With the intention of understanding the opportunities, challenges, and construction of identity that foreign teachers encounter through their work in France, my study is grounded in the theory that identity is changeable, ongoing, and influenced by both past and current living situations. Furthermore, the professional, social and cultural theories propose that identity is constructed through our work and our place within a group or a culture.   Six foreign- born teachers, who are active at university level as foreign language teachers in France, were interviewed with the aim of answering the following research questions: “Which challenges and opportunities do foreign born teachers acknowledge in their work with the French students? “and “How do foreign born teachers construct their identity within the French classroom? “. The interviews were conducted one-on-one and the data was analyzed and compared to former studies. The participants were both native speakers and non- native speakers.    The findings of my study proposed that the challenges in the French univeristy classroom contain a reluctance to speak as well as a preference for written and marked exams over communication skills within the student body. An inclination to use American English was also noticed. Shame of accent but especially the group dynamic was mentioned as factors. Conversely the students showed a positive attitude and appreciation towards foreign teachers.    The study established that the participants shaped their identity through a dual process: firstly, by encouraging their students to acclimate to their teaching approach, incorporating subjects and techniques from their countries of origin, and secondly, by adapting to their student body. This adaptation involved mastering the cultural codes and adjust to the expectations of the students. Although it was noted a challenge to find a balancing act between the two cultures, it appears that the link to the country of origin was rather reinforced than replaced. In order to demonstrate an understanding of their students' circumstances, many participants downplayed their proficiency in French as a means of connecting with their students' experiences.

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Insofar as the postcolonial project is one of the elaboration of “the plurality of modernity, and the agency multiplying its forms”, my project is a contribution to this larger one in the form of a postcolonial theory of multiculturalism (Ashcroft, 2009, p. 85). Drawing from minority standpoints, arguments, and narratives, I focus on the lives and perspectives of a few broad groups in particular: indigenous peoples in Canada, Muslim women, and East Asian “immigrant” minorities. I take up a critical theory approach to framing multicultural theory and the questions it asks from the standpoints of minorities themselves, foregrounding the challenges and perspectives of racialized groups for whom their ethno-culture is morally salient and central to their own understanding of their identities and aims. This framework draws on the insights of feminist theorists of deliberative democracy but also departs from them in the crucial respect of affirming a conception of culture and identity that accepts some basic “communitarian” ideas of morality and culture, while conceiving these within a postcolonial project of cultural reclamation rather than a republican framework of the public sphere. My project is organized into two parts: The first section systematically critiques the dominant liberal multiculturalist model based on Canadian multicultural policy and theorized by Kymlicka, which is oriented by the liberal state’s perspective in its aims of integrating minorities. In the first chapter, I reject his universalist principle of liberal neutrality as the standard for justice in favour of a pluralist democratic standard that accommodates “thin” theories of the good. In the second and third chapters, I reformulate Kymlicka’s categories of “national minorities” and “polyethnic minorities” respectively in order to take account of postcolonial indigenous sovereignty and the transnational scope of ethnic identity. The second section develops a pluralist account of agency in its descriptive (Chapter 4), normative (Chapter 5), and prescriptive (Chapter 6) aspects (Deveaux 2006 p. 179). This is developed as a constructive critique of liberal standards of autonomy, particularly feminist proposals for a standard of procedural autonomy, as unable to adequately describe and assess heteronomous agency.

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The purpose of this research is to study the discourse constructions of the Palestinians in the diaspora residing in Jordan. The discourse constructed of the Palestinian, enables the government to discriminatory actions towards the Palestinians residing in Jordan, where for example Palestinian-origin Jordanian citizens have in recent years experienced their Jordanian citizenship been revoked. Jordan does this as an action to protect their own cultural and national identity. The theoretical framework which will be used in this research will be the one of constructivism, where the theory is used to analyze the construction of a threat. The research will be using a critical discourse analysis and will be analyzing speeches held from King Abdullah II of Jordan. The conclusions of this research will show how the Palestinian discourse in Jordan enables the Jordanian government to implement discriminatory policies toward the Palestinian-origin Jordanian citizens.

Denna magisteruppsats presenterar och analyserar religionens roll i upproret i södra Thailand som ibland benämns terrorism. Genom att använda teorier som behandlar nationsbygge och nationalitet, religion som en kulturell identitet, samt teorier om globalisering och terrorism, visar denna uppsats att det inte går att dra slutsatsen att religion är den enda orsaken till upproret. Denna uppsats visar dessutom att varken religiös terrorism eller religiös nationalism behöver innebära religiös övertygelse, eftersom religion förutom många andra saker kan markera en kulturell tillhörighet. / This thesis presents and analyses the role of religion in the insurgency in the south of Thailand, that is sometimes labelled terrorism. By using theories on nation building and nationalism, religion as a cultural identity and theories on globalisation and terrorism, this thesis shows that it cannot be concluded that religion is the sole problem of the insurgency in the south of Thailand. This thesis, in addition, shows that religion is political and a source of identity and that neither religious terrorism nor religious nationalism have to imply religious belief, since religion can be a marker of cultural belonging, among many things.