Teachers’ views on student diversity

2022.08.28.

Among the opposing tendencies of intensifying old and new nationalisms and “superdiversity” that presupposes a multicultural social and educational policy, it is of particular importance where the educators forming the thinking and attitudes of the next generations are positioned in the space shaped by political propaganda and the differentiating needs arising from diversity. What do they think about immigrants, their children and multiculturalism, how prepared are they for the pedagogical challenges of growing student diversity, how do they identify themselves, and what is the relationship between their own diversity experiences and their views and attitudes?

During the research among in-service and pre-service teachers, conducted in 2016-17 and 2021, Lan Anh NGUYEN LUU and Ágnes BORECZKY (ELTE PPK Institute of Intercultural Psychology and Education) for answers to these questions, among others. The study published in the June issue of Intercultural Education under the title Diversity and Hungarian teachers' views on nationalism, migration and multiculturalism summarizes the results of the first research with the participation of teachers and pre-service teachers.

One of the most important results of the research was that attitudes towards migration and multiculturalism are strongly related to each other, and that different national identities manifest themselves in significant differences. National identity (positive national identification) and national essentialism show different, or more precisely opposite (the former negative, the latter positive) correlations with exclusion. This trend also fits in with the fact that a positive sense of belonging predicts teachers' multicultural attitudes, and the feeling of migration threat is stronger for those who consider the categories of essentialist national identity valid for themselves. At the same time, diversity experiences acquired during the life course are negatively related to national essentialism, and through the mediation of multicultural ideology, they weaken the feeling of threat and have a positive effect on multicultural attitudes as well.

The study can be read here.