rhamie, J. (2009) The teaching of ‘race’, diversity and inclusion on PGCE courses: a case study analysis of University of Southampton, Multiverse, TDA.

Davies, J. & Crozier, G. (2006) Diversity and Teacher Education: Research into Teacher Training Provision, available online at [http://www.multiverse.ac.uk/viewarticle2.aspx?contentId=12268]

Leeman, Y. (2008) Education and diversity in the Netherlands, European Educational Research Journal, 7(1)

López, M. (2004). Construyendo una escuela sin exclusiones. Archidona (Málaga): Aljibe.

OECD (2010), Educating Teachers for Diversity: Meeting the Challenge, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing.

Sleeter, C.E. ‘(2005). Un-standardizing curriculum: Multicultural teaching in the standards-based classroom. New Cork: Teachers College Press.