In 2011, a BA programme in Intercultural Education [Interkulturel pædagogik] was established at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Southern Denmark. The BA programme is interdisciplinary, including a choice of either Arabic or Danish as a second language as the other main subject other from intercultural education. In 2017, the Arabic track was discontinued so that all students studied Intercultural education combined with Danish as a second language. In 2023, the university’s rector, on the recommendation of the dean of the Faculty of Humanities, decided that the programme should close “to bring balance to the economy” since the programme was estimated to be financially unsustainable due to a small number of students. The last students of the programme will graduate in 2026.

 In this presentation, we – both of us experienced lecturers at the programme, and one of us furthermore former head of study – will outline a research study of the programme’s history, content, and research environment, and we will discuss the possible futures of Intercultural education programmes in Denmark. Also, we will look to similar and related programmes in the European context, such as the Nordic countries and Germany, for a comparative analysis.

The research question of the study is: What was the purpose of creating a BA programme in Intercultural Education, how have the programme's curricula and content changed historically, and what development opportunities does the programme now face?

 The presentation draws on document analysis of documents and other material related to the programme stored in an archive over the years. Among these, the official curriculum [studieordning], syllabi for each discipline, the original application from establishing the study programme in 2011, as well as the publications related directly to the programme such as the anthology “Interkulturel pædagogik – Kulturmøder i teori og praksis” [Intercultural education – Cultural encounters in theory and practice] (2015) edited and authored by lecturers and researchers affiliated with the study programme and announcing a “presentation of a research and education field” (Hobel et al., 2005).

Furthermore, we will include reflections on our own positioning as researchers in the field and lecturers in the BA programme since 2015.

Based on the case study of the BA programme, we will discuss future opportunities (and perhaps hopes) for intercultural education in higher education, with special respect to new developments in the research field inspired by postmigration (Römhild 2017, Foroutan 2019), Critical Race Theory (Gillborn, 2006), teaching for social justice perspectives (Kumashiro, 2015), etc. 

The study will be designed as a case study (Flyvbjerg, 2006) as we, in the preliminary phase, expect that the case can serve as, a critical case of strategic importance in relation to the general problem of how to educate in the field of education and migration. In the analysis of the policy documents that originate from the programme’s creation, we will use, among other things, a WPR (What’s the Problem Represented to be) analysis (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016) to place the programme in a broader context of education policy. The study also includes an analysis of the BA programme in light of James A. Banks (2009)’s five dimensions of Multicultural Education with a specific focus on content integration (in curricula and syllabi), equity pedagogy, and empowering school culture and social structure. Furthermore, we will include a mapping of similar and related programmes in the European context, such as the Nordic countries and Germany, for the possibility of a comparative analysis.

The preliminary results of the study point in the direction of several ambivalences and sometimes academic struggles in the field of research and higher education policy. One conflict line is drawn between a practitioner-oriented and an academic and research-oriented professionalism as the programme’s aim. Another dividing line goes between two different research positions, of which one is oriented towards a more classical intercultural pedagogy paradigm while the other moves away from the concept of ‘interculturality’ and towards a social justice paradigm inspired by Critical Race Theory and related positions. Parallel to this, another struggle takes place between different positions in the language research field that informs the part of the programme education the students in the ‘Danish as a Second Language’ field. In addition to this, the concept of pedagogy (pædagogik) is given a special meaning in the Danish and continental education research context, and we will thus also place the history and current status of the programme within this discussion. To sum up, we expect to present a conceptual mapping of the programme’s content drawing on document analysis of policy documents, curricula and syllabi; an overview of similar and related programmes in Europe; as well as autoethnographic reflections on the programme’s history and possible futures for higher education programmes in the field of education and migration.

Bacchi, C., & Goodwin, S. (2016). Poststructural policy analysis: A guide to practice. Springer. Banks, J. A. (2009). Multicultural education: Dimensions and paradigms. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education. Routledge. Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219-245. Foroutan, N. (2019). “The Post-migrant Paradigm”. In J.-J. Bock & S. Macdonald (Eds.), Refugees Welcome? Difference and Diversity in a Changing Germany. Berghahn Books, 142–167. Gillborn, D. (2006). Critical race theory and education: Racism and anti-racism in educational theory and praxis. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 27(1), 11-32. Hobel, P., Nielsen, H. L., Thomsen, P., & Zeuner, L. (2015). Interkulturel Pædagogik: Kulturmøder i teori og praksis. U Press. Kumashiro, K. (2015). Against Common Sense. Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice. Routledge. Römhild, R. (2017). Beyond the bounds of the ethnic: For postmigrant cultural and social research. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 9(2), 69-75.