Mångkulturalism och svensk folkhögskola : Studie av en möjlig mötesarena

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to analyze the Swedish folk high school as a possible arena for multicultural encounters. This is done at two levels. One is the so called institutional level, where an attempt is made to identify the underlying set of values of the folk high school in a multicultural perspective. The other is the organizational level, which is the local folk high school as a possible arena of encounters. These two levels can also be termed arenas of formulation and realization.The major part is the field study at four schools. An attempt has been made to find out to what extent the schools live up to the criteria for arenas of multicultural encounter thatare identified from official governmental documents and related research. In other words, to relate the arenas of formulation and realization to one another.These criteria imply that the task of the folk high school in this respect is to develop and strengthen ethnorelative attitudes among its students and to equip them for communicative actions.The field study of the arena of realization, the local folk high school, has shed light onsome aspects of the multicultural encounter. There are indications that the folk highschool has the potentiality for living up to the above-mentioned criteria. However, thispotentiality is not being used in full, neither by governmental agencies nor by the actorson the local arena.