The principal goal of the CDL is to support the interculturalisation of the Flemish education world by providing a coherent and scientifically-based support to professionals and organizations active both inside and outside the field of education.
The central subject of the CDL is the social and cultural diversity in our present societies and the consequences of this for education and within education. The CDL does not only reflect upon intercultural education, it also intends to give shape to it by introducing , deepening, innovating and assessing concrete strategies, methods and actions in Flanders and abroad.

The Centre for Diversity & Learning brings together a range of activities:

research
training
development of materials and tools
consultancy and the provision of information and documentation

Research

The CDL carries out predominantly qualitative research into processes and strategies of interculturalisation. The point of departure is not preconceived ideas but the everyday life of those involved. The aim is to obtain a better understanding of the way in which individuals and groups deal with diversity. Experiences to date have been concerned principally with methods of ethnographic research, action research and evaluation research carried out in classrooms, schools and in the school environment.

Training

The CDL trains officials from the field of education: teachers, school heads, middle managers, counselors, school advisers, tutors, teacher trainers, etc.
The training provided by the CDL is targeted at all areas and levels of education, with the exception of adult education. The findings of the research are systematically included in the programs offered.
The training offered by the CDL has the following aims:

to inform and motivate education actors to take up the challenge of interculturality
to enhance the professionalism of teachers in shaping high-quality teaching in contexts if increasing diversity and plurality
to develop strategies to identify and strengthen intercultural skills
to build an intercultural school climate, to support school advisory services and inspectorate in their supportive and evaluative role.

Development

The CDL develops both education materials and instruments. Concerning teaching-and-learning materials, the CDL opts for designing innovative and exemplary materials. The materials developed within the CLIM project exemplify this aim. CLIM stands for Co-operative Learning in Multicultural Groups. It is a Flemish variant of CI (Complex Instruction, a teaching method developed at Stanford University California). CLIM is a specific teaching supplement to intercultural education.

Next to teaching-and-learning materials, the CIE also produces other types of education material required fro realizing inter-cultural objectives: e.g. source books, training modules, packs and inventories.

Key actors in the process of interculturalisation, the teachers, headmasters/principals, school advisors and inspectorate, also need to monitor, plan and assess intercultural activities at classroom and school level. To that end the CIE develops instruments to enhance the internal quality control and the self-learning capacity of school staffs.

Consultancy and provision of information and documentation

The CDLis frequently requested to provide its expertise to the Flemish authorities and the education sector. Also outside education, for instance in welfare, the CDL becomes gradually well-known. Through its contacts abroad and participation in European projects (e.g. Socrates) the CDL aims to build up an international reputation as well.
The activities of the CIA include the provision of information and documentation. This provision is selective and preferably based on co-operation. The CDL has a library and documentation service specializing in scientific literature on intercultural education and related fields.

Those activities are all pursued with interculturality in mind and coordinated on the basis of constant exchange and co-operation within the multidisciplinary team.

Approach

The CDL adopts a pragmatic approach to interculturality. The point of departure is everyday social interaction rather than normative assumptions. The key concept is intercultural competence. This includes the skills, attitudes and cognitive characteristics required to adequately and flexibly deal with diversity as it occurs in social interaction and in subject content. It is a basic competence to survive in a world that becomes more and more diverse. We live in a society of social and cultural diversity and our world is becoming increasingly international through the globalization of the economy and growing possibilities for travel and communication. This requires a more effective contact between individuals and groups which differ among others at the social, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious level.
Teachers do not have to reinvent intercultural competence, for students are not blank pages, but have already skills, including intercultural skills. They should work on what is already there and develop it further. Furthermore, intercultural learning is innovative from an educational and didactic point of view. Working on intercultural competence means that teachers redefine their role, which is no longer transmitting the knowledge they dispose of, but rather becoming mediators, guides on the learning path.

International projects

Cooperative Learning in European Contexts (CLIEC)