Primary School Teachers’ Personal and Professional Beliefs on Diversity Željka Knežević 1 • The paper presents research conducted among Croatian primary school classroom teachers and subject teachers regarding their personal and professional beliefs about diversity. The notion of diversity in the context of education was presented as individual differences between students based on race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, abilities, sexual orien - tation and social class. The results indicate that teachers show different levels of openness towards certain aspects of diversity in the domains of both personal and professional beliefs, but that their personal beliefs are statistically more positive than their professional beliefs. Differences in teachers’ beliefs with respect to years of work experience, previous education and professional position were also examined. Statistically significant differences were established only regarding professional posi - tion and only in the segment of professional beliefs. The results indicate that there is a need for further research in this area, that is, research that primarily investigates the factors that influence teachers’ professional beliefs. Keywords: diversity, inclusive education, multicultural education, primary school, teachers’ beliefs 1 Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; ze.knezevic@gmail.com. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.1629 Published on-line as Recently Accepted Paper: October 2023 c e p s Journal primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 2 Osebna in poklicna prepričanja osnovnošolskih učiteljev glede raznolikosti Željka Knežević • V prispevku je predstavljena raziskava, opravljena med hrvaškimi osnovnošolskimi učitelji razrednega in predmetnega pouka, o njihovih osebnih in poklicnih prepričanjih glede raznolikosti. Pojem raznoliko - sti v kontekstu izobraževanja je bil predstavljen kot individualne razli - ke med učenci na podlagi rase, etnične pripadnosti, verskih prepričanj, spola, zmožnosti, spolne usmerjenosti in družbenega razreda. Izsledki kažejo, da učitelji na področju osebnih in poklicnih prepričanj kažejo različne stopnje odprtosti do nekaterih vidikov raznolikosti, vendar so njihova osebna prepričanja – statistično gledano – bolj pozitivna kot poklicna prepričanja. Preučene so bile tudi razlike v prepričanjih uči - teljev glede na leta delovnih izkušenj, predhodno izobrazbo in poklicni položaj. Statistično značilne razlike so bile ugotovljene le glede poklic - nega položaja in le v segmentu poklicnih prepričanj. Rezultati kažejo, da so na tem področju potrebne nadaljnje raziskave, z drugimi besedami raziskave, ki bi preučevale predvsem dejavnike, ki vplivajo na poklicna prepričanja učiteljev. Ključne besede: raznolikost, inkluzivno izobraževanje, multikulturno izobraževanje, osnovna šola, prepričanja učiteljev c e p s Journal 3 Introduction Processes such as globalisation, migration and increased individual mobility make nations around the world culturally more diverse. In this re - spect, numerous countries have been recording larger shares of immigrants. The result of this global trend is increased diversity in society, which is directly reflected in education and creates, above all, a challenge for teachers to success - fully respond to the needs of their students. Diversity is a very complex and layered notion. In the scientific litera - ture, it is viewed from various perspectives and defined in various ways (Puttick et. al., 2021). Regardless of the various perspectives, diversity, at its core, implies the understanding that individuals can differ from others they live with based on their characteristics (e.g., Arnesen et al., 2010; Mazziotta et al., 2016). In the field of education, diversity is defined as a wide range of differences in students’ characteristics and needs (OECD, 2019), which can “affect the specific ways in which developmental potential and learning are realised” (Burns & Shadoian- Gersing, 2010, p. 21). In addition to students’ interests and learning styles, these differences include abilities, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and immigrant and/or minority background, with the latter encompassing eth - nic and cultural heritage, religion and language (OECD, 2019). All of these vari - ables of diversity are considered dynamic and intertwined, so a comprehensive insight into the educational needs of students can only be achieved if they are researched as a whole and not separately (Banks, 2012). Such a broad notion of diversity presents both challenges and opportu - nities for the stakeholders involved in education (Banks, 2014). If not addressed adequately, pluralism in schools can lead to marginalisation and exclusion of students or groups of students. This was often the case in the past, when, under the influence of social circumstances, racial, ethnic, language, religious, gender and sexual minority groups, as well as people with disabilities, were discrimi - nated against or experienced inequality in educational contexts (Banks, 2012). In order to prevent discrimination and to make use of the added value diversity has for education systems and societies, scholars (e.g., Ameny-Dixon, 2004; Gay & Howard, 2000) advocate multicultural education. Multicultural educa - tion promotes equality and cultural pluralism, as it is founded on the assump - tion that “all students – regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, social class, and ethnic, racial or cultural characteristics – should have an equal op - portunity to learn in school” (Banks, 2014, p. 1). Moreover, contrary to concep - tions of diversity as a disadvantage that can be solved through assimilation of members of minority groups, as occurred in the past (Cochran-Smith, 2003), primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 4 multicultural education perceives diversity as a value that enriches society by offering all citizens the possibility to experience other cultures, thus contribut - ing to the development and growth of each individual’ s own personality (Banks, 2014; OECD, 2019). The notion that multicultural education is necessary only in settings with a large number of people of different ethnic backgrounds and cultures is therefore wrong. The aim of multicultural education is to prepare all students for life in a multicultural world marked by diversity by providing them with the “skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to function within their com - munity cultures, the mainstream culture and within and across other ethnic cultures” (Banks, 2014, p. 4). The value of diversity, with its broad spectrum of components, is also recognised in inclusive education policies whose focus is not solely the inte - gration of children with physical challenges into regular education, but an ap - propriate reaction to the educational needs of all students regardless of their differences (Booth, 1996; Bouillet, 2019; Žero & Pižorn, 2022). The aim of the inclusive approach is the transformation of education systems so that they can appropriately respond to the diversity of learners (UNESCO, 2003), meaning that “schools should accommodate all children regardless of their physical, in - tellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This should include disabled and gifted children, street and working children, children from remote or nomadic populations, children from linguistic, ethnic or cultural minorities and children from other disadvantaged or marginalized areas or groups” (UN - ESCO, 1994, p. 6). Respect of diversity in the broader sense, and the promotion of the de - scribed multicultural and inclusive educational practices, is advocated through education policies by an increasing number of European countries (European Commission, 2017). However, attainment of these educational aims depends primarily on the teachers’ readiness for their implementation. Here we refer to the readiness of all teachers regardless of the subject they are teaching, as each student is different and each subject taught has an obligation to respect diver - sity and offer all students equal learning opportunities (Gay, 2002; Guðjónsdót - tir & Óskarsdóttir, 2019; OECD, 2010). According to international documents on education policies (Arnesen et al., 2010; European Commission, 2017; OECD, 2019), the competences teach - ers should possess in order to adequately address diversity in their teaching are, inter alia, knowledge of diversity and respect for other cultures, skills for offer - ing appropriate answers to diversified teaching, the ability to create inclusive and safe learning environments, and the ability to establish appropriate com - munication and relationships with students, parents and colleagues of diverse c e p s Journal 5 social and cultural characteristics. The foundation for the development of these competences are teach - ers’ values, attitudes and beliefs (European Agency for Development in Spe - cial Needs Education, 2012; European Commission, 2017), which, along with knowledge and skills, make up one of the indispensable competency compo - nents dealing with diversity in teaching. Beliefs represent a particular filter to knowledge and directly affect the teacher’s actions (Bandura, 1982, in Pohan & Aguilar, 2001; see also Sakarneh, 2023; Žero & Pižorn, 2022). This is confirmed by research in the area of diversity showing that teachers’ beliefs about students based on some of their characteristics – whether the beliefs concern ethnicity, gender, religion or any other difference – have an effect on the ways in which teachers treat the students, as well as on the expectations teachers have of them (Cardona, 2005; Coronel & Gomez-Hurtado, 2015; Gay, 2010). The task of ini - tial teacher education is therefore to encourage teachers to critically examine their beliefs on diversity, develop positive attitudes towards all students, and develop beliefs that all students are capable of learning (OECD, 2019; Skepple, 2015). Due to the importance of future teachers’ attitudes and beliefs and the role of initial teacher education in their formation, a great deal of research on diversity has focused on examining pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs regarding diversity or their sense of readiness for working in multicultural classrooms (Altinsoy et al., 2018; Giambo & Szecsi, 2007; Puttick et al., 2021; Taylor et al., 2016). In order to better understand teacher behaviour related to diversity, however, it is also necessary to include working teachers in research. Teachers’ beliefs can be shaped by their practices (Liu et al., 2021), which de - velop and change under the influence of experience in teaching and the school environment (Agirdag et al., 2016; Aragona-Young & Sawyer, 2018). Further - more, teachers’ perspectives on diversity should be examined two-dimension - ally, from the personal and professional perspective. Research in the domain of teachers’ professional identity shows that the development of teachers’ identity is influenced by both their personal and professional beliefs and values (Ver - munt, 2016; Vizek Vidović & Domović, 2019), which is why Pohan and Aguilar (2001) argue that teachers’ professional and personal beliefs about the same diversity phenomenon need not always complement each other. This argument is confirmed by research on the personal and professional beliefs of teachers on diversity conducted by Cardona (2005) in the Alicante province in Spain, which showed that the participants had more positive professional than per - sonal beliefs. However, after ten years of research in the same province, Chiner et al. (2015) obtained the opposite results. Both studies nonetheless confirmed primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 6 that teachers’ beliefs are influenced by their teaching experience. The results revealed that teachers with little or no work experience were more open to di - versity from the professional point of view. Research of teachers’ beliefs or attitudes on diversity conducted in the Republic of Croatia has mostly focused on individual components of diver - sity, such as students’ gender (cf. Baranović et al., 2008), abilities (cf. Skočić Mihić et al., 2016), ethnicity (cf. Nuhanović, 2021) and cultural and linguistic diversity (cf. Cvikić & Novak Milić, 2015). Alternatively, it has examined the de - gree of respect of several aspects of diversity only among one group of teachers (Filipović, 2015). However, more comprehensive research on issues of diversity in the context of education has not been undertaken to date. Moreover, until now, teachers’ attitudes and beliefs have not been examined from a two-dimen - sional – personal and professional – perspective. In order to gain a broader picture regarding teachers’ perspectives on diversity, the aim of the present paper was to establish the personal and pro - fessional beliefs of primary school classroom teachers and subject teachers working in the Republic of Croatia about diversity. Accordingly, the following research questions were posed: 1. What are the personal and professional beliefs of teachers about diversity? 2. What is the degree of teachers’ personal and professional sensitivity to - wards particular aspects of diversity? 3. Are there differences in the personal and professional beliefs of teachers with respect to the presence of content related to issues of diversity in their initial education and with respect to their years of work experience and their professional position (classroom teacher/subject teacher)? Method Participants The sample of participants included 264 primary school classroom teachers and subject teachers. As can be seen in Table 1, most of the partici - pants in the research were women, with subject teachers dominating the sam - ple. Most of the participants were between 31 and 40 years of age and had 7–18 years of work experience. Almost half of the participants indicated the City of Zagreb as their place of work, while the proportion of those working in other counties is significantly smaller. c e p s Journal 7 Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants in % Socio-demographic characteristic Category % Gender woman 90.5 man 8 non-binary person 0.8 transgender person 0.4 did not state 0.4 Position classroom teacher 35.6 subject teacher 64.4 Age 20–30 17.4 31–40 30.3 41–50 28 51–60 18.9 60+ 5.3 Work experience 1–3 14 4–6 14.8 7–18 33 19–30 24.2 31–40 12.5 40+ 1.5 Place of work City of Zagreb 40.4 Krapina – Zagorje County 8.5 Zagreb County 7.7 Primorje – Gorski Kotar County 5.4 Osijek – Baranja County 5 Other counties less than 4% Instruments Data collection was undertaken using a questionnaire including a sec - tion with questions regarding the socio-demographic data of the participants and the number of courses in their initial education that dealt with diversity is - sues. T o examine the participants’ personal and professional beliefs about diver - sity, adapted scales developed by Pohan and Aguilar (2001) were used. Since the scales developed by Pohan and Aguilar (2001) proved to be reliable and valid, the number and the nature of statements in each scale was not been changed in the present research. The scale examining personal beliefs comprised a total of primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 8 15 statements referring to various aspects of race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, abilities, and linguistic and cultural differences. The scale for investigating professional beliefs encompassed 25 statements related to the same components of diversity as the scale for examining personal beliefs, but with added statements referring to issues of religion. The number of statements related to particular aspects of diversity varied in both scales, from three state - ments referring to gender issues in the personal beliefs scale to one statement referring to matters on sexual orientation in the professional beliefs scale. The level of agreement with a particular statement was expressed on a 5-point Likert Scale (1 = I don’t agree at all, 5 = I entirely agree). For both scales investigat - ing teachers’ beliefs on diversity, a satisfactory reliability of internal