The aim of the study is to illuminate and clarify how educators with foreign backgrounds, pedagogical education and/or educational experience interpret the curriculum and how the curriculum is implemented at multicultural preschools. To visualize this, I ask the following questions: How do the educators experience the Swedish curriculum? What do the educators regard as multiculturalism based on the curriculum? What are the educators views concerning democracy based on the curriculum? What significance do the educators believe the verbal language has in their work? The study is based on interviews with four informants. The interviews have thereafter been transcribed to be analyzed using previous research and theory. The theoretical perspectives of the study are social constructivism, culture, multiculturalism and interculturalism. Based on social constructivism which is the overall viewpoint of this study, the informants' experiences have been highlighted. The perspective of social constructivism implies that people are formed in social contexts that contribute to the understanding of our surrounding world. By highlighting the informants' experiences, I furthermore take in consideration the cultural aspect that involves people's typical behaviors such as norms and traditions. In order to observe and gain an understanding of people's different norms and traditions, the term interculturalism becomes relevant in the study, as it is, among other things, about communicating and responding to these differences. All informants work at preschools in multicultural areas where there is a variety of different cultures, religions and ethnicities. The main findings found in the study are that the informants' encounter with the Swedish curriculum has varied. Most informants have come in contact with the curriculum through their employment at preschools while one informant came in contact with it during university studies. All informants emphasize the importance of communication and, furthermore the importance of trying to interpret the curriculum, together with colleagues, in order to give the children the same fundamental ground at preschool. However, colleagues' varying skills in the Swedish language can complicate the communication and the interpretation of the Swedish curriculum. The results of the study show that the informants view the 2 curriculum's basic democratic values, as something positive to work with in the multicultural areas, as they work interculturally to highlight everyone's differences to something positive and find similarities in order to make interactions between different cultures.

The purpose of this study is to depict and examine the perception of black Koreans in South Korean children’s literature. This study examines my research questions through four theoretical frameworks: “culture and identity”, “post-colonialism, nationalism and racism”, “blackness and black Koreans’ portrayal in Korean media” and “multiculturalism in Korea”. My study raises the question how multicultural literature can help or not promote a new perception of otherness in South Korea. The method used for this study is qualitative text analysis. The primary source of information is a close-reading of Won You Soon’s book “Please find Charlton Sunja Kim” and interviews with the author of this book. The findings show that there are still some stereotypes about black Koreans and blackness that prevail in South Korean society and can still be found in recent literary works.

South Africa is a nation that was born from a struggle that can be said to have turned racial divisions and discrimination into a diversity of heritages. Thus, contemporary South Africa has become a country recreated in such a way that its people are able to embrace diversity freely. This research study aimed to provide insights into South Africa’s diversity in culture and linguistics that were moulded into a single song, the South African National Anthem. The research study aimed to determine the selected sample’s (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Staff and Students) responses to the representation of the South African National Anthem based on two specific performances. The research study aimed to determine how the two online videos affected the perceptions of NMMU Staff and Students of the South African National Anthem and South Africa as a brand. The research study aimed to determine how the two performances of the South African National Anthem under study were received by Staff and Students at NMMU. The study also aimed to highlight the similarities and differences in the sample’s responses, based on this reception. The selected YouTube videos under study are: SA anthem destroyed URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beg0-kMN3fM Ard Matthews ruins the SA national anthem URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu6IG0Wx19w. An electronic questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions was used to draw a conclusion regarding the selected sample’s perceptions of the South African National Anthem. Following the questionnaire results, a rhetoric analysis of the sample’s questionnaire responses was conducted. This text analysis and interpretation was conducted to gain insight into themes that were labelled based on the questionnaire responses, thus affecting perceptions of the sample and determining whether the South African National Anthem was perceived as a tool for division or unification.

