Australia continues to become culturally diverse. This diversity is being witnessed in Catholic schools. This thesis reports research which employed quantitative data collection methods in investigating students’ perceptions of their multicultural classroom environment. By drawing on Catholic school literature, multicultural literature, previous learning environment research and the perceptions of stakeholders, an instrument, known as the Multicultural Classroom Environment Instrument (MCEI), was developed to assess psychosocial dimensions of classroom environments in Queensland Catholic secondary schools. These dimensions were: Collaboration, Competition, Teacher Authority, Teacher Support, Congruence, Deference, Teacher Directedness and Gender Equity. The use of the instrument with a sample of 1,460 students in 24 Catholic secondary schools in Queensland revealed some statistically significant differences in students’ perceptions of their classroom environment. Differences were revealed according to the country of birth of the student and those of the parents. Investigations examining school type, subject, year level and gender were also undertaken. Single-sex schools were shown to be more concerned with Teacher Authority and Competition compared to coeducational schools. Religion and Study of Religion classes were perceived as very similar, irrespective of school type. There were differences in students’ perception of the classroom environment across different year levels, with year 8 students’ perceptions significantly different to that of years 10 and 12 students. Girls generally perceived their classroom environment more positively than boys, with greater Collaboration, Teacher Support and Gender Equity and less Competition and Teacher Authority. The results of this thesis suggest that differences in students’ perceptions of multicultural classroom environments in Queensland Catholic secondary schools do exist. It also suggests that in order to continue to provide quality education, Catholic schools must acknowledge these differences. They must also ensure that curriculum initiatives, staff professional development and training, and other educational and pastoral initiatives are designed to incorporate the differences identified in this thesis. Further investigation into a variety of multicultural classroom environments is recommended.

This essay argues that The Help by Kathryn Stockett highlights black people in a patronising way. In order to analyse the novel a postcolonial perspective has been applied. The novel is an example of narratives of difference and the representation of the characters Miss Skeeter, Minny and Aibileen increases and enhances the differences between people. The coloured people are described as the other, whereas the whites are seen as the norm. Moreover, the essay includes a didactic part, which discusses how to teach a novel like The Help in a multicultural classroom.

The current global and local issues of culture such as September 11, the Bali Bombings and the “Cronulla Riots” triggered a question for the researcher: “how do primary students deal with intercultural communication in multicultural Australia in times of cultural uncertainty and complexity?” Intercultural communication studies in Australia rely heavily on those of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. For this reason, this study was planned to investigate intercultural communication in a multicultural classroom in a primary school in Australia. The research employs an ethnographical case study methodology with data collected from observation, interview and documentation. 56 Year 7 students and two classroom teachers from two classes and the school ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher were included in the study. Amongst the 56 students, 24 students were interviewed along with the classroom teachers and the ESL teacher. School documents regarding the promotion of intercultural communication were also collected during the observation period. The study found that differing language capacities of students and teachers have the greatest influence on intercultural communication. Language was observed to influence positive and negative intercultural communication in the classroom. The study also confirmed that the theory of Intercultural Communication Competence (Wiseman, 2002) supports the current ethos of this school’s curriculum. Overall, the study provides a vicarious experience of intercultural communication in an Australian multicultural classroom. Intercultural communication in this particular school did not appear to be problematic. This could be due to the teachers’ endeavours to promote intercultural communication both implicitly and explicitly. In concluding, the study suggests that this school could be a model for promoting intercultural communication with a few modifications to its programs.

Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements of the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 1997. / Socio-political changes have brought about major changes in the education system of South Africa. Many teachers who were accustomed to teaching at monocultural schools are suddenly confronted with the reality of having to cope with pupils of other cultural groups in their classrooms. Most of these teachers were not prepared for these changes. This unpreparedness has led to many problems being experienced by teachers in the multicultural classroom setting. The aims of this study are: * To determine if teachers are effectively trained to teach in a multicultural classroom setting. * To establish if teachers are conversant with the complex needs of children in a multicultural classroom setting. * To establish certain guidelines according to which accountable support can be instituted to equip pre-service and inservice teachers to deal with possible problems that they may encounter in a multicultural classroom setting. Initially multicultural education in England, the USA and South Africa was reviewed. In all three cases a short historical overview of the development of multicultural education was given. Acts that were introduced in regard with the provision of education in these countries as well as certain acts that gave course and direction to the evolutionary process of multicultural education were briefly discussed. Certain advantages and disadvantages of multicultural education as envisaged by certain educationists were also highlighted. In order to understand teaching in a multicultural classroom it was necessary to examine the life-world of the teacher and the teacher-pupil relationship. The life-world of the teacher constitutes his relationships with himself, others, things and ideas and God. Research with regard to this study was conducted as follows: * A literature study of available, relevant literature. * An empirical survey comprising a structured questionnaire to be completed by secondary school teachers in the North Durban region. A likert- type scale questionnaire with three response categories; viz. Agree, Disagree, Unsure, was constructed. The three response categories ensured that the respondents' selections fell into one of the categories enabling the measurement of the direction and the intensity of their perceptions of problems experienced by teachers in a multicultural classroom setting. * In addition to the empirical survey, personal interviews with teachers were conducted. One hundred and eighty teachers were targeted from six randomly selected multicultural secondary schools in the North Durban region. With the aim of administering the questionnaire to the teachers of these schools, it was necessary to first obtain permission from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. Permission was also obtained from the Circuit Inspector of the North Durban region. Only after such permission was granted, was the researcher able to conduct this study. The primary data was in the form of a response to one of the three response categories (Agree, Disagree, Unsure). Scores of the responses to each of the three categories were calculated. The descriptive technique was employed for the quantitative analysis of the data. The investigation has the following value: * It will provide a reliable picture of teachers' perspectives of multicultural education; * The most lasting value of this investigation is that it will enable education planners and other relevant bodies to plan and provide professional teacher training programmes in multicultural education. Anticipated dissemination of the research findings: * The problems experienced by teachers in multicultural classrooms can be a topical issue of discussions during seminars and workshops at schools, colleges and universities. * Findings from the research can be useful in the planning of suitable methods (workshops, videos, etcetera) to assist teachers to meet the educational needs of children in multicultural classrooms. * The topic lends itself for further research by interested stakeholders regarding the teaching of children in multicultural classrooms.

I denna uppsats tas problematiken i lärares upplevelse av lärande och de olika tillvägagångssätt de använder sig av i det mångkulturella klassrummet. Undersökningen är gjord på en skola i Malmö därmed handlar vår uppsats endast om den skolan. De frågeställningar som ställs är: Hur upplever pedagoger elevers lärande på skola A?Hur arbetar pedagoger med mellanöstern i historieundervisning på skola A?Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur lärare upplever lärandesituationen i samband med elevers lärande. Undersökningen är en kvalitativ undersökning som bygger på intervjuer. I teoretiska utgångspunkterna tas pedagogiska teorier upp, interkulturellt lärande samt pedagogiska läromedel. Resultatet visade brister på elevers svenska språkkunskaper som bidrog till hinder i elevers lärande. Dessutom framgick det från intervjuer att lärarna har för lite hjälp från ledning och ordinarie skolmaterial i sin undervisning. Vi kom fram till att rollspel kan fungera som en metod i konflikthantering.

The purpose of this study is the challenges that the teaching of SO subjects faces in the multicultural classroom. These challenges pose a problem in the process of developing students with a foreign background. The aim of this study is to highlight the challenges and opportunities that the teacher faces with students in the multicultural classroom as well as the solutions and strategies that the teacher uses to develop multicultural students. Therefore, empirical material from in-depth interviews was used about how teachers work and challenges and strategies related to this teaching area. I found few studies that address challenges and difficulties for those who have to learn socially relevant subjects in Sweden. The method that has been used is to interview four teachers in two schools. The result of this study shows that teachers use different ways to support the students in their learning of the SO subjects, for example, by using lists of important terms and words, or by using a teacher assistant in the mother tongue. By the teacher supporting the students in the right way, the students can apply new knowledge. Keywords: multicultural classroom, mother tongue and teacher assistant.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how teachers describe their teaching on Islam and which didactic opportunities and challenges there are when teaching Islam in religious education. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with six religion teachers in high school. Because of covid-19 the interviews were conducted through phone calls. The study is based on a hermeneutic theory which means the teachers experiences, attitudes and feelings is of relevance for answering the questions.   The result has a thematic arrangement and below each theme the informants’ answers are presented regarding how they experience their opportunities and challenges when teaching. The primary opportunities are reflected in the theme inside perspective because teachers can use a variety of strategies to look at Islam from the inside. Also, there is very modern material about the religion that can be applied to stimulate discussions in the classroom. The challenges are considerably more but the main once are to counteract prejudice and selecting textbooks that do not represent Islam in negative terms as the informants’ express.