consistency was established. The Cronbach alpha for the scale teachers’ personal beliefs on diversity was .699, while for the scale professional beliefs it was .704. As indicated by Pohan and Aguilar (2001), in both scales lower values indicate a smaller level of acceptance of diversity, while higher values indicate a higher acceptance. Mid-range scores denote openness towards some aspects of diversity, and possible insecurity or uncertainty towards other components. Such scores can also point to a high level of acceptance of particular aspects and low tolerance of some other aspects. Chiner et al. (2015), who also used the scale developed by Pohan and Aguilar (2001), take the value 3.5 as the mean value according to which they determine lower and higher values of partici - pants’ sensitivity. This approach has been applied in the research presented in this paper as well. Data analysis The collected data were analysed using the statistical program SPSS (version 2.0). Descriptive parameters were calculated for all of the variables. The reliability of internal consistency was determined by calculating the Cron - bach alpha coefficient for the scales that measured the personal and profes - sional beliefs of the participants. The correlation between the scales was calcu - lated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (significance level 0.01). The t-test (significance level 0.05) was applied to establish differences in personal and professional beliefs, while the analysis of variance and the Kruskall-Wallis test (significance level 0.05) were applied to establish differences with respect to the independent variables. Research design Since online surveys represent a method by which potential respondents can be more easily approached (Van Selm & Jankowski, 2006), the research c e p s Journal 9 presented in this paper was conducted online in order to reach primary school teachers from all parts of Croatia. The questionnaire was distributed to vari - ous closed professional teacher association groups on social networks and was available for participants to fill in throughout the month of June 2022. The re - spondents were sent an invitation letter with a hyperlink to the web-based sur - vey. The letter clearly stated that only teachers working in primary schools were invited to participate in the survey. In order to ensure privacy and informed consent (Buchanan & Hvizdak, 2009), the introduction to the survey informed participants about the aim of the research and the fact that participation in the research is completely voluntary and anonymous. It was also stated that the participants could withdraw from the research at any time. No personal data or email addresses of the participants were collected. Results Teachers’ personal and professional beliefs about diversity Histogram 1 shows the distribution of the participants with respect to their personal beliefs about diversity. It is evident that most of the participants (41.9%) obtained results in the range from M = 4.07 to M = 4.73, which indi - cates a higher level of sensitivity towards diversity. Of the participants in the sample, 36.4% are found mid-scale, (from M = 3.60 to M = 4.00), while lower personal sensitivity towards diversity (from M = 2.53 to M = 3.53) is indicated by 18.4% of participants in the sample. Histogram 1 Distribution of the participants with respect to their personal beliefs on diversity N 2.3 Min. 2.53 Max. 4.73 M 3.91 C 4.00 D 4.20 SD 0.44 primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 10 An entirely different situation is observed with respect to the profes - sional beliefs of the participants in the sample. As presented in Histogram 2, the distribution according to the participants’ professional beliefs indicates that almost half of the participants (52.22%) tend to have a lower sensitivity towards diversity (from M = 2.28 to M = 3.52), 41.30% are mid-scale (from M = 3.56 to M = 4.00), while only 6.48% show a higher degree of openness towards diversity (from M = 4.04 to M = 4.68). Histogram 2 Distribution of the participants with respect to their professional beliefs on diversity N 247 Min. 2.28 Max. 4.68 M 3.50 C 3.52 D 3.40 SD 0.41 The observed differences between the personal and professional beliefs of the participants are also statistically significant ( t = 16.407, p = .00). Degree of sensitivity towards various aspects of diversity Modelled on Chiner et al. (2015), for a more transparent presentation of the teachers’ personal and professional beliefs, items from both scales were grouped according to the components of diversity that were examined. In this way, the categories obtained for the scale of both the teachers’ personal and professional beliefs were: linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity, social status, abilities, gender and sexual orientation. For the professional beliefs scale, the category religion was also determined, considering that it examined the profes - sional beliefs of teachers according to that aspect of diversity. To determine the aspects of diversity for which the teachers’ personal and professional beliefs are statistically significantly higher or lower from the mean value of 3.5, the one-sample t-test was applied. The degrees of personal sensitivity of teachers c e p s Journal 11 towards particular aspects of diversity are shown in Table 2, while levels of pro - fessional sensitivity are shown in Table 