This document summarizes Leif Magnusson's presentation on teaching multiculturalism. It discusses both what to do and not do when teaching multiculturalism. It provides examples of current initiatives in Sweden to promote intercultural understanding, including a knowledge bank of stereotypical images, collecting migration stories, an app to raise awareness of racism, and a multicultural calendar. It emphasizes the importance of avoiding exoticism and essentialism when discussing culture and promoting intercultural dialogue. Museums are discussed as having a role in contributing to a more diverse public understanding of culture.

1. Teaching multiculturalism:
some dos and don’ts
Leif Magnusson
European Strategy Meeting:
Migration and Culture
23-24 May 2017

2. .

3. • Context
•What to do
• Not to do

5. Contemporary challenges
• People seeking refuge
• Reinforced national boarders
• Cities’ increased responsibility for
integration initiatives
• Social media: Hate, fear, solidarity, practical
mobilisation
• The European project – toward an end or a
new beginning?

6. It’s difficult to avoid the notion of culture.
The understanding of the concept of
culture has been neutralised without
specific knowledge.
How do we find our way back to the
ideology of culture?
What role can museums play in this
challenge?

7. Intercultural way
• In an intercultural context, a cultural
affiliation is not something which is static
but something which can change with time
• Each individual decides on his or her
identity, instead of passively accepting what
has been decided by the group or by
society.
• After 9/11 – more discussion about
intercultural dialogue in Europe

8. 1. Knowledgebank – The Power of
Pictures!
• Launching 30 May 2017
• Web based educational tool for smartphones
showing stereotypical picture of minorities
historically, how they are reproduced as a
visual logic and analysis of patterns
• First time in Sweden. Collaboration with
minorities and University College of Art,
Crafts and Design.
• www.bildersmakt.se

9. 2. Remember migration
• Permanent work: Your memories are a part of
Swedish culture heritage
• Send your story to our website
• Tool for inclusion. You can write or tell us in
your own language. We put it in national
archive
• Siete vidas: 7 long interviews with a group of
Chileans living in Stockholm Area. Book
published in Spanish with Swedish summery
• www.attminnas.se

10. 3. The App Against Racism is…
• An educational, interactive game
Intended to…
• Raise awareness of everyday racism &
micro aggressions
• Promote engagement,
courage, equity and
inclusion

11. THE APP AGAINST RACISM will…
• Play via app on smartphone or tablet (Apple & Android)
• Target schools, age group 13 – 19 years old
(Pedagogical teacher resource available as supplement)
• Be free to download, use & open to all
Playing the game…
• Player “is” a character for 5 days
• Player receives “live” SMS, snapchats, video clips etc.
• Player “is faced” with racist & discriminatory situations
• Player needs to choose outcome and “take action”
Throughout and after the game, the player is invited to learn more
about relevant topics, anti-racism and human rights.

12. 4. Unlock (Lås Upp!)
• Social and cultural norms are necessary for
human interaction. But norms can also limit
us and create discrimination. How can we
deal with this?
• Pedagogy of norm critique addresses issues
of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, class
and functionality
• University course 7.5 points
• www.lasupp.nu

13. 5. Holidays and Feasts:
Migration and heritage
• What happens to traditions and customs when
they are transplanted into new cultural
environments through migration?
• Multicultural calendar, website and
pedagogical tools for schools
• Open for domestic complexes and new
traditions
• Ritual Year, University of Malta Junior College
2006 had published an article
• www.mangkulturellaalmanackan.se

14. The Multicultural calendar
Since the beginning of the 1990s

15. Voices
• Stockholm do you see us? Do you hear
our voice? Or must we raise the volume?
• We’ve seen how a progress of right wing
extremism correlates to an increase of
everyday racism, and how that connection
makes the situation worse for non-whites
in Sweden
• (Accessing Utopia, Venice Biennale 2017)

16. Not to do
• Exoticism och exclusion are dangerous risks
• Using the concept of culture in an essensialistic way
• Making individuals and groups invisable
• Missing out on cultural encounters – we need more
fuel to promote intercultural dialog and understanding
• Culture is more than ethnicity
• The research field of interculturality is divided:
A) Norm critique promoting an in-depth understanding of culture
B) Norm critique questioning cultural understanding

17. Generic skills
We need new
skills! We need to collaborate
more!

18. Perspective on museums and
diversity in Sweden
• Organisation, Production, Perspectives
• About, For, With, By, How, Where
• On-Off Event or sustainable long-term
initiatives?
• Museums at risk of contributing to a
homogenous public
• Integration without diminishing – a challenge

19. Thanks!
leif.magnusson@mkcentrum.se
+46 708-861426
mkcentrum.se