Mid Sweden University

The study aims to examine how pre-school leaders perceive cultural diversity

and the mission of cultural diversity that is written in the pre-school

curriculum. This is a phenomenographic study which is concentrated on the

variety of opinions and not focused on the search for facts. This study is a case

study based on its empirical data on the three pre-school managers. The

statements from the interview are analyzed from theoretical model that

consists of three categories; Cultural pluralism, assimilation and integration.

The study results demonstrate that the study subjects connect "culture" with

country, families and sometimes language. The descriptions of "culture" show

primarily in the cultural pluralist approach. The perceptions of cultural

diversity also connect differently to other categories, such as assimilation and

integration. The study results also show that the perception of cultural

diversity does not fully affect study subjects’ perception of their mission on

cultural diversity at pre-school. The complexity arises to a greater extent

because of the lack of definition of the different concepts. Concepts that often

leave room for interpretation, which in turn are given a variety of meanings in

the mission.