Ethnic minority groups are societally defined groups that exist as psychological and/or numerical minorities, and whose members presumably share biological and/or cultural heritage (Markus, 2008). Although religious and national minority groups clearly are defined by culture, racial minority groups (which psychologists have tended to regard as defined by biology; Fairchild, Yee, Wyatt, & Weizmann, 1995;Yee, Fairchild, Weizmann, & Wyatt, 1993) similarly are defined by culture (Jones, 1997). In turn, culturally diverse families are defined by the presence of one or more family members who are members of racial, religious, or national minority groups within a given society (Gaines, 1997). According to Erving Goffman (1963), stigmatization toward members of ethnic minority groups not only can affect those individuals but also can affect the individuals' families. Within the U.S.A. and other Western nations, majority group members as well as minority group members in interracial marriages often are acutely aware of the transmission of stigmatization throughout entire families (Gaines & Ickes, 2000). However, the transmission of stigmatization can occur in all families in which one or more members belong to racial, religious, or national minority groups (Gaines, 2001). In the present chapter, we draw upon Goffman's (1959, 1963) symbolic interactionist theory in examining support communication within culturally diverse families. We pay particular attention to Goffman's (1963) concept of stigma as applied to members of ethnic minority groups and as applied to their families. Moreover, we focus on specific forms of support communication (following Mickelson & Williams, 2008; Williams & Mickelson, 2008) that members of ethnic minority groups may use to obtain social support from family members and, thus, counteract the potentially negative effects of stigmatization. In addition, we consider the utility of Claude Steele's (1997) concept of stereotype threat in explaining the potential lack of generalizability of support communication processes across ethnic (and especially racial) groups.

<P> With the rise of globalization, international assignments and multicultural teams, managing cultural diversity has become essential to organizations. As managing cultural diversity in team work has historically been a challenge (Earley & Gibson , 2002), academics and practitioners have directed resources toward enhancing understanding of how best to manage team diversity and improve effectiveness of international assignments (Tsui et al, 2007). Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is the abi lity to behave effectively in culturally diverse situations (Earley & Ang, 2003). Theory and research suggest that cultural diversity within teams often relate negatively to team member experiences of team processes, thereby negatively impacting team outcomes. The current study relies on similarity/attraction theory (Byrne, 1971 ), social identification theory (Turner, 1982) and self-categorization theory (Turner. 1982) to evaluate the relationship between cultural diversity and team processes (cohesion , participation, relationship and task conflict) and team outcomes (performance and satisfaction). The moderating effect of Cultural Intelligence on the relationship between cultural diversity and team processes was also explored. Data were collected from fourth year business school students working in teams of four to six to manage a virtual company competing with other teams in a stimulated market. A significant negative relationship was found between cultural diversity and team cohesion and participation; and a significant positive relationship was noted between cultural diversity and both team relationship conflict and task conflict. Furthermore, team satisfaction correlated positively with team cohesion and negatively with both types of team conflict while team performance was unrelated to team cultural diversity and perceptions of team processes. Finally, team members' CQ positively moderated the relationship between team cultural diversity and team processes (cohesion, participation and relationship conflict), where the team was comprised of two different cultures only. Where teams were comprised of members from more than two cultural groups, the moderation was negative. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation contributes to existing scholarship on contemporary multiculturalism. It does so by exploring how multicultural agendas are operationalised in Northern Ireland – a society divided along sectarian lines. As the political violence of the conflict has receded, Northern Ireland has witnessed unprecedented levels of in-migration. This dissertation seeks to understand how, as Northern Irish society is increasingly being conceived of as culturally diverse, emerging multicultural agendas interact with embedded sectarianism. The empirical research focuses on the political institutions and policies pertaining to Northern Ireland as a whole, and the specific activities and social practices of various ethnically-identified minorities, voluntary organisations and anti-racist movements in selected areas of Belfast. The research involved interviews with civil servants, policy makers, ethnically-identified minorities, voluntary groups and anti-racist activists. This dissertation argues that a government concern for managing cultural diversity can be understood as part of a process of ‘normalising’ Northern Ireland after the conflict. However, a persistent sectarianism complicates, and often impedes, the advancement of multicultural, and particularly anti-racist, agendas. This argument is developed through an exploration of policy and institutional structures, anti-racist campaigns and responses to racialised violence, as well as initiatives that seek to recognise and celebrate cultural diversity. This dissertation shows that the relationship between sectarianism and multiculturalism in post-Agreement Northern Ireland is not unidirectional. Instead, the two processes are deeply imbricated with each other: multicultural initiatives are shaped by sectarianism, and sectarianism persists in emergent multicultural imaginaries. This said, the dissertation suggests that multiculturalism is also capable of disrupting sectarian constructions of space and identity in Northern Ireland. Based on these findings, this dissertation argues that cultural diversity provides an opportunity to denaturalise the social structures and narratives which reproduce sectarianism. It is argued that this process could play an important role in advancing the construction of a socially cohesive and multicultural Northern Ireland.

