Attitudes towards diversity in Teacher Training: psychopolitical factors involved

Abstract

In the last decades, it has been shown that educational and social inclusion contains a strong political dimension, sometimes there being a social disapproval among teachers of various minorities and vulnerable groups. From the objectives of sustainable development, the need to promote inclusive societies is explicitly made, based on affected and fair institutions. Based on the conception of Social Justice, proposed by Nancy Fraser, this study particularly investigates the dimension of Recognition, understood as the absence of social dominance and respect for the diversity of all people and social groups, as well as the establishment of fair relationships in society. The objective of the study is to analyze the attitudes towards the diversity of the teachers at various stages of their education training and to study their relationship with various psychopolitical and formative factors. The sample of participants consisted of 583 students of the, first and fourth year, of the Infant and Primary Teacher Training Degree and the Master’s Degree on Teaching in Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate (Madrid Autonomous University). The instruments used for the study were the Three-Dimensional Scale of Social Justice, the Socio Political Activism Scale and the Political Self-Positioning Scale. The results show differences in attitudestowards diversityin terms of political orientation and thefutureteachereducation stage. In addition, positive relationships were found between recognition of diversity and socio-political activism of future teachers. Novel findings are concluded regarding previous studies, because in addition to the formative factor other variables are also shown related to the most favorable attitudes toward diversity. Finally, is discussed the implications that the factors studied may have in the development of a favorable attitude towards inclusive education and attention to diversity, by the future teachers.

Keywords

• diversidad
• educación
• formación de profesorado