The 'Centre for diversity and learning' (CDL) (formerly Centre for Intercultural Education) is part of the MULTIPLES research group at Ghent University in Flanders, Belgium. The principal goal of the CDL is to support the diversity management 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 diversity in our present societies and the consequences of this for education and within education. Diversity covers a wide range of individual and group differences as well as inequalities: cultural, ethnic, linguistic, social, sexual etc. The CDL does not only reflect upon diversity and learning in 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 CDL brings together a range of activities: research, in-service teacher training, development of materials and tools, consultancy. These activities are all pursued with diversity in mind and coordinated on the basis of constant exchange and cooperation within the multidisciplinary team.
The CDL carries out predominantly qualitative research into processes and strategies of dealing with diversity. The point of departure is not preconceived ideas but the everyday life and the negotiation and construction of meanings of those involved. The aim is to obtain a better understanding of the way in which individuals and groups deal with diversity, particularly in learning environments. Experiences to date have been concerned principally with methods of ethnographic research, action research and evaluation research carried out in classrooms, schools and the school environment.