3. Table 2 Results of the one-sample t-test – levels of the teachers’ personal sensitivity towards particular aspects of diversity Aspects of diversity Beliefs N M t df p Linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity personal 260 3.54 1.523 259 .129 Social status personal 264 3.49 -.150 263 .881 Abilities personal 262 4.32 16.702 261 .000 Gender personal 262 4.28 19.474 261 .000 Sexual orientation personal 261 4.12 13.223 260 .000 N – number of participants, M – arithmetic mean, t – t-test value, df – degrees of freedom, p – statisti- cal significance The values of the arithmetic means in Table 2 show that in the domain of personal beliefs, teachers have a statistically significantly high level of sensitiv - ity towards differences between individuals based on abilities, gender and sex - ual orientation. In this regard, the participants entirely disagree with the state - ment enabling access to all public institutions for people with physical disabilities is financially very costly (M = 1.3), and they do not agree with the statement that people with physical disabilities are less efficient at work than people without physical disabilities (M = 2.0). As for gender sensitivity, the participants do not think that men are better leaders than women (M = 1.6). In the area of sexual orientation, they disagree with the statement that it is not right that same-sex couples raise children (M = 2.1), and they are of the opinion that people should develop friendships with persons of different sexual orientations (M = 4.2). When referring to linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity and social status, from the personal perspective teachers take a neutral or undecided position. In the area of linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity, teachers express complete agreement with the statement members of national minorities in Croatia should have equal opportunities for education and employment as the majority population (M = 4.9); however, they are uncertain regarding the statement that it is more impor- tant for migrants in Croatia to learn the Croatian language than to nurture their mother tongue (M = 2.9). Such contradictory viewpoints are also noticed in the domain of social status, where teachers take an indecisive position regarding the statement the cause of an individual’s poverty is their lack of motivation for finding a job (M = 2.7), while agreeing with the statement compared to men, primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 12 women in Croatia are in an economically more disadvantaged position (M = 3.7). From their personal point of view, low levels of sensitivity were not expressed by the teachers towards any of the aspects of diversity. From the teachers’ pro - fessional point of view, however, there is an observed statistically significantly lower level of sensitivity towards differences based on social status and gender. (cf. Table 3). Table 3 Results of the one-sample t-test – levels of the teachers’ professional sensi- tivity towards particular aspects of diversity Aspects of diversity Beliefs N M t df p Linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity Professional 258 3.59 2.762 257 .006 Social status Professional 260 3.08 -7.842 259 .000 Abilities Professional 262 3.42 -1.867 261 .063 Gender Professional 259 2.90 -13.586 258 .000 Sexual orientation Professional 263 4.55 18.165 262 .000 Religion Professional 261 4.16 12.050 260 .000 N – number of participants, M – arithmetic mean, t – value of the t-test, df – degrees of freedom, p – statistical significance For the part of the questionnaire that examined the professional beliefs of the teachers based on social status, the participants express disagreement with the statement that teachers frequently have lower expectations from students of a lower socio-economic status (M = 2.6). As for the area of gender diversity, they disagree with the statement that men have more opportunities for success in natural sciences than women (M = 2.6). The teachers are indecisive in the do - main of professional beliefs regarding linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity, and towards abilities. With respect to linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity, the teachers’ uncertainty is reflected in the obtained mean value for the state - ment education in Croatia is not adjusted to the needs of minority/migration groups (M = 3.2), while in the area of abilities, the mean value obtained for the statement teachers should group students according to their abilities was M = 2.9. In the professional domain, teachers show a high level of sensitivity towards differences between individuals based on sexual orientation and reli - gious affiliation. The participants entirely disagree with the statement homosex- uals should not work in schools (M = 1.5), but with respect to religious affiliation, they agree with the statement that it would be good if teachers and students were familiar with characteristics of different religions (M = 4.4). c e p s Journal 13 Differences in the personal and professional beliefs of teachers Differences with respect to initial education In order to examine differences in the personal and professional beliefs of teachers with respect to their initial education, the participants were asked, inter alia, to mark the degree to which particular topics related to diversity had been present in