Recent decades have changed many Norwegian schools from being fairly monolingual with few minority pupils to more culturally heterogeneous classes with minority students even in the most remote areas in this scattered populated country. This increased pluralism challenges students as well as teachers ability to understand and cope with increased variety of languages, beliefs, habits and traditions. To live in pluralist societies no doubt require skills which will have to be learned and developed and which seem particularly important in schools. This study which builds on approx. 1000 students in 5 Norwegian schools, aims to explore the intercultural competence and attitudes among pupils and teachers in lower and upper secondary schools in Norway. Particularly, we explore how students perceive teaching and learning and how intercultural competences and attitudes may affect students’ wellbeing, their motivation and school outcome.
