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At a Midwestern university, White novice teachers struggled to be prepared to implement culturally responsive pedagogy. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore White novice teachers' perceptions about how their higher education classroom experiences had equipped them for teaching a culturally diverse population of students. The theoretical/conceptual frameworks of this study were White identity development theory, a multicultural education framework, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching. Data were collected by interviewing 8 White novice teachers to convey their perceptions of teaching culturally diverse classrooms and how these perceptions influenced their behaviors. Data were organized by organizational, substantive, and theoretical categories. The themes that emerged from the data were the need for additional cultural knowledge, the implementation of supportive measures, barriers to supporting cultural diversity in classrooms, and the importance of cultural interpersonal skills. This study may lead to positive social change for teacher educators, novice teachers, as well as school districts by developing their understanding of how to support White novice teachers with strategies for teaching culturally diverse students.

Thesis Perception of cultural differences in children with different mother tongue and children from bilingual environment is a case study at a specific primary school. The theoretical part deals with methodology of education of pupils with different mother tongue than Czech and the methodology of education of pupils living in a bilingual environment. Furthermore, the cultural differences, the identification of cultural clashes is explained here. The thesis also deals with the issue of national minorities in the Czech Republic, stereotypes and labelling. The practical part is focused on finding out whether the students with different mother tongue and students from bilingual environment perceive cultural differences at a particular primary school. How the school and pedagogical support them to integrate into the mainstream teaching. Keywords different mother tongue, bilingual environment, cultural diversity, stereotypes, prejudices, identity, national minorities, labelling

Parent-teacher communication is a key element of parent-teacher relationship and of family involvement. Such communication influences children's wellbeing and academic success. There are many gaps in the literature regarding the dynamics of parent-teacher communication and how this influences family and school literacy practices. Using a qualitative design, this case study focused on the communication of a family from a culturally and linguistically diverse background and the children's teachers. The study examined the conceptions of communication and perspectives on parent-teacher communication of a mother and three teachers. The study also examined the diverse ways they communicated literacy practices and expectations to one another and the outcomes derived from their communication. Findings of this study revealed that parent-teacher communication is a complex process influenced by multiple factors related to the microsystems of school and home and the varied ways they interact. The study found a disconnection between parent and teacher communication conceptions and approaches.

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Bakgrund Antalet invandrare som kommer till Sverige har ökat de senaste åren. Sjuksköterskor i vården stöter allt mer på patienter med kulturella och språkliga skillnader. Ett bra möte mellan sjuksköterska och patient, där båda kan förstå varandra, är viktigt för att få en god och säker vård. Det är av stor vikt att sjuksköterskor har kunskap om transkulturell omvårdnad för att möta patientens unika behov på vägen mot hälsa. Syfte Syftet var att belysa språkbarriärer i mötet mellan sjuksköterska och patient med kulturella och språkliga skillnader.  Metod En litteraturöversikt valdes som metod för att göra en sammanställning av tidigare gjord forskning kring det valda ämnet. Totalt 17 vetenskapliga artiklar inkluderades.  Resultat I resultatet framkom tre kategorier: språkbarriär, kulturell kompetens samt brist och tillgång till tolk. De tre kategorierna delas in i tre subkategorier format i en tabell. Resultatet visade vidare att språkbarriären utgjorde det största hindret i kommunikationen mellan sjuksköterskan och patient med invandrarbakgrund. Kulturell kompetens och brist och tillgång till tolk, var två andra hinder av betydelse i kommunikationen.  Slutsats För att kunna ge god omvårdnad behöver sjuksköterskan kommunicera med patienten och dessutom ha en viss förståelse för patientens kulturella bakgrund. Det är viktigt att sjuksköterskor får utbildning inom transkulturell omvårdnad. Med mer kunskap i ämnet kan förhoppningsvis ömsesidiga missförstånd och frustration därav minskas samt förebyggas. För att få en säkrare vård, kunna känna trygghet och undvika missuppfattningar är det viktigt att engagera en professionell tolk i sjuksköterskans möte med patienten.

