There have been many theories about cultural differences found between groups on intelligence test scores. The main debate has been between those in favor of a genetic explanation versus those in favor of a more environmental one. When considering environmental influences, one explanation has been that there could be differential effects due to the assessor. Although there have been several studies that have considered this possibility, the results are inconclusive. The current study attempted to tease apart the assessor effects by focusing on biases in the assessor alone and by eliminating effects from the test taker. The study is an experimental design where participants were randomly assigned a WISC-III protocol of members of different ethnic groups. It was hypothesized that different groups may score these IQ tests differentially depending on the race/ethnicity of the person who was assessed. Results showed that when given identical protocols, participants scored African American protocols lower than Caucasian American protocols in both high and average IQ conditions. Clinical implications of these results are discussed.

Statistics show that “ethnic affiliation” and “disability”, under the discrimination law, with a margin constitute most of the discrimination reports made in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The purpose of this thesis is to describe how Östergötland's local media construct and maintain the image of people who are protected by law of discrimination. Our goal is to explain of how the media can have the power to influence society's general perception of these two groups. Through the social constructionism theory and the critical discourse analysis, we explain how general perceptions of these groups can lead to negative attitudes and discrimination. Through a critical discourse analysis and a qualitative text analysis of articles from Östgöta Correspondenten and Norrköpings Tidningar regarding these groups showed that people with disabilities were often presented as a "burden" of some kind and rarely described as "just” individuals but instead defined or biasedly nuanced based on their disability. People with foreign background were generalized and forced to represent a larger group. The topic of the articles were often negative, and it was common with dehumanization and objectification. The media, which is easily accessible as newspaper articles can generate in common "truths" that might collectively lead to social action. Our study result shows that media reflects a society, in which people with disability and foreign background are marginalized and placed outside the norm. That kind of categorization may likely lead to negative attitudes and exclusion for the affected groups.

In light of alarming rises in the prevalence of obesity worldwide, tackling the obesity ‘epidemic’ is now a national health priority in many countries. Increasingly, population measures that provide accurate estimates of body fatness in children are required. Body mass index (BMI), or weight standardised for height, remains the most cost-effective and practical tool in this regard. However, there is evidence that the association between BMI and body fatness is variable in children from different ethnic backgrounds. The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the appropriateness of BMI thresholds for defining overweight and obesity in female children and adolescents from five diverse ethnic groups. Secondary objectives were to examine the associations between weight control practices and perceptions, and to compare objectively-measured physical activity levels with participation in active transport (AT). In order to achieve the primary aim stated above, it was necessary to obtain valid and reliable measures of body fat percentage (%BF) in a large sample of children. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is well suited for this purpose, providing a portable and cost-effective means to estimate fat-free mass (and subsequently %BF). While equations exist for European, Maori, and Pacific Island children, findings from the preliminary study described in Chapter 2 demonstrate that there are no BIA equations appropriate for Chinese and Indian children. Given that these two groups are two of the fastest growing ethnicities in New Zealand, a new equation was developed that enables Asian girls to be included in future BIA research. The main study of this thesis involved a large-scale investigation of body composition in New Zealand’s five major ethnic groups (European, Maori, Pacific Island, East Asian, and South Asian). A total of 1,081 adolescent girls aged 11-16 years participated in the Girls’ Activity and Body Composition (ABC) Study. To extend the age range, data were combined with another study of 5-11-year-old New Zealand children (595 girls), coined the Body-Size and Steps in Children (BASIC) Study. Both studies measured BMI from height and weight, %BF from bio impedance measurements, and physical activity using sealed multiday memory pedometers over five consecutive days. A questionnaire was also administered to the adolescent-aged girls to gather data related to weight perceptions and practices. Initial analyses of the main dataset demonstrated that existing BMI definitions of overweight were relatively insensitive for predicting excess %BF in South and East Asian girls. Conversely, low specificity was observed for Pacific Island and Maori children. These findings provided the rationale for the second set of analyses: the development of BMI cut-off points that correspond to an equivalent level of %BF across all ethnicities. The adjusted BMI curves for overweight and obesity ranged from an average of 3.3 and 3.8 kg.m-2 (respectively) lower than international standards in South Asian girls to 1.5 and 1.9 kg.m-2 higher in Pacific Island girls. Clearly, the proposed changes will have significant effect on our estimates of overweight and obesity in this population group. Subsequent investigation revealed that many adolescent girls misclassify their weight status. However, the number of girls trying to lose weight exceeded those who perceived themselves as being overweight, with the magnitude of the difference dependent on ethnicity. It was concluded that interventions and educational campaigns that assist girls in recognising a state of excess body fat are a priority for all ethnic groups to ensure that behavioural changes necessary to combat widespread overweight and obesity are adopted. Finally, it was observed that the physical activity levels of the participants were significantly lower on weekends (9,528  4,407) than on weekdays (12,597  3,630). Furthermore, a consistent decline in daily step counts was observed with age: after adjustment for ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES), girls in school years 9-10 achieved 2,469 (weekday) and 4,011 (weekend) fewer steps than girls in years 1-2. Daily step counts also varied by ethnicity, with Maori girls the most active and South Asian girls the least active. Overall, girls who used AT to and from school averaged 1,052 more weekday steps than those who did not use AT. These data suggest that adolescent-aged girls and girls of Asian descent are priority groups for future physical activity interventions, and that the promotion of AT in girls appears to be worthwhile.

