Önskan att förstå andra människor – En studie om socionomers syn på kulturkompetens inom skolans värld

Sammanfattning: Our purpose was to examine what point of view social workers, active in schools, have of cross-cultural competence. To accomplish this we interviewed six counsellors in different senior-level compulsory schools in Malmö and Lund. The framing questions were: · What does cross-cultural competence mean? · What are the advantages and disadvantages with such competence? · Is it something that differs in the way the counsellors’ work with students with Swedish background compared to students with other cultural backgrounds? · Do the counsellors feel a need of cross-cultural competence? Cross-cultural competence is a complex concept that has no obvious definition and therefore we found the subject very interesting. We have found that the social workers had different opinions when it comes to such competence, as well as their need for it. Advantages with such knowledge could increase the understanding of different ways of living, but there is also a risk that such knowledge has negative effects like generalizations. We found that the counsellors possess high competence in their work with students, no matter where the students come from.