Diversity reflection: an approach towards provoking diverse thinking within social work and social pedagogy training

Abstract

Teaching diversity in social pedagogy and social work training is vital for promoting inclusivity, cultural competence, empathy and effective practice. It supports students in their personal development and equips them to navigate today’s interconnected world. Inspired by bell hooks’s Teaching to Transgress: Education as the practice of freedom, this article describes diversity reflection – an approach that invites students’ and teachers’ diverse thinking – and how it can be implemented in preparation for and delivery of diversity training for future social pedagogues and social workers. The article also explores why it is important to embrace diversity as an aspect in professional reflection. It outlines how such reflection should take place on a micro, mezzo and macro level. Finally, it introduces further aspects of teaching diversity, including the need for lecturers to exercise professional and personal reflection and how the teacher’s diversity influences preparation and delivery of diversity training.