their programme of study. As can be seen from the data in Graph 1, the highest number of participants stated that they had encountered issues of inclusion during their initial education, with 42.2% reporting that the topic had been represented in at least one course and 28.9% stating that they had encountered this issue in several courses during their programme of study. According to their estimates, an almost equal number of participants encoun - tered the issue of multilingualism within one course (40.2%) or several courses (26.5%) during their study. The topics that more than 40% of participants did not encounter at all during their initial education were democratic citizenship (43.2%) and development of intercultural competence (44.9%) Graph 1 Estimate of the representation of particular topics in the teachers’ initial education expressed in percentages Although the values shown in Graph 1 indicate differences in the par - ticipants’ familiarity with particular aspects of diversity, a correlation between initial education and the personal and professional beliefs of teachers was not established. In order to examine differences between the teachers according to primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 14 their personal and professional beliefs and with respect to their previous educa - tion, a one-way analysis of variance was conducted. The results of the analysis did not show statistically significant differences in personal beliefs (Develop - ment of intercultural competence: F = 2.075, p = .128; Plurilingualism: F = .495, p = .610; Inclusion: F = .276, p = .759; Democratic citizenship: F = .863, p = .423), nor in the professional beliefs of the participants (Development of in - tercultural competence: F = .498, p = .608; Plurilingualism: F = 1.039, p = .356; Inclusion: F = .463, p = .630; Democratic citizenship: F = .700, p = .497) with respect to their estimate of the representation of particular content related to diversity during their course of study. Differences with respect to work experience As in the case of previous education, statistically significant differences in the teachers’ beliefs were not encountered with respect to years of work ex - perience. Considering that for professional beliefs, the assumption of the ho - mogeneity of variance was not satisfactory, the Kruskall-Wallis test was applied (Personal beliefs: F = .639, p = .635; Professional beliefs: H = 9.200, p = .056). According to the mean values shown in Table 4, greater deviations in the personal beliefs of the participants with respect to years of work experience are not observed (from M = 3.86 to M = 3.97). As for the professional beliefs of the teachers, those with 4 to 6 years of work experience (M = 3.36) and those with 19 to 30 years of work experience (M = 3.41) have a somewhat lower level of sensitivity towards diversity than their older and younger colleagues. The high - est level of professional sensitivity towards diversity (M = 3.61) was detected among teachers who have just entered the profession. Table 4 Personal and professional beliefs of the teachers regarding diversity with respect to years of work experience Years of work experience N Personal beliefs Professional beliefs M SD M SD 1–3 37 3.97 .42515 3.61 .44952 4–6 39 3.89 .45323 3.36 .53573 7–18 87 3.96 .40418 3.55 .33386 19–30 64 3.86 .44725 3.41 .36396 31–40 and more 37 3.92 .50366 3.57 .37133 Total 264 3.91 .43865 3.50 .40568 N – number of participants, M – arithmetic mean, SD – standard deviation c e p s Journal 15 Differences with respect to professional position Statistically significant differences in the participants’ beliefs were estab - lished only for their professional position and only with respect to the teach - ers’ professional beliefs. The results of the t-test for independent samples with respect to professional position are shown in Table 5. Table 5 Results of the t-test for independent samples – comparison of participants’ professional beliefs with respect to their professional position (classroom teacher or subject teacher) Aspects of diversity Professional position N M t df p Linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity Classroom teacher 94 3.59 .122 253 .903 Subject teacher 161 3.58 Social status Classroom teacher 95 2.87 -2.810 255 .005 Subject teacher 162 3.18 Abilities Classroom teacher 96 3.54 2.114 257 .035 Subject teacher 163 3.35 Gender Classroom teacher 95 2.79 -1.885 254 .061 Subject teacher 161 2.96 Sexual orientation Classroom teacher 97 4.50 -.491 258 .624 Subject teacher 163 4.56 Religion Classroom teacher 95 4.07 -1.224 256 .222 Subject teacher 163 4.21 N – number of participants, M – arithmetic mean, t – value of the t-test, df – degrees of freedom, p – statistical significance The values shown in Table 5 indicate statistically significant differences in the professional beliefs of the classroom teachers and subject teachers related to social status (p = .005) and ability (p = .035). Although the range of arith - metic means for both groups of participants and for both aspects of diversity show that the classroom teachers and subject teachers are generally undeter - mined, the results of the t-test show that the subject teachers have a some - what higher level of sensitivity towards diversity based on social status, while the classroom teachers have a somewhat higher sensitivity towards differences based on