Sverige har en arbetsmiljölag som syftar till prevention av olycksfall och ohälsa i arbetet, samt ämnar leda till en god arbetsmiljö. De faktorer som påverkar arbetsmiljön delas i, fysiska respektive psykiska. Där psykiska faktorer avser bland annat sociala relationer till andra anställda och meningsfullhet. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka medarbetares upplevelser av psykosocial arbetsmiljö, med fokus på mångfald och särbehandling ur ett individ- och organisationsperspektiv. Elva strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes på ett industriföretag, och berättelserna analyserades med tematisk analys. Det arbetades fram 2 övergripande teman, Individ och Organisation, 6 subteman samt underkategorier. Studiens centrala resultat visar på att: (1) tydlig kommunikation ger mening, (2) socialt stöd ger trivsel/trygghet, (3) kompetens ger uppskattning, (4) närhet till chef är viktigt, (5) skilda arbetstider kan generera bristande delaktighet, (6) acceptans för mångfald är knutet till mental inställning. Vidare diskuteras hur teman, subteman och underkategorier hör samman, samt förslag till framtida forskning.

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Imagine one Brit, one Dutch, two North Americans, one Spaniard and three Swedes setting up a joint international research project. Their areas of expertise vary: sociology, labour law and organisational theory. The scene is taking place in a hotel conference room in Uppsala. The North Americans are tired from the long trip and the jet-lag. The Spaniard arrived later than everybody, including himself, expected, due to another strike of air traffic controllers. The Dutch had to come alone. His colleague had too much work at home to be able to free himself for the four days the meeting lasts. The same goes for the Brit. As for the Swedes, all three were able to make some place in their agendas. Abundance characterises international projects in particular and human collaboration in general; that is, the immense variety of practices, behaviours and incidents that inundate life and are difficult to foresee when defining a goal, designing a plan or organising a cooperation. This leads to vagueness, because to include such a variety, the words used to describe the international project and the models/plans used to structure it must remain open and flexible. Based on an ethnography of the above described group, this dissertation  illuminates how, with the help of linguistic resources, the group deals with vagueness, copes with abundance and organises an international collaboration. Within this framework, cultural differences and cultural stereotypes cease being a source of misunderstanding and conflict. Instead, they become linguistic resources to cope with vagueness and abundance. Constructive interaction and successful cooperation lie in a delicate equilibrium: Levelling Vagueness. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2002

