Come to stay – start studying at the PH Vienna

They are the elementary school teachers and vocational school teachers of tomorrow, as well as the leisure educators who ensure that there is educationally valuable free time after class, away from lunch and homework, and they will accompany the youngest members of society in kindergarten. They will learn what they need in the next intensive semesters at the University of Education in Vienna. During the Welcome Days 24, they already got a small insight into the challenges they will face. The major social theme that runs through the entire training, but is also reflected in the practical experiences of those who have already gained initial experience in classrooms, is the competent handling of plurality, variety and diversity. “School needs to be thought of in a more courageous and creative way than we are used to. We therefore set conscious accents in the curriculum and in the professorships, which also deal with topics such as parental cooperation and social space.”says Rector Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger about her approach to urban diversity education using a seemingly small example. “If educators only contact parents when the child is failing at school, then that is far too late to build a good relationship with each other. Parents who have heard good things about their child are much more likely to talk to the teacher if something isn’t going well.”illustrates Herzog-Punzenberger. And this type of thinking could be transferred to many areas, and it could finally be possible for multilingualism, socio-cultural affiliations and other differences to be viewed and treated not as deficits, but as a resource, she is convinced. International experience supports this approach. At the campus in Favoriten, innovative concepts are therefore specifically pursued and implemented. The students who came to PH Vienna in the first week of October are, on the one hand, full of joy and hope for the start of an interesting education and, on the other hand, they have already gained a first impression of what urban diversity education means in concrete terms. In seminars, lectures, workshops, but also in joint readings and discussions, it became clear that dealing with diversity will be a lifelong enrichment.