"Vom Einzelkämpfertum zum Miteinander? Diversitätskompetenz für ein Kollegium der Vielfalt" [From Individualism to Team Spirit? Fostering Diversity Competence in School Staffrooms]

Does your teacher training prepare you for the fact that school is not only a pedagogical space, but also a diverse workplace and team environment? How can respectful and appreciative collaboration within a diverse faculty be achieved? In the school of the future, teachers with a wide range of backgrounds, qualifications, and perspectives will work together — colleagues from abroad, career changers, professionals without a traditional teaching degree, young teachers fresh from university, and many others.

This diversity places high demands on the ability to collaborate and on the development of diversity competence — one of the key “future skills” for prospective teachers.

The workshop offers a space for reflection and discussion around central questions:

1. What does professional collaboration mean in diverse teaching teams?
2. Which structures foster diversity competence within the faculty and promote equal participation in everyday school life?
3. How can schools create cultures of recognition that value diversity and foster a sense of belonging for all teachers?

The aim is to reflect on one’s own role, strengthen personal diversity competence, become more aware of structural dimensions of power and inequality within school staff, and take away practical ideas for professional collaboration. Together, participants will explore strategies for transforming schools from isolated individual work toward cooperative and discrimination-sensitive communities.

Drawing on empirical findings from the scientific evaluation of the Refugee Teachers Program, the workshop also provides insights into the experiences of internationally trained teachers re-entering the profession. These perspectives highlight why schools must be understood not only as pedagogical, but also as deeply social workplaces, illuminating key aspects of diversity competence, teamwork, and school development.

Dr. Anna Aleksandra Wojciechowicz works at the Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research at the University of Potsdam. She conducts research, teaches, and supports teachers with international professional backgrounds within the framework of the Refugee Teachers Program. Her main areas of work include migration and displacement in educational contexts, difference and social inequality in educational institutions, teacher professionalization in migration societies, as well as anti-racist and anti-discrimination approaches to school and university development.