My essay is concerned with intercultural leadership and practical knowledge. The essay is about ethical dilemmas and the diversity of issues we face constantly at the preschool. In my story I examine the different views of knowledge and the opportunities to lead people in an intercultural way, and how they relate to each other. I start by looking at the ethical ideas that form the basis for our actions and our view of knowledge. Then, I examine how the practical wisdom guides the ethical dilemmas that arise at the preschool.

I have together with Frimeko AB developed new hallway furniture for preschools. The background to the project is the fact that all the existing hallway furniture?s on the market today have a similar design and same features. None of the furniture stands out immediately. Companies who work with school furniture in general have been inspired by each other, and therefore is the collections monotonous.

Sweden is today a country with ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. My aim in this study is to study what view of Islam and Muslims that students at a Catholic school in Stockholm have. The reason why Catholic schools are interesting to study is that previous research has showed that Muslim students around Europe often attend catholic schools as they are regarded as more tolerant towards religion. This study is based on a questionnaire and personal interviews with upper secondary students at the Catholic school in Stockholm. The result is compared with previous research on students of the same age group (12-15 years).

The aim with this paper is to examine the political background of the schools comission to integrate pupils with special needs in the public school. These following questions are examined: What political documents are the elementary? Which ones are juridically binding for the schools? What are the experiences for  parents of children with special needs in the school? The method used for this paper is mainly litterature-studies. The four documents which are examined are: skollagen, Läroplanen 94, FN:s barnkonvention och Salamancadeklarationen. The theoretical frame for this paper is political documents, curriculums and how schools concretize the special education.

This thesis examines and evaluates user boards in Swedish public schools from a democratic perspective. In order to evaluate whether the democratic values are fulfilled five different democratic ideals are selected to serve as a theoretical fundament. These ideals derive from the Swedish Government Official Reports that preceded the reform of user boards in schools, and are identified as the following: participation, dialogue, trust, democratic schooling and influence. The study is based on cases and involves two schools with user boards and two comparative schools with informal parental influence, so called school advisory boards. The study concludes that the main difference between the two types of parental influence is the level of formality.

The purpose of this study is to describe how expatriates at Handelsbanken in France, Hong Kong, China, Russia and Singapore have adapted to the host culture. To illustrate how well they acculturated following seven factors have been chosen: Time, previous international experience, cultural distance, language, work environment, spouse acculturation and met expectations. The study was conducted through interviews with six expatriates and surveys answered by nine expatriates. Our study shows that the expatriates have experienced different lengths for cultural adaptation. The majority of the respondents indicated that it took up to six months before they adapted culturally.

This study investigates how the host community of Tenerife perceives the socio-cultural effects of tourism on the island. The method chosen for the study was qualitative interviews which were performed with six respondents, each born in Spain, living permanently in Tenerife and employed within service-related occupations. The interview material was interpreted and handled according to a hermeneutic approach. The results of the study showed that the respondents had an over-all positive perception of tourism. Perceived positive socio-cultural effects were related to cultural and linguistic influences.

This article deals with the woodlands as a biological cultural heritage and how it is taken care of in the protected woodlands in Skåne, in the south of Sweden, especially the deciduous trees which is dominated by beech. High biological values have emerged as a result of grazing and different kinds of forestry. The protected woodlands have been ripped of its cultural influences which changes the biological values on which the original reasons for protection was founded..

The purpose of this study is to investigate, and if possible explain, how background, childhood, and education in a municipal or regional context can affect young peoples? life trajectories.The living conditions for the population in the coastal region Roslagen with its geographical and historical specificities has during centuries largely been characterized by practical crafts-manship. With a growing share of non-permanent residents in the region with demand for help and services, this culture has during the later years been able to prosper. The social reproduc-tion in the municipality also seems to be extensive. In addition to original background, appar-ently the municipality?s service-dominated trade and industry culture has also affected the choice of education and profession of the youth in Norrtälje.

Every year 120 children with Downs Syndrome is born in Sweden. The aim of the study was to investigate if there were any differences between mothers and fathers of children with Downs Syndrome regarding: experience of support from health care personnel and physicians in the time of delivery and from who parents sought most emotional support.Participants of the study was 80 mothers and 79 fathers that answered a questionnaire. There was a difference between parents if they thought they received support from health care personnel, mothers (59 %) and fathers (38 %) thought that they didn?t receive support. Emotional support sought mothers (52 %), in grater wideness then the fathers (23 %), with other families with handicapped children.

That the Swedish society looks different depending on the location is a fact and that in turn means different schools with different conditions and resources depending on the localization. We have in this study interviewed four teachers in a high-status school and four teachers at a low-status school in a municipality south of Stockholm. The purpose of our study is to find out how teachers / educators perceive children's physical and psychological safety in their workplaces, and if there is a difference between the schools in resource allocation.In order to answer our purpose of the study, we chose to interview teachers about how the school looks for the kids in order of enough resources such as books for all, enough facilities and competent and even skilled teachers. To take into account and consider people´s backgrounds, experiences, and cultural frames of reference is a way to interact within a respectful world, and as a good approach to educating children from all parts of the world and with all the different mental and physical difficulties. The two schools in our study show lack of resources but of different kinds.

Drawing from the theoretical foundations of the ?critical theory? of the Frankfurt School and the media ethnographic ?cultural studies? approach of the british Birmingham School, this study attempts to sketch out a media theoretical overview of the contemporary state of media culture. Using the term convergence culture as the foundation, this study offers a theoretical background to the two contemporary streams that are the significant and distinct tendencies of convergence culture: intermedial convergence, its contemporary state and historical tendencies that can be traced back using the past media theoretical approach of the Frankfurt School, and cultural convergence, its contemporary state and historical tendencies, which lineage in a media theoretical context can be traced back to the british ethographic ?cultural studies? field. Using contemporary drama serials to identify and pinpoint these two stream, this study shows how intermedial convergence expresses itself today through media conglomeration in terms of branding, product placement and marketing as the result of the ?completed? convergence between screen culture and popular music as the current defining state of commodity culture.

The aim of this study was to investigate how four families in the Stockholm area reason, what kind of preconception they have and what their horizon of expectations is when they make the choice between sending their children to the profile class of municipal/free schools and sending them to the general classes in those schools. The main research questions asked were:What kind of preconception do the parents have about profile classes?What reasons do the interviewed parents have to send their children to a profile class?What are the interviewed parent?s expectations of the profile class choice?The study is built on qualitative interviews with the parents of the families. The empirical data has been analyzed using a framework of theories drawing on the theory of reproduction, the forms of social capital, the ideas created from the word profile and elite and the horizon of expectations. The results show that the parents of the families have a similar degree of preconception about profile classes.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund.

There are many children in Sweden today, approximately 200 000, who have parents or a parent that abuses alcohol or other drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate how group leaders in support groups for children with addicted parents relate to this sort of support groups. What are their advantages and disadvantages, according to the group leaders?The method used was qualitative and the empirical material was collected through group interviews. We have interviewed eight persons who are social workers and the interviews were carried out at three work places.