Research over the last three decades has documented that teacher efficacy has an effect on student achievement (Armor et al., 1976; Bandura, 1997). The literature on culturally responsive teaching (CRT) recognizes teacher efficacy as one of the attributes of successful teachers of students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1994). Researchers (e.g., Goddard & Goddard, 2001) have also found that collective teacher efficacy (CTE) beliefs can affect teachers’ goal setting, motivation, and persistence with challenging tasks or situations; specifically, the CTE construct not only explains school-level effects on achievement, but also explains effects on individual teachers’ self-efficacy. When CLD students require special education services, their instruction must be equally responsive to their cultural and linguistic characteristics in addition to their educational needs based on the disability (García & Ortiz, 2004; McCray & García, 2002). Consequently, CRT practices are central to improve these students’ learning outcomes (Gay, 2000). The purpose of this descriptive, correlational survey research study was to investigate (a) the relationship between special education teachers’ collective teacher efficacy beliefs and CRT efficacy for teaching CLD students in special education; and (b) the influences of personal and professional background variables on participating teachers’ CRT efficacy beliefs. The survey was sent to 855 special education teachers of CLD students with disabilities in three urban school districts in Texas; 344 complete responses were received, yielding a 44% response rate. The survey consisted of four sections: Background Information, Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE), Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (CRTSE), and Culturally Responsive Teaching Outcome-Expectancy Scale (CRTOE). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, analysis of variance, and multiple regression. The results revealed statistically significant relationships (a) between CRTSE and CRTOE beliefs, with a positive and moderate association; and (b) between CTE and CRT efficacy beliefs (CRTSE as well as CRTOE), but the associations were positive and weak. Teachers’ language characteristics, instructional setting, certification in bilingual education/English as a second language, and their perceptions of the quality of their professional preparation emerged as significant influences on their CRTSE and CRTOE beliefs. Implications for teacher education and future research are presented. / text

The increased growth of online instruction has been well documented by various studies. As the result of the proliferation of online instruction, students from outside of the United States are now able to obtain an American education without having to leave their home country. While online course designs have been well researched and documented to identify best methods and practices to enable optimum learning achievement, providing online instruction to non-US educated students generates the question of how a culturally diverse student body adapts and/or adjusts to an American-style instruction. The purpose of this study is to conduct an exploratory qualitative research to investigate how students from an Asian learning culture adapt to an American online learning environment and to determine whether the various instructional design theories and practices that are widely accepted as best practices in the United States and incorporated into the instruction designs for this Marketing Management hybrid course are also as well-received by students from a different learning culture. From the five categories emerged from the research data: (1) students’ background, (2) perceived benefits, (3) essential skills, (4) supports expected and/or received, and (5) sense of community, the researcher proposed a framework that encompasses the students’ process of adapting to online learning. Within the process of adapting to online learning, conditions such as students’ backgrounds and expectations influenced the various learning strategies that students adopted in order to realize the benefits from the online learning experience. Information gathered from this study may provide those involved in online education - decision makers in academic, business, and professional organizations considering an overseas online instruction strategy - an added awareness of how different learning cultures may influence the quality of an online learning experience. Additionally, for a specific target audience, this research study may further validate the learner-centered approach for instruction designs. For students who may be contemplating online learning as an option, this study may provide a deeper understanding of what is entailed in an online learning environment - the contributing actors and factors that affect the quality of an online learning experience. / text

This study examined how the personal characteristics of instructional designers influenced their current instructional-design practice (ID). I first looked at the instructional designers’ perceptions of the relationship between their personal characteristics and their ID practice. I then looked at how these variables were used by the designers to influence their ID practice. The study was guided by the following questions: What specific personal characteristics instructional designers perceive as being an important influence on their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to influence their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to diversify their ID practice? Specific personal characteristics included personal attributes such as age, and experiences, including prior work experiences. Personal characteristics were informed by the literature, the pilot study, and personal experiences. This qualitative research study used interviews as the primary source for data collection. The theoretical framework was symbolic interactionism. A pilot study was used to test and fine-tune the research data-collection methods and analysis. A snowball sampling technique yielded 15 instructional designers working in a higher education setting in the United States. I included instructional designers who did not receive formal training in ID but who obtained the necessary skills to perform the job through experience. The data analysis followed the guidelines proposed by Miles and Huberman, Kvale and Brinkmann, Roulston, and Rubin and Rubin. Findings showed that instructional designers perceived that specific personal characteristics such as (a) gender, (b) age, (c) key people, (d) spirituality, (e) philosophy, (f) formative years, and experiences such as (a) education—student experiences in the classroom, and program preparation, and (b) work experiences—prior work experiences, and ID professional work experiences influenced their ID practice. These personal characteristics influenced the designers ID practice by adding a secondary perspective through their cultural and biological influences, and by directly informing their approach to process through educational and work experiences. Study results showed that specific personal characteristics and experience allow instructional designers to alter their current ID practice, thereby transforming a once-homogeneous process to a heterogeneous one.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2002.