In this dissertation I explore how schools address cultural diversity among students. In particular, I focus on intercultural education as an approach in which cultural diversity – including a variety of norms, values, habits, and traditions – is recognized as a resource and where minority culture is emphasized, which may be of special importance for students with migration backgrounds.

I highlight a dilemma that schools face when addressing cultural diversity. On the one hand, emphasizing minority cultures as part of an inclusive approach can risk labelling minority students as different. On the other hand, avoiding attention to cultural differences and instead socializing all students into a dominant majority culture risks reproducing a monocultural form of education that primarily transmits majority norms and values. In both cases, students with migration backgrounds risk being perceived as ‘different’ or ‘other’. 

This raises the question of how schools can adopt an intercultural approach – one that values minority cultures as resources in education – without reinforcing marginalization. What possibilities and challenges do such an approach involve? 

To dig into this question, I use an ethnographic approach to investigate a school that works with intercultural perspectives and methods. Over the course of half a school term, I observe students and school staff in their everyday activities and interactions. I note how they, through interactions and interpretations, collectively construct a shared understanding of themselves, their school and the world around them – forming what can be described as a school culture. This school culture, in turn, shapes the outcomes of the intercultural approach, as it provides the interpretive frame through which school practices and interactions are understood. 

The dissertation thus shows that the conditions for successful intercultural education are influenced not only by broader structural challenges – such as marginalization and stigmatization associated with monocultural forms of education – but also by dynamics within individual schools and their local cultures. It therefore highlights the importance of paying attention to and addressing the everyday interactions and pedagogical practices within schools themselves to avoid reinforcing marginalization when implementing approaches such as intercultural education.