abilities. primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 16 Discussion The research presented provides an insight into the personal and pro - fessional beliefs of primary school teachers on diversity. The results show that teachers’ personal beliefs on diversity are statistically more positive than their professional beliefs, which is in agreement with some previous research find - ings of Chiner et al. (2015). The total mean value on the scale of personal beliefs (M = 3.91) indicates a high level of the participants’ sensitivity towards diversity. In the area of professional beliefs, the participants are at the middle part of the scale (M = 3.50), which means that their professional beliefs are undetermined. With respect to particular components of diversity, correspondences between the personal and professional beliefs of the teachers are noticeable with regard to sexual orientation, towards which the participants show a high level of sensitivity in both domains. Professionally, the level of the teachers’ sensitivity towards sexual orientation in comparison to other diversity variables is the highest, followed by a high level of openness towards religious diver - sity. A possible explanation for the sensitivity towards sexual orientation can be found in the structure of the participants, the vast majority of whom were female (90.5%). In addition to having more positive attitudes towards homo - sexuals (Longin, 2014; Parmač, 2005), research shows that women demonstrate a greater readiness for inclusion in activities directed towards improving their social status (Huić et al., 2016). Besides their beliefs regarding sexual orienta - tion, teachers’ personal and professional beliefs are also identical with respect to linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity. In this respect, teachers’ personal and professional beliefs are undetermined, i.e., it is possible that the personal beliefs of teachers influence their professional beliefs in this aspect of diversity. These results complement the results of a national survey of Croatian citizens’ attitudes towards cultural diversity, which showed that almost every third citi - zen does not have a firm attitude regarding the role of minorities in Croatian society. This “points to significant confusion and indetermination regarding majority-minority relationships and perhaps even social conformism” (Mesić & Bagić, 2011, p. 17). Teachers show differences in personal and professional beliefs with re - spect to diversity based on gender, social status and abilities. In the domain of personal beliefs, the participants have a highly developed sensitivity towards gender diversity, while in the domain of professional beliefs this sensitivity is low. Such discrepancies between personal and professional aspects of life have been shown by other research conducted among high school teachers (c.f. Baranović et al., 2008) according to which teachers in Croatia have a developed c e p s Journal 17 awareness of gender equality, but nonetheless readily discriminate against stu - dents based on gender. It seems that in education, gender awareness has not been sufficiently developed, and that the traditional view of gender inequality still prevails (Baranović & Jugović, 2011). A similar conclusion can be drawn with respect to differences in teachers’ personal and professional beliefs re - lated to issues of social status. Teachers’ personal beliefs towards differences based on social status are undetermined, while professionally they show a low degree of sensitivity. Although numerous international studies (e.g., Mostafa, 2020; Mullis, 2023) indicate that students’ social status affects their educational achievement, it seems that teachers do not have a sufficiently developed aware - ness of this issue. The divergence between personal and professional beliefs of teachers becomes distinct with respect to differences based on abilities. In the domain of personal beliefs, teachers show a high degree of sensitivity, but they are undetermined from their professional viewpoint. The findings in the area of personal beliefs are comparable with the results of research conducted on the general population indicating positive attitudes among the majority of citi - zens of the Republic of Croatia towards persons and children with disabilities (e.g., Najman Hižman et al., 2008; Vidaković et al., 2022). From the professional point of view, the indetermination of teachers towards issues of ability could be a result of their experiences in teaching practice, which, as indicated in the introduction of this paper, could also shape their beliefs. Although previous research has indicated that differences in the profes - sional beliefs of teachers with respect to years of work experience are statistical - ly significant (Cardona, 2005; Chiner et al., 2015), the present research did not establish such differences. However, the mean values obtained for professional beliefs show that teachers with fewer years of work experience have a higher level of sensitivity towards differences than their more experienced colleagues, which is consistent with previous research. Considering the fact that teachers’ beliefs change and form depending on their experiences in teaching (Giambo & Szecsi, 2007), it seems that teachers professionally become less sensitive to - wards differences with more work experience. This opens the question regard - ing the cause