Master Programme in Multicultural and International Education
The Faculty of Education at Oslo University College has over the past ten to twenty years involved itself strongly in multicultural and international challenges in the education sector. The demand for higher level theoretical and practical competence in this field is increasing very rapidly, both nationally and internationally.
As a consequence of Norway’s increasingly multicultural society, Norwegian schools are faced with a series of challenges which demand increased competence among pre-school and primary school teachers.
Oslo has at present the largest concentration of citizens with a multicultural background and 25% of children who start school in the city have a first language other than Norwegian. The new curriculum for the primary school requires that teachers and other employees in the schools must have competence contributing to improving opportunities for pupils with a first language other than Norwegian.
Parallel with this national development towards multicultural schooling, internationalisation and globalisation are areas of increased focus in Norwegian schools. The Norwegian multicultural school must be understood within a background of global processes. At the same time a comparative perspective is important in order to estimate various problem areas in the light of corresponding conditions in other countries.
Increasing globalisation is characterised by, among other things, increased availability of research-based knowledge from many countries and cultures concerning the connection between education and development process at the level of the individual, the group and society as a whole.
Examples of such areas of knowledge which are important in an educational context globally are:
- cultural understanding
- perspectives on knowledge and learning
- the roles of the teacher and the pupil
- the relationship between the school, the home and the local community
- school leadership
- education and competence
- economic growth and school development
- class and power aspects of education
- the role of education in democratisation processes
- the relationship between minorities and the majority
- multi-lingualism
- religious diversity
- ethnicity and racism
- gender and gender roles
This Master’s programme in multicultural and international education aims at offering an advanced study programme which provides necessary competence for work in the Norwegian multicultural schools as well as for international work within the education sector in the South.
This study represents an alternative to other Master programmes within the academic field of pedagogy and social science. The unique characteristic of this course is that it is professionally oriented, has an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary character and focuses on both the multicultural Norwegian school as well as work related to education and development in the South.
With the exception of Module 4a The Norwegian Multicultural School, all modules are taught in English.