Cette thèse analyse l'impact des modèles nationaux (multiculturalisme britannique, d'un côté, et modèle républicain français, de l'autre) sur la saillance de l'ethnicité dans les cultures juvéniles des quartiers populaires. Elle repose sur une enquête ethnographique menée entre 2007 et 2012 dans la ville de Bondy en Seine-Saint-Denis et dans le district de Newham à East London, auprès d'adolescents et de jeunes adultes, par entretiens individuels, entretiens collectifs et observations. Elle montre comment modèles nationaux et particularités des contextes locaux se combinent pour produire une saillance ethnique sociale, locale et éclatée, à Newham, politique et collective, à Bondy. A Bondy, l'ethnicité est expérimentée et représentée comme redoublant les diverses dimensions des inégalités sociales ; elle rassemble les enquêtés dans un "nous" proche et multidimensionnel ("Noirs et Arabes", "jeunes de banlieue", "pauvres") opposé à un "eux" distant (les "institutions", les "politiques", les "Français"). L'expérience des discriminations ethniques y est une expérience centrale qui structure le rapport des enquêtés aux institutions locales et à la société française. A Newham, l'ethnicité organise la séparation de différentes socialisations et sociabilités dans l'espace local entre jeunes "Black", "White" et "Asian". Perçue comme découplée des autres dimensions des inégalités sociales, l'ethnicité reste peu politisée et peu conflictuelle dans le rapport aux institutions locales. L'expérience de classe prédomine, alors, dans les rapports conflictuels des enquêtés à la société britannique. / This thesis analyses the impact of national models (British multiculuralism vs French model of integration) on ethnic salience in youth cultures of working class and immigrant neighbourhoods. It is based on an ethnographic research study carried out between 2007 and 2012, through individual interviews, focus groups and observations among teenagers and young adults in the city of Bondy in Seine-Saint-Denis and the London Borough of Newham, in East London. It shows how both the specifics of national models and of local contexts produce a social, local and fragmented ethnic salience in Newham, and a political and collective one in Bondy. In Bondy, ethnicity overlaps other dimensions of social inequality. The common experience of belonging to a minority results in young people identifying with a close and multidimensional "us" ("blacks and arabs", "youth from the suburbs", "poor people") as opposed to a distant "them" ("institutions", "politicians", "French people"). The central experience of ethnic discriminations tends to saturate young people's relationship to institutions and the way they relate to French society. In Newham, Black, White and Asian young people socialise in their respective groups and meeting places. However, they perceive ethnic divisions as separate to other dimensions of social inequality. Ethnicity is not often politicised or the subject of conflict with local authorities, as it is considered just a part of a larger experience of social injustice. Instead, social class issues are at the core of conflicts between the people interviewed and the wider British society.

Education should empower all students to attain their maximum potentials as learners. Equally, it makes them socially acquainted and dynamic people in local, national, and international situations. Multicultural education (MCE) emphasizes the essential need to set up institutions to promote the transformation of society in general and the elimination of misconceptions, prejudice, oppression, and injustice. This study analyses university teachers’ perceptions of and pedagogical strategies for fostering multicultural education in Swedish higher education as well as how individual teachers’ backgrounds and views influence their strategies of fostering MCE in Sweden. It embraces a qualitative research method and a case study design in attempting to answer how and what research questions. The concepts of education, culture, multiculturalism and race are examined and used to offer insights to the whole study. The theory of globalization and social justice theory have been utilized in this investigation to ground and control the research process. The findings of this study show an important pedagogical tool in teaching students of different backgrounds. However, teachers face a range of challenges on strategies of implementation, which is mainly their insufficient knowledge about what MCE actually is.