of this change in the professional beliefs of teachers, particularly if we consider the fact that their personal beliefs on differences remain mostly positive regardless of work experience. In addition to the influence of work experience on teachers’ beliefs, pre - vious research also shows a correlation between initial education and the de - gree of openness of teachers towards particular components of diversity (Cvikić & Novak Milić, 2015; Skočić Mihić et al., 2016) or diversity in general (Giambo & Szecsi, 2007). The present research established that the teachers had courses primary school teachers’ personal and professional beliefs on diversity 18 in their initial teacher education in which issues of diversity were discussed, but the correlation between the representation of particular courses in the pro - gramme of study and the participants’ beliefs did not emerge as statistically significant. If we take into account research results that have established the influence of initial teacher education on the formation of the positive beliefs of teachers towards diversity (Puttick et. al., 2021) and results of the internation - al TALIS 2018 research (Markočić Dekanić et al., 2019a), according to which teachers in the Republic of Croatia feel the least prepared for teaching students of various abilities and for teaching in a multicultural and plurilingual environ - ment, the issue of initial teacher education in the Republic of Croatia regarding diversity should definitely be explored in more detail. According to the results obtained, possible changes in programmes of study should take place. Statistically significant differences in the participants’ beliefs were es - tablished only with respect to professional position, and only for two compo - nents of diversity in the domain of professional beliefs. Compared to classroom teachers, subject teachers show a somewhat higher level of sensitivity towards differences based on social status. On the other hand, classroom teachers show a higher level of sensitivity towards abilities than subject teachers. The reason for the higher sensitivity of subject teachers towards differences based on social status could be found in the greater likelihood of differences between students coming to the fore in the higher grades of primary school (Markočić Dekanić et. al., 2019b). Classroom teachers’ greater sensitivity towards students’ abilities could be explained from the point of view of their initial teacher education. Courses related to issues of inclusion have been present for around 35 years in the initial teacher education of classroom teachers, and the correlation be - tween teachers’ beliefs on inclusion and the representation of such content in their programme of study has been demonstrated empirically (Skočić Mihić & Gabrić, 2016). Nonetheless, considering that statistically significant differences between classroom teachers and subject teachers have not been established, ex - cept for in the areas of ability and social status, it is not possible to make general conclusions on the differences between the professional beliefs of teachers with respect to their professional position. Conclusion The research conducted has certain limitations that should be taken into account in the interpretation of the results obtained. Considering the character - istics of the instrument applied in the research and the sample size, the results described provide only an initial depiction of the personal and professional c e p s Journal 19 beliefs of primary school teachers on diversity in the broader sense, and there - fore primarily present a foundation for further research in this area. As the results show that teachers’ personal beliefs regarding diversity are more positive than their professional beliefs, it is particularly important that future research include issues related to factors that influence teachers’ professional beliefs in order to better understand this finding. Likewise, the finding that teachers with more work experience become less sensitive professionally towards differences requires comprehensive research on the possible causes of this development in their professional work. Moreover, it suggests that all issues dealing with diversity in teaching should be part of teachers’ professional development on an ongoing basis, as diversity is not a static but a dynamic construct that changes over the years. Differences in the degree of professional openness of teachers towards particular components of diversity indicate that initial teacher edu - cation should include issues of diversity more comprehensively. 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Undergraduate and graduate students’ beliefs about dyslexia: Implications for initial foreign language teacher education. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 12 (4), 101–127. https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.1432 Biographical note Željka Knežević, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Department for German language Teacher Education at the Faculty of Teacher Education, Uni - versity of Zagreb, Croatia, where she teaches courses related to European lan - guage policy, plurilingualism, intercultural competence and foreign language didactics. Her research interest lies in plurilingual and intercultural educa - tion, foreign language learning and teaching, teacher education and teachers’ competences.