Multicultural literature can sometimes act as a window, a mirror or a sliding glass door that introduces people to different worlds that are real or unreal, familiar, or strange. Through these windows, the reader gets an insight into the lives of others, inviting readers to reflect on their views and environment. The purpose of this study is to understand how teachers include and work with multicultural literature for grades 4-6 in the Swedish subject, and how they describe and use multicultural literature in their teaching to endorse tolerance and critical consciousness. The study is based on a mixed-method approach, using a quantitative survey and a qualitative interview for indepth knowledge. The theoretical framework in this study is based on the intercultural perspective that includes central concepts such as interculturality, the intercultural pedagogical perspective, intercultural learning and intercultural competence. In summary, the result shows that there is a deficit of knowledge in how teachers can use multicultural literature in their teaching but also how they can work with intercultural learning. Based on the results from both the survey and the interviews, there is a good understanding among the respondents regarding the beneficial effect of including multicultural literature and the multicultural perspective in teaching, especially when choosing children's literature. However, there is a certain insecurity and inexperience of how to work with multicultural literature or intercultural learning, which reflects the scarcity of multicultural literature to students. Mainly because of poor access of what is classified as good quality multicultural books, but also because it is time-consuming to find the right books and activities, and a lack of a deeper intercultural pedagogical competence in the respondents.

Studiens syfte är att bidra med kunskap om några grundskollärares och en specialpedagogs upplevelser av och syn på språk- och kunskapsutvecklande arbetssätt med särskilt fokus på transspråkande förhållningssätt. Studiens syfte är också att bidra med kunskap om speciallärarens roll i arbetet med att främja transspråkande i undervisningen för elever i behov av språkligt stöd. De teoretiska ramarna för studien utgörs av sociokulturella perspektiv och interkulturellt pedagogiskt perspektiv. Studiens ansats är kvalitativ och studiens data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Utifrån lärarnas beskrivningar synliggörs såväl fördelar som utmaningar med transspråkande förhållningssätt i undervisningen. Den enskilt mest framträdande framgångsfaktorn för att transspråkande undervisning kan ske är enligt studiens resultat lärarens förhållningssätt och positiva inställning till alla språk. Resultatet visar vidare att transspråkande förhållningssätt i undervisning kan vara ett sätt att förebygga diskriminering och främlingsfientlighet. Studiens specialpedagogiska relevans synliggörs genom att studien visar att specialläraren kan vara en resurs i att utforma stöttande undervisning för flerspråkiga elever samt i att utbilda och informera lärare kring transspråkande. / The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge of some teachers' and a special educator's experiences of and views on language and knowledge development working methods with a special focus on translanguaging approaches. The purpose of the study is also to contribute with knowledge about the role of the special needs teacher in the work of promoting translanguaging in teaching for students in need of language support. The theoretical framework for the study consists of socio-cultural perspectives and intercultural pedagogical perspectives. The study approach is qualitative and the study data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Based on the teachers' descriptions, both advantages and challenges with translanguage approaches in teaching are made visible. According to the results of the study, the single most prominent success factor for translanguaging teaching to take place is the teacher's positive attitude towards all languages. The results also show that translanguaging approaches in teaching can be a way to prevent discrimination and xenophobia. The study's special pedagogical relevance is made visible by the fact that the study shows that the special needs teacher can be a resource in designing supportive teaching for multilingual students and in educating and informing teachers about translanguaging.