Summary: | <p><strong>Background</strong>: this study is a necessary antecedent to understand the progress of the attention given to diversity of Dentistry students.</p><p><strong>Objective</strong>: to critically assess the historical antecedents of the attention given to diversity of Dentistry students in the teaching-learning process.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: a qualitative historical research was carried out. The historical-logical, analysis-synthesis and inductive-deductive methods were used among the theoretical research techniques. The empirical level included documentary analysis and interviews. Two indicators were defined for the historical analysis: a) the conceptualization of the attention to diversity and b) the attention given to diversity in the teaching-learning process. The recourses available in the Infomed network and other sources in the Internet were used.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: a characterization of the three stages that were object of interest was brought. The stages range from 1979 to 2019. The first stage (1979-1984), the attention given to the diversity of the students was not a preoccupation of the teachers; the second stage (1984-2011), the attention given to diversity was very limited and was established as a function only of the guiding teachers; and the third stage (2011-2019), which was characterized by conceptual advances on the attention to diversity of the students, with limitations in its practical unfolding in the training of dentists.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: the two main trends of the attention given to diversity of Dentistry students in the teaching-learning process were revealed.</p>
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