Abstract

The school is a central part of everyone's lives, irrespective of we are adults, children, teachers, parents or policymakers. The society changes all the time which should lead to that the Swedish school system also is in constant change. Today, the Swedish society has people that have different cultures. Therefore it is important for everyone in the Swedish society and in schools to create an understanding of the people who bring different cultures, experiences and opinions in his backpack. It is not always easy to create an understanding and, therefore,possible conflicts due to misunderstanding can be normal in some school and in the society. How is the situation in school, how do teachers define the complex concepts such as culture, cultural diversity, what are the teachers doing to provide students with knowledge that can help those living in the community and do the teachers feel that they can handle any problems that arise from cultural clashes.

The purpose of my study is to examine how teachers understand the concepts of culture, cultural diversity and cultural clashes. It also aims to examine how these teachers can develop cultural diversity in their teaching, and how these teachers can handle possible problems in school/education which are culturally related.

The method used is qualitative interviews conducted with the help of four teachers. The results show that the teachers have different definitions of the concepts of culture, cultural diversity and cultural clashes. The concepts are complex and can mean a lot. Teaching about the multiculturalism varies, but all the teachers think it is important and that any conflict that may arise in connection with the clash of cultures is handled differently. However, the knowledge and conversation is important to be able to handle any problems that are culturally related.