Embracing Diversity: Inclusion in Education and Society

Diversity is a contemporary topic in education and educational research and is approached from a variety of perspectives. While some perceive increasing diversity as a challenge for the education system and society, others emphasise the merits of diversity and call not only for greater sensitivity towards diversity but also that it should be embraced.

The conference will bring together latest social science research and its key findings on diversity in terms of vertical and horizontal differences and inequalities in societies. The aim is to discuss how to deal with diversity, how to make use of diversity and how to tackle diversity-related challenges. The structural categories such as social class, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religion that are used to describe and analyse diversity are axes of inequality at the same time. Studying diversity is thus strongly related to the study of inequality. It also appears meaningful to consider different sociological levels of analysis when addressing diversity, including the micro or micro-social (e.g., students, teachers, parents), meso (e.g., educational institutions, non-formal and informal settings) and macro level (e.g., education systems, educational policies).

Highly intertwined with diversity is the notion of inclusion, which presents an approach to responding to diversity – not only in education. Inclusion is about reducing social closure, responding to the need for respect and recognition of all people as well as enabling social participation in various key areas of society regardless of personal characteristics in terms of aforementioned structural categories. In educational settings (e.g. classrooms in schools) which are embedded in education systems, inclusion means treating all students in their uniqueness, considering each individual’s needs, and ensuring that all students participate and achieve together. In consequence, inclusion implies that (educational) institutions or settings should adapt to the needs of the individual students rather than making them adapt to institutional boundaries