The internationalisation of universities has attracted significant political and even media attention, as well as internal focus. Concurrently, global discourses evolving around the notion of borders, terrorism, security and identity have taken on a renewed significance. Today, the articulation of identities has significant and even dire consequences for many people living in different parts of the world. In Australia, too, the matter of what it means to be ethnic, indigenous, non-indigenous or mixed-race is highly contested, controversial and for some groups of people, in particular contexts, even dangerous. In Australian higher education, the term international is commonly used to refer to the other - citizens of other countries (including those who visit our educational institutions). They are seen as the global citizens and we are not. Cultural diversity is widely celebrated and legislated through the Commonwealth Government?s Living in Harmony policy. Yet there is a dearth of knowledge and/or discussion around members of staff who are different in our own universities. This raises questions about how we come to differentiate between us and them in an Australian socio-historical context, understanding how race and ethnic difference is made salient in identification, and the knowledge production process. This is a small-scale, in-depth qualitative study, which addresses a significant gap in the literature on higher education by focusing on the experiences of four women educators of colour, each of whom has brought with her a complex collage of diasporic experiences, histories, identities and ways of knowing. By employing a multi-race/ethnic dialogic methodology and a research conversation method, the study presents the women?s experiences in narrative form, integrating the autoethnographic writing of the researcher with the women?s stories about difference. The inquiry provides new insights into what race and ethnic identity mean to the women in an everyday, professional and ethical practice context. The women?s stories are not of the traditional career or romantic multicultural kind, but reach into the realms of the personal, political, philosophical and spiritual dimensions of human experience. As they traverse the political terrain of the Academy, the women have looked within and outside the university, navigating multiple identities to make sense of their work. By documenting four women?s experiences that have never been documented before, this small-scale study provides basic research for others to build on. This research affirms the salience of race and ethnicity in the university and the new higher education knowledge creation ethos. The study reveals there is little current evidence that Australian universities are capitalising on and applying opportunities provided by research on race, ethnicity and difference to higher education debate and reform. The women?s stories reveal that the issue of under-representation of women of colour is not unique to the university, but is reflective of the powerful and constitutive impact of discourses of race and difference in Australian society. By highlighting the issues of who has the power and authority in the university to determine what counts as a valid identity and how identity and knowledge boundaries are policed within the Australian university, this research raises questions about the wider implications of epistemological racism embedded in university practices in relation to governance, curriculum, policy, teaching and learning. Through its development and exploration of a multiple race and ethnic dialogic methodology, and the use of research conversations as a method, the study sheds new light on the complexities of Australian race politics in knowledge production and on women?s differentiated experiences in higher education.

This research is concerned with ethnic identity and focuses on the experiences of my tribe, the Ngai Tahu of the South Island of New Zealand, as a case study. Material drawn from interviews with eight Ngai Tahu respondents are used to illustrate the factors influencing Ngai Tahu identity, which include whakapapa, land, language, tikanga, mahinga kai, the Claim, our legal identity, and the perceptions of significant others. These factors are discussed within the context of the wider Maori identity and the New Zealand environment. The interviews also provide an insight into the personal nature of Ngai Tahu cultural identity and the experiences of the respondents in terms of inclusion and exclusion from the general Maori identity. A theoretical base on the issues of cultural identity development is gained from the literature and used as a framework for discussing Ngai Tahu identity development. This research investigates the development of pan-Maori identity and how it has manifested itself within New Zealand society. The cultural criteria used to measure and assess membership in the Maori ethnic collective are often inadequate and inappropriate for Ngai Tahu and within the Ngai Tahu context. This research illustrates how the environment and the choices it offers to people of Ngai Tahu identity both in the past and the present. I will argue that Ngai Tahu identity is largely a product of its circumstance. Although primordialist notions such as whakapapa are consistently present in that identity, the weight that they carry is largely determined by the political and cultural environment and context. The project concludes with an assessment of the level of appreciation given to differences that exist within different sections of Maoridom and the need to understand the validity and legitimacy of those differences if a positive sense of cultural identity is to be achieved.

