Navigating difference in Education: Engaging with the Possible through Teacher Training and Development
As educational systems continue to grow and diversify, the need to navigate differences in the classroom has become increasingly crucial, yet still challenging in practice. Teachers often lack the necessary training to deal with the challenging situations that arise in schools, such as conflicts, prejudices, and discrimination. In fact, teacher education frequently overlooks the development of resources to effectively navigate these tensions. This may appear to be a minor issue on the surface, but it is a significant problem, especially given that explorations of the possible are grounded in difference. Our inability to navigate these tensions, in education and society, may limit our ability to cultivate the possible inside and outside the classroom. Therefore, this keynote will explore these issues through a teachers' lens on their classroom experiences. The presentation will draw on a research project that involved fourteen teachers from various states in Brazil who shared their perspectives on difficult situations in the classroom. Eight focus group sessions were held, covering a wide range of topics related to dealing with differences in the classroom, as well as three follow-up interviews with teachers. A significant result was achieved, over two months, with teachers from various backgrounds having developed practical strategies and having gained new perspectives to more effectively address prejudice, conflict, and discrimination in their work. That was achieved through collective reflection and open dialogue. Lessons from this collaborative process can inform teacher education programs, empowering educators to achieve one of the fundamental aims of education - scaffolding human possibility.
Luciana Dantas de Paula
Luciana Dantas de Paula is a doctoral researcher in the Developmental and School Psychology Graduate Program (PGPDE) at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Brasília (UnB). She graduated in Psychology from Centro Universitário de Brasília (UniCEUB) in 2016. She is an active member of the Laboratory of Dialogical and Cultural Psychology Research (LABMIS) at the University of Brasília, and of the Dialogical and Cultural Psychology research of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP). She is the Communications Officer for the Possibility Studies Network. She is the founder and coordinator of the Early Career Network (ECN), an international network that brings together graduate students from around the world with common interests in the topics of creativity, psychology, and human development. She is an assistant editor of the journal Possibility Studies and Society, Springer Publishing. Her interests include human development processes, deconstruction of prejudices, dialogical and cultural psychology. Outside academia, she has facilitated Nonviolent Communication processes for various groups and companies.