La diversité ethnoculturelle est une réalité incontournable dans les démocraties occidentales. Les effets de cette nouvelle diversité sur la citoyenneté et les identités nationales posent question : l’adaptation des institutions et des sociétés à l’évolution de cette diversité provoque des débats intenses, et parfois violence et exclusion. Le Canada présente un cas particulièrement intéressant à cause de la complexité de sa diversité d’une part, et de son apparent succès dans la gestion des relations entre majorité et minorités, d’autre part. La diversité canadienne est particulière, même si elle n’est pas unique, puisqu’elle est à la fois multiculturelle et plurinationale. Cette diversité complexe donne lieu à ce qui est appelé dans la thèse de « Grandes inquiétudes », liées principalement au mouvement séparatiste québécois, au nationalisme autochtone et aux tensions émanant des différences culturelles avec les minorités issues de l’immigration. On postule que ces Grandes inquiétudes sont le résultat de tensions entre peur de la fragmentation d’un côté et « désirs de citoyenneté » de l’autre. Plutôt que d’envisager la problématique de la diversité sous l’angle des politiques purement identitaires ou du conflit social, la thèse propose d’envisager que les revendications minoritaires à l’égard de la société et des institutions canadiennes, qui paraissent être dirigées contre cette dernière, sont en fait l’expression d’un désir de citoyenneté, c’est-à-dire d’un désir de participer pleinement à la vie de la sociale et politique canadienne et de contribuer au projet canadien. Dans le droit fil de l’interdisciplinarité qui caractérise le champ des Études canadiennes, la thèse propose une définition du concept transdisciplinaire de « Désir de citoyenneté » et son analyse, fondée sur 11 entrevues avec des Canadiens issus des trois grands groupes minoritaires et sur les outils d’analyse puisés dans la philosophie politique, la psychologie sociale et les études post-coloniales. En adoptant une démarche inductive, ce travail espère apporter un élément constructif au débat sur la diversité et la citoyenneté canadienne, en partant de l’observation et de l’analyse de sources primaires afin de donner une définition heuristique du concept de désir de citoyenneté. A la lumière de cette analyse, la thèse propose les conclusions suivantes : le discours séparatiste et la tension politique qui a accompagné son émergence sur la scène politique au Canada a eu pour effet de masquer le désir d’une majorité de Québécois, pour qui une forte identité québécoise et des mesures d’exception pour le Québec ne sont pas incompatibles avec une appartenance fédérale et une identité en partie canadienne. L’enjeu réel du désir de citoyenneté autochtone et des inquiétudes qu’il suscite est la finalisation de la décolonisation, soit une redéfinition de l’espace autochtone au sein du Canada, tant sur le plan territorial et politique que symbolique, et non la séparation ni le rejet. Les revendications des minorités issues de l’immigration sont avant tout l’expression d’un désir d’intégration, qui implique la possibilité de la réalisation de soi. L’analyse de chacune des Grandes inquiétudes canadiennes permet de confirmer en partie qu’elles émanent toutes trois d’une tension entre un désir d’autoréalisation et un désir de statu quo, ou entre un désir de changement et un désir de stabilité. Le désir de citoyenneté est donc un concept à la charnière des différentes théories de la citoyenneté, qui les rappelle à un fondement commun : le désir. Il réintroduit la possibilité de prendre en compte la complexité de l’expérience humaine dans la formulation de principes du vivre-ensemble par les démocraties libérales. Le concept de désir de citoyenneté pourrait contribuer à ce que l’exercice politique reste, ou redevienne, une forme d’humanisme. / Ethno-cultural diversity has become the social and political reality of Western democracies. The effects of that diversity on the idea of citizenship and national identity raises new questions: as institutions struggle to adapt to its new circumstances, debates, tensions, and sometimes violence arise. Canada constitutes a particularly interesting case study because of its complex diversity on the one hand and because of its apparent success in dealing with the tensions between majority and minorities on the other hand. Diversity in Canada is twofold, as it is both multicultural and plurinational. It gives rise to what is called in this work the “grand Canadian preoccupations” linked to Québec separatism, Native nationalism and ethno-cultural diversity. This thesis contends that these Grand preoccupations are the result of a conflict between a fear of fragmentation in the majority and a desire for citizenship amongst minorities, that is to say a desire to be included into the Canadian project. In order to define and analyze the concept of desire for citizenship, this work uses analytical tools developed in political philosophy, social psychology and post-colonial studies, as well as 11 interviews with Canadian participants. Through an inductive approach, the concept of desire for citizenship is asserted as a useful theoretical tool to take into account the complexity of human desire in the study of diversity and citizenship.

By focusing on women’s lived experiences of family abuse, this thesis argues that state policy shows a lack of understanding of the nature of family abuse in one of Scotland’s largest minority communities: South Asian Muslims. Through a combination of a critical exploration of mainstream conceptualisations of domestic abuse, empirical research and policy analysis, I argue that by focusing on one-dimensional explanations such as gender and culture, state policy and some research evade the more practical and structural issues that operate against women. By adopting an intersectional approach, I focus on the complex interplay between factors such as socio-economic status and structural inequalities at the micro- and macro-levels bound up with experiences of family abuse. Through in-depth interviews with South Asian Muslim women, this thesis highlights the specificity and complexity of South Asian Muslim women’s experiences of family abuse within the home, framed through the impact of kinship structures and immigration status. Furthermore, my focus on the macro- as well as the micro-level brings to light structural inequalities and harmful policies, such as immigration rules, that act as additional constraints on women in abusive relationships. This thesis then examines women’s strategies and choices within abusive relationships by exploring the relationship between agency and oppression. I identify a crucial point: access to resources, such as economic support, ultimately shapes women’s strategies, including if, when and how to exit. I do not posit an overarching theory to explain family abuse, nor do I offer one key solution to the problem. I do, however, argue for nuanced and sensitive policymaking not only for South Asian women, but for all marginalised women, By underlining the specific experiences of one group of women I emphasis that needs are likely to differ in other groups of women.