<p>Cultural bias in health assessment has been asserted in various scientific reports. The aim of this study was to determine whether ethnicity effects how patients are represented in such medical certificates that are needed to obtain a certain Swedish social insurance. The setting was an analysis of 18 medical certificates for patients whose parents were born in Sweden, respectively of 18 medical certificates of patients whose parents immigrated to Sweden from non European countries. The main objective was comparison of the two groups to test for ethnical heteronormative representations of the patients and their parents. The method used is mainly based on critical discourse analysis in combination with Fowlers (1996) semantic tools used to decipher disparity in the discourse. The text analysis is combined with theories of Said (1978), Johansson (1993) and de los Reyes (2006) regarding social representations of the ethnically non European “The Others”. Results of the study show that presentations of the two ethnical groups generally do differ both when it comes to representations of the patient as well as of the parent. Substantial differences are found in descriptions of patient aggression and asocial behaviour. The results render the conclusion that ethnical heteronormative representations can be found even in such documents that have the purpose of objectively certifying individual circumstances, conditions and difficulties.</p>

<p>Syftet med föreliggande studie har varit att undersöka vad unga arbetslösa med utomeuropeisk bakgrund anser om sin situation och sina framtidsmöjligheter, för att få en ökad förståelse om deras situation och upplevelser.</p><p>Undersökningen har byggt på kvalitativa samtalsintervjuer med sex respondenter med utomeuropeisk härkomst i åldrarna 16-25. Studien har utgått från en hermeneutisk ansats och analysen har byggt på tidigare forskning samt socialpsykologiska teorier.</p><p>Resultaten visar att individerna upplever att de står utanför samhället och dess sociala medborgarskap pga. avsaknaden av ett arbete samt att de anser sig stämplad en negativ social identitet av samhället, både i arbetslivet och på fritiden, vilket följaktligen bidragit till social exklusion och sämre förutsättningar till erhållandet av arbete. Därtill framkommer det en efterlysning från dessa individer av en annorlunda individanpassad arbetssätt för minoritetsgrupper med handläggare med kulturkompetens, för att följaktligen skapa bättre förutsättningar till arbete för dem.</p>

<p>Studien bygger på en analys av svenska tidningars skrivelser kring verksamheten Sharaf Hjältar, en verksamhet tillsatt av den feministiska organisationen Elektra. I denna studie visar jag på hur bland annat invandrare, kultur samt kvinnoförtryck som sker bland svenska invandrare gestaltas i svensk media. Fokus har legat på att visa hur media, genom att stereotypifiera och stigmatisera kulturer, beteenden och identiteter skapar en bild av invandrare i det svenska samhället. Studien visar hur invandrare framställs som bland annat en homogen grupp som fungerar i kollektiva former samt hur invandrare sätts i en stark motsatsbild till ”svenskar” och ”svenskhet”. I studien behandlas således även konstruktionen av ”vi” och ”dom”.</p>

<p>That parents should be a part in their children’s education is something that we educationalist wish for the future. Research show that if you have a good relation between parents and school, it can help a student's educational process. In this study I have concentrated on the Swedish minority group Roma. The study is qualitative and based on interviews with Roma. The goal of my study has been that with hermeneutics perspectives analyse some Romani parent’s experiences of their children schools. I have interviewed a mother who sent her children to a class who had only Romani students. I have also made a group interview with 15 students between 22-28 years of age, which have children in the ordinary Swedish schools. In my results I have come to the conclusion that the schools in general should get more education about the Romani culture and history so that mainstream students can understand the situation of the Romani minority in the society today. To spread knowledge of the Romani culture would be an important issue to get a revised picture about the Romani minority and to change the general view that people today still have about the Roma. </p>

<p>The purpose of this thesis was to investigate in which way samis in Stockholm relate to their identity in lack of their language. Four sami living in Stockholm have been interviewed. Furthermore, books, laws, and rules regarding the language and living of the samis are investigated.</p><p>It is shown that historical factors and episodes still are the bases of how they are influenced and relate to their identity, group belonging, and ethnicity.</p><p>The questions of the principles behind ones identifying as a sami, and if there is any difference compared to the corresponding principles of the rest of the society, are also dealt with.</p><p>It is clearly shown that Samis are not an outdated people, but rather a people that follow the general social and technical development.</p><p>It is concluded that samis who live and grow up in Stockholm today which don’t practice reindeer husbandry and lack the sami language, have difficulties in feeling fully acceptance in there identity as samis.</p>