Summary:

The authors primarily focus on the topic of “diversity"; in the course of the study, the following main fields of exploration have emerged in this regard: 1. Diversity of the teaching workforce; 2. Barriers to diversity in the teaching profession; 3. Policies and initiatives to promote teacher diversity; 4. Effectiveness, impacts and transferability of measures. The focus of the first category is above all on the observation that, despite a steadily increasing heterogeneous composition of pupils in schools, the teaching staff is still characterized by homogeneity. According to the authors, a fundamental transformation is needed here – teaching staff with a migrant background is still underrepresented and rare. This also emerges when searching for existing statistical data. In a first step the authors try to provide an overview, in a second step they analyse the (few) available data. In the aforementioned category “Barriers to diversity in the teaching profession”, there is a presentation of the challenges faced by the group of people at the centre on their way to the profession of origin – at various levels (accessing teacher education, completing teacher education, entering the teaching profession, staying in the field). A general monocultural orientation of teacher education, language barriers, discriminatory recruitment practices and/or the risk of discrimination in general are the main topics in this context. As a third core topic, the authors deal with policies and initiatives to promote teacher diversity: The study shows that initiatives are not equally spread across the Member States, a total of 67 policies, initiatives and measures are presented in the study to show what already exists and where there are still gaps to fill. In addition, the last point “Effectiveness, impacts and transferability of measures” provides an analysis of the actual effectiveness of these policies, strategies and initiatives. The central study results are summarized and merged so that conclusions and concrete recommendations – in the sense of a guiding framework – are also formulated and made available.

Language: English