Cooperation with guardians in multicultural preschools - A qualitative study of four educators’ ideas about cultural diversity and its impact on cooperation Author: Mathilda Eddestål Mentor: Åsa Arketeg Term: Fall 2016 Abstract: The purpose of this study is to research educator’s communication strategies in multicultural schools, based on whether the educator’s weights in the multicultural background of the child’s guardian(s) in the cooperation process. My research questions are: - What communication strategies have educators to achieve cooperation with the guardians? - In what way is the cultural background of the guardian being considered by the guardians in cooperation? To answer these questions, I have made a qualitative study with semi-structural interviews as a method, which are completed with educators working in multicultural pre-schools. A conclusive finding of this study shows that there is no clear assertive view about whether the educator should or should not take heed of a guardian’s multicultural background. Taking the full span of this study into consideration, I would argue that educators puts great effort to emphasize the structural boundaries of their institution and trying to communicate this to the child’s guardians. However, time and resource constraints limits this effort to a formal directive, rather than a pragmatic execution. The end results gathered from this study is that this specific area should get a lot more attention from managers to give educators the chance to reach the goal marker considering their mission to cooperate with the child’s guardians in an intercultural way.