This research overview aims to clarify and specify the term intercultural competence, as well as to distinguish which terms and concepts researchers use in tandem with this. Further, this research overview aims to examine how intercultural competence can be understood in the context of history education. Both from a theoretical, didactical perspective - and from a practical perspective. In other words, this research overview is akin to a three-stage rocket. First, key concepts and theories are introduced; secondly, the application of intercultural competence in relation to history didactics are examined; and lastly, the practical possibilities for the aforementioned application are presented. The method used to conduct this research overview study has been information searching. The three databases that were used are ERIC, SwePub, and DiVA. ERIC was used to ensure a rich collection of international research; SwePub and DiVA were used to collect research that portray Swedish conditions. Additional research and literature has been used, in consultation with our mentor. The key conclusions gathered from the results of this study are as follows: this field of research originated on the American continent - following the civil rights movement. In an anglo-american context, the term “multicultural education” is most commonly used. The research field has striking similarities with the field known as “critical pedagogy” - with an emphasis on reforming the educational institutions as such. The application of intercultural competence within history education and Jörn Rüsen’s three narrative competencies are not only plausible - but can be seen as dimensions of one-another. Lastly, this research overview shows how intercultural historical competence can be applied in real classroom situations - more research is needed on this particular point.

This paper is about how teacher education programs today provide tools for new teachers to face the multicultural classroom. The paper uses a qualitative method chosen to compare the content and literature of different teacher education programs in the courses that make up the educational science core. Furthermore, the essay has a comparative hermeneutic theoretical approach in its theoretical framework. The paper shows that there are several weaknesses in current teacher education in this particular theme. The content of the course syllabi is not, at any point, specified for the multicultural classroom and the literature included in the teacher education programmes of the universities surveyed, according to current bibliographies, is not in any way specifically focused on the multicultural classroom and the tools that teachers of all subjects need to face this particular issue.  The conclusion is that despite several attempts from various quarters to point out this weakness, nothing has been done to solve this problem. Society and its components are changing at a very fast pace and neither governing bodies nor higher education institutions, and therefore neither curricula nor course content, have listened to the criticism that has been raised in the past. Teacher training needs to be updated in terms of multiculturalism and everyone needs to take responsibility and not blame each other.

<p>Our intention with this study is to investigate teachers work in a multicultural classroom. For the purpose of this study, a web survey was constructed. The investigation was carried out among teachers on three different multicultural secondary schools in Sweden. 53 teachers informed us about their own experiences and thoughts concerning their work in a multicultural classroom. Conceptions as multiculturalism, methods in teaching, the climate in classrooms, teacher cultures and interculturalism has been used in the study. The investigation partly indicates that some teachers do not take multiculturalism into consideration, instead they have a individual view on their students. Although the majority of the teachers do that and actively tries to improve their work within the multicultural classroom. The teachers take care of their students similarities and differences because they want the students to understand about differences. Different views and perspectives are enriching. In order to improve their work the teachers wants further education and more support from the school management and colleagues. The teachers have a positive attitude in general towards the multicultural classroom.</p> / <p>Vår avsikt med denna studie är att undersöka lärares arbete i ett mångkulturellt klassrum. I syftet för studien gjordes en webbenkätundersökning. Undersökningen genomfördes bland lärare på tre mångkulturella 7-9 skolor i Sverige. 53 lärare delade med sig av sina erfarenheter och tankar om sitt arbete i ett mångkulturellt klassrum. Begrepp som mångkultur, undervisningsmetoder, klassrumsklimat, lärarkulturer och interkultur nyttjas i arbetet. Undersökningen visar dels att en del lärare inte tar det mångkulturella i beaktande eftersom de individanpassar undervisningen. Däremot gör flertalet det och försöker aktivt förbättra sitt arbete i det mångkulturella klassrummet. Lärarna tar vara på elevernas likheter och olikheter eftersom de vill att eleverna ska få förståelse för skillnaderna. Olika synsätt och perspektiv ses som något berikande. Vidare efterfrågar lärarna mer fortbildning och stöd från skolledning och kollegor för att kunna utveckla sitt arbete. Lärarna har genomgående en positiv inställning till det mångkulturella klassrummet.</p>