The aim of this research is to trace how the theatrical translation process, specifically within the genre of musical theatre, can be systematically approached by a director. Through practice-led research, this study documents the directorial process that was followed in order to translate the playtext of Bat Boy – the Musical from the American source context to the South African context. The intent of the process was to ensure that signifiers of the culture – as set out in the playtext – shifted to become indicative of the cultures of the performers who were cast in the production or target text. The first research phase addressed the theoretical framework of the study and the distinctions between theatrical translation, adaptation and variation were contemplated in order to substantiate the use of the term translation in the two-tiered translation approach suggested. In the second research phase, relevant dynamics in theatrical semiotic processes were used to analyse the playtext of Bat Boy – the Musical. In this, the first tier of translation, the dissertation surveyed the signs at work in the playtext taking cognisance of the ideological and aesthetic codes within the source text. Then, the corresponding social and textual codes within the socio-cultural domain to which the playtext was translated were investigated. The third research phase and second tier of translation occurred on the level of the mise-en-scène. Here, the directorial strategy was to engage the performers actively in the translation process, by including their respective artistic and cultural paradigms in the translation of the playtext and the characters contained therein. The translation of the playtext was explored within the cross cultural – and more specifically the intercultural – theatrical framework by allowing the multicultural and multilingual cast to source their diverse, cultural backgrounds and unique social codes as well as South African theatrical codes in order to place the musical in the South African context. The fourth and final research phase reflects upon the intercultural translation of Bat Boy – the Musical and considers, not only the efficacy of the directorial process for the translation of a musical theatre playtext from one cultural context to another, but also how this particular form of American musical theatre resonates within the multicultural and multilingual South African society. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria 2015. / Drama / Unrestricted

The work aims to describe field of discourses, where the texts and talks about immigration (more concretely about immigrants in the Czech Republic) are created. The theoretical part describes the notions of nation and identity; it also provides a brief description of the explanatory models of migration and describes the universalism and particularism dichotomy in the immigration policies. Moreover it elaborates a concept of the multiculturalism as a discourse and construction. The concept of discourse is firstly explained in broader theoretical context, with reference to issues of language, power and ideology; secondly in its methodological consequences. Author also gives an account of linguistic tools (modality), and concepts of related sciences (binary opposition, ideological square). The analytical approach is based in the frame of the Critical discourse analysis. An important conclusion is the revelation of the risk as a discourse which legitimates the power and dominancy over immigrants. According different strategies regarding the risks' construction, three main categories in the field of discourse was considered: opportunity, ambivalence and threat. For the further study the author recommends to investigate the field of key actors who has a power to create and shape the discourses in this field.

M.Inf. / South African libraries are enterprises where diversity is fast becoming the norm. Many South African Librarians work in libraries where the need to educate staff to respect human cultures in all their variety has been identified as a significant institution goal. Acquiring knowledge and understanding of culture factors is the key to successful communication across cultures. This study concentrates on how library managers should communicate with employees in an inter-cultural environment as well as how employees should communicate amongst themselves. Communication barriers between employees in libraries have been discussed and it was concluded that a mastery of communication skills which includes an understanding and appreciation of cultural differences is vital for South African libraries of all colours and cultures. How to go about creating a multicultural library was discussed and it was emphasised that library managers should take positive and measurable actions to transform their libraries into multicultural enterprises. The empirical study done at the Johannesburg Public Library indicated that Black South Africans would like White South Africans to learn at least one Black language in order to facilitate communication. Although not one White South African interviewed in this study spoke a Black language, they experienced a certain degree of difficulty in understanding or interpreting a Black's English or Afrikaans. With regard to non-verbal communication, eye contact was equally important to both groups. Being on time was definitely more important to Blacks than Whites. In terms of vocal quality, Whites found Blacks to speak too loudly and were inclined to shout. In terms of world views, 80% of Blacks followed an Afrocentric world view and 90% of the Whites followed a Eurocentric world view. The majority of Blacks favoured intuitive thinking, 30% confirmed that analytical thinking was the only way to think so as to arrive at a logical deduction. The question on stereotypes pointed to Blacks mainly thinking of Whites as independent. Guidelines for effective inter-cultural communication in South African libraries are provided.