Toward Diversity-Responsive Education in Flanders

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The Flemish educational system is not only characterized by high achievement, but also by a high inequality in student outcomes. Furthermore, the teacher workforce, as well as student populations in higher education are still no representation of the diversity in Flemish society. Drop-out rates of teachers and higher education-students from minoritized groups remain high, indicating the presence of mechanisms that perpetuate exclusion and inequality. While researchers in the past decades extensively scrutinized such mechanisms (e.g., cascade mechanism, early tracking, discrimination), current studies are increasingly focusing on the agency of the educational field to make changes. In this symposium, research is presented on raising responsivity to diversity and inequality on three different levels: compulsory education, higher education, and teacher education.

Sub Unit

• International Aligned Organizations / Flemish Forum for Educational Research - VFO

Chair

• Ruben Vanderlinde, Ghent University

Papers

• Beyond Ethnic Incongruence: Perspective of Minoritized Pupils on the Student-Teacher Relationship - Julia Steenwegen, University of Rotterdam; Jan Vanhoof, Antwerp University; Noel Clycq, University of Antwerp

• Diversity-Responsive Higher Education: Narrative Results From a Community of Practice - Elke Emmers, Hasselt University; Reinhilde Pulinx, University College Leuven-Limburg

• Interrogating the Role of Teacher Educators in the Reduction of Inequalities in Education - Benjamin Ponet, Ghent University; Hanne Tack, Ghent University; Wendelien Vantieghem, Vrije Universiteit Brussel; Ruben Vanderlinde, Ghent University

Discussant

• Frances OC Rust, University of Pennsylvania