Hosted by ArbeiterKind.de, Germany´s largest network for first generation students.
Diversity is often seen as a source of problems in higher education. A deficit-focused perspective prevails in stories of so-called “non-traditional” students. Students themselves tend to talk about their weaknesses and failures instead of their strengths, achievements and contributions. What if we looked at it the other way around? What if diversity was not the problem but the solution ?
The stories we tell ourselves create our reality, they turn into self-fulfilling prophecies. To achieve equality in higher education we need to change our perspective and share stories that value different backgrounds and emphasize strengths of non-traditional students.
The goal of this conference is to create, share and evaluate strategies for diversity in higher education:
- How can we change the perception of diversity from a problem to a solution?
- How can we change the focus from deficit to potential?
- How can we spread stories of empowerment in higher education?
- How can we encourage students to tell their own stories in an empowering way?
- Which teaching and learning methods are best suited to the strength-based approach?
During the conference the participants’ policy recommendations will be collected, they will be summarized and communicated to the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Union and to policy making bodies of German higher education institutions.