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Impressions From Sweden Mara Sapon Shevin From August 10-13, 1997, The International Association for Intercultural Education met in Sodertalje, Sweden for its annual meeting. Co-sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education, the conference drew over 200 participants from twenty-four countries, including South Africa, Australia, Croatia, Israel, and Ireland, as well as people from Central Europe, Scandinavia, and the United States. The theme of the conference was "Cooperation and Diversity," and many of the conference presentations centered on issues of conflict resolution, cooperative learning and curriculum, complex instruction, teacher education, and community building. It is difficult to capture the joys and excitement of a meeting that drew together so many educators from around the world, but the following were personal highlights for me: A session by Ilse Brunner of Germany on "Peace Education in a World of Violence." Ilse led participants through a series of exercises designed to elicit images and conceptions of peace. We looked at photos drawn from the German equivalent of National Geographic and talked about how these related to peace. Elizabeth Cohen and I had a wonderful discussion of a photo of an elephant family looking with fear and suspicion at one of their offspring bringing home a rhino. One could just imagine the caption, "Couldn't you have found a nice elephant to play with?" We also read and talked about statements by Nobel Peace Prize winners from all over the world and discussed the relationship between their statements and peace education in the classroom. The discussions were rich and exciting, with the differences between countries providing multiple opportunities for cross-fertilization and questioning:"In your country you don't have a national peace curriculum?" "In your country you do?" A fascinating session by Leif Brettell of Sweden on dealing with bullying in multicultural schools. The workshop was designed as a simulation, with different groups assigned the roles of teachers, administrators, pupils, parents, the press, members of the teachers' union and politicians. But rather than being given a script, or even a clear explanation of the process, once we were assigned our roles, we were left to figure out what was going on. In the resulting miscommunication, confusion and lack of definition of the problem and its parameters, the truth emerged: Part of the problem is that no one is sure what the problem is (parents' perspectives and students' perspectives didn't mesh well); feelings of distrust and suspicion run deep (most groups refused to talk to the press who then made up stories that the teachers and administrators found offensive); misunderstandings abound (parents thought they were being brushed off, teachers found the parents agitated but non-communicative); and political underpinnings and contexts are crucial (the politicians wanted the issue "handled" but didn't want to spend money). The final de-briefing of the session was fascinating, not only because of the emergence of the above issues, but also because the various cultural contexts for the discussion were so different. The role of government in the schools, the nature and extent of violence in schools, the power of teachers' unions--all of these varied tremendously among the countries represented. A session by Rachel Lotan of Stanford University on the use of cases and case discussions in teacher education. Rachel presented a case of a teacher attempting to implement cooperative learning in her classroom (part of a forthcoming book on "Groupwork in Diverse Classrooms" being published by Teachers College Press). In small, heterogeneous groups, we were asked to discuss the facts of the case (not as simple as you might expect) and then the issues of the case. Freedom and control, the delegation of authority, the role of failure in learning, teacher education and teacher anxiety were all discussed. In addition to the content of the workshop, processing our own interactions allowed (only a glimmer, unfortunately) a discussion of the ways in which all the participants' voices were not equally represented in the discussion. Issues of the male domination, the cultural and linguistic hierarchies of the conference (everyone spoke English, but for most this was a second, and sometimes a third language) and differential status (teachers vs. researchers) all emerged under Rachel's skillful facilitation. The second night of the conference, the banquet dinner included the opportunity for people from many countries to share their music and dances. As Emcee, I was privileged to facilitate an evening of sharing, laughter and music. Treasa Kirk from Ireland played jigs on the piano, Yael Sharan taught an Israeli dance, several participants from Finland taught a Finnish folk dance which turned out to be identical to the bunny hop, and I led (by request) the Hokey Pokey and the Macarena. Groups from Hungary, Sweden, South Africa, Spain, Italy and Russia sang songs from their cultural heritages, with the negotiations and choices of songs often bringing laughter and closeness to each group. The U.S. ers, after some serious negotiation ("What song do we all know?) sang "Old McDonald" with marvelous animal noises from all the participants. The depth of feeling and appreciation which emerged from this evening of sharing were truly heart-warming, and the singing continued (in small groups) long into the night.The conference was a wonderful experience for me, and I learned much at a personal and a professional level. The opportunity to sit around a table with people from Ireland, South Africa, Finland, Portugal and the Netherlands talking about issues of school change and curriculum was unparalleled in my experience. I learned several things, which may appear contradictory: Educators all over the world are eager to connect and find common ground (and language) for discussion and in addition to our commonalties; there are significant differences and it is critical not to homogenize across groups, assuming that the issues in the United States are those elsewhere in the world. One of the best things about the conference was that less than 10% of the participants were from the United States; the inadvertent domination of issues and discussion that often occurs at international conferences such as AERA when the number of international participants is quite limited was significantly challenged. I hope that IASCE and IAIE will work together again in the future, as I feel that the collaboration enhanced us all. I look forward to many more chances to meet, talk, share and sing together.