The world is a cultural mosaic. We live in a culturally-diverse society. Pupils come from a variety of cultural environments. Immigrants often feel unwelcome in the country of immigration. They are frequently subject to segregation, ridicule, discrimination or simply ignorance, beginning as early as primary school. Here, teachers are in a capacity to provide an active positive educational role. In my master’s thesis, I wanted to present parents and teachers with a selection of books that foster multiculturalism and interculturalism in pupils. My research was focused on how the chosen books encourage multicultural upbringing and the response of children to reading them.
In the theoretical part, I have focused on multiculturalism and interculturalism. I have compared texts with multicultural themes from syllabi in 1984, 1998 and 2018 (from three different socio-economic systems). My research encompassed the treatment of such themes in the Finnish syllabus and the discussions of multiculturalism in classes on children’s literature. There I have explored the teachers’ freedom to choose texts independently and the incorporation of the children’s short-story method. I have also researched the layout of pre-school and primary-school classes and developed a multicultural classroom that employs the use of QR codes.
In the empirical part, I have conducted research based on ten selected children’s short stories. The texts have been described and analysed in detail. My research was focused on how children’s short stories with a multicultural aspect may enhance contemporary children’s literature. Following this, I have monitored the response of children after reading such a text. Finally, I have analysed the results of the research.
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