Teachers' Perceptions of Cultural Differences: Ethnocentric and Ethnorelative Worldview in School Context

In Serbian context many of the teachers are faced with a challenge of diversifying classrooms regarding the cultural background of the students. According to intercultural theory the way that people perceive cultural differences and their competence to effectively act in situations that involve different cultures is influenced by the intercultural sensitivity of a person. The main aim of this research is to answer the following questions: a) what kind of meanings participants assign to the notion of cultural difference; b) how do they perceive their professional and personal experience with cultural differences; c) how do they approach the teaching process in relation to perceived differences; and d) whether and in what way do they support minority students. The methodology for the presented research is structured according to the concept of Grounded Theory. For the purpose of this research, eight semi-structured interviews were carried out. All the data was analyzed by content analysis. The analysis of two different cases--ethnocentric and ethnorelative worldview translations to the school context are presented in details and discussed. [For the complete Volume 13, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568595.]