The acceleration of globalisation has forced companies to cope with its propulsion in order to become more competitive and internationalised, an internationalisation that creates the importance of knowing how to manage global and virtual teams (GVT). The knowledge in the area today has shown to be vague, generalised and hard to grasp, especially for the unexperienced GVT-project manager. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to study whether the literature regarding how to manage a GVT corresponds with the perceptions in practice and how these findings can contribute to a more efficient project management approach. This study is examined using a qualitative method based upon literature and semi-structured interviews. This foundation is used to provide a deeper understanding of the subject as well as it puts this research questions into the proper context. The interview respondents are from the same organisation, however, from offices located in four different countries. The result shows that there are different perspectives on how GVTs should be managed efficiently, and that different leadership preferences exits. Furthermore, there exists a lot of possibilities, but also challenges that must be coped with in order to reach the team’s full potential. These challenges are connected to the virtual work settings and practical problems as well as the team's heterogeneity and communication structure. It was found that it is important to consider the purpose of the collaboration in order to strategically plan for its initiation and execution. / Globaliseringens acceleration har tvingat företag att hantera sin framdrift för att bli mer konkurrenskraftiga och internationaliserade, en internationalisering som vidare leder till vikten av att veta hur man ska hantera globala och virtuella team (GVT). Kunskapen i området idag har visat sig vara vag, generaliserad och svår att ta till sig, särskilt för den oerfarna GVT-projektledaren. Syftet med detta examensarbete är därför att studera huruvida uppfattningen om hur man ska hantera GVT skiljer sig mellan litteratur och i praktiken samt hur dessa upptäckter kan bidra till ett mer effektivt projektledningssätt. Denna studie undersöks med en kvalitativ metod baserad på litteratur och semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Grunden används sedan för att få en djupare förståelse av ämnet såväl som den sätter rapportens frågeställningar i rätt sammanhang. Intervjurespondenterna är från samma organisation, dock från kontor i fyra olika länder. Resultatet visar att det finns olika perspektiv på hur GVT ska ledas effektivt och att olika ledarskapspreferenser existerar. Dessutom finns det många möjligheter, men också utmaningar som måste hanteras för att nå teamets fulla potential. Dessa utmaningar är kopplade till virtuella arbetssätt och praktiska problem samt teamets heterogenitet och kommunikationsstruktur. Det konstaterades att det är viktigt att överväga syftet med samarbetet för att strategiskt planera för dess initiering och genomförande.

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Background:  The increment of global population flows has challenged businesses to harness the potential of a culturally diverse environment. Nonetheless, previous studies on the effect of cultural diversity on teams has been equivocal, specifically when it is related to a firm’s innovation process. Mostly, these said studies have been focusing on cultural diversity as an input and innovation performance as an output. This means, understanding the mechanisms under which cultural diversity affects team performance has yet to be established. There is however a consensus among scholars that cultural diversity can act as a “double-edged sword” as it can be a source of friction and conflict, but also synergy and learning.  Purpose:  The purpose of this study is to explore multicultural team dynamics involved in the new product development process and determine if and how cultural diversity affects the innovation process, particularly, in a global knowledge-intensive firm. Our study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how cultural differences drive specific team processes, and thereby, offer both practitioners and scholars important insights.  Method:  We made use of a qualitative research approach with an exploratory design and a single holistic case study of a Swedish-based global, knowledge-intensive company. By conducting semi-structured interviews with members of multicultural NPD teams and one HR representative, we gained an understanding of different views and experiences that shape the team dynamics, which ultimately influences the innovation process.  Conclusion:  The results of this study suggest that cultural diversity does not directly impact the innovation process, but rather the effect is influenced by certain contextual factors and materializes through specific team outcomes. These outcomes could positively or negatively impact the innovation process.

AbstractThe study aims to explore how students’ linguistic resources are used for learning in a school in Gambia. The study is a field study and was conducted at a Senior Secondary School during January and February 2023. As a postcolonial country, Gambia is a culturally and linguistically highly diverse country with English as the official language and several native languages, also called local languages. Despite this fact, English is the only language of instruction. The local languages are used as the main means of daily communication, while English is used in communication with the authorities and as a language of instruction. The students, in other words, do not learn to read and write in their first language, which is one of the local languages.The theoretical framework for the study is Janks’ theory of critical literacy (2010) which emphasizes the concepts of domination, access, diversity, and design. The method is a qualitative research method with an ethnographic approach, based on interviews with both students and teachers, as well as participant observation and documentation of lessons in several school subjects. The material consists of audio-recorded interviews and field notes from the lesson observations. The results show that the majority of the study’s participants expressed advantages in using all their common linguistic resources in school. However, one teacher considers that he, as a state school employee, is obliged to use only English as the language of instruction and sees no reason to question it. Also, according to one student’s opinion, it is right to use English as a common language, and not to use the local languages as a support for students’ understanding.The result from the classroom observations shows that there is a gap between the students’ requesting more language support in teaching and the teachers’ use of multilingualism as a resource for learning. Only occasional examples and no systematic use of local languages were observed during lessons for promoting learning and multilingual development. Despite this, there were teachers, who, although they were obliged through the curriculum to only use the English language, chose to include students' linguistic resources, interests, and earlier experiences in the curriculum. One conclusion of the study is that the issue of linguistic and cultural diversity in the classroom) is not easy to solve, due to the complex language situation in Gambia. Another conclusion is that teachers, through their choice of a didactic design based on students’ linguistic resources, interests, and earlier experiences, can support students’ access to the curriculum and contribute to a more equitable education. Keywords: Access to the Curriculum, Didactic Design, First Language, Language of Instruction, Language Domination, Linguistic and Cultural Diversity, Multilingualism