Searching for a Renewal of Religious Education Identity ñ A Swedish Perspective (original) (raw)
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Religious Education in Contemporary Pluralistic Sweden
In the mandatory, integrative and non-confessional school subject of Religious Education in Sweden, all students are taught together regardless of religious or secular affiliation. The overall aim of this thesis is to explore and analyse how Religious Education (RE) can be socially constructed in the upper secondary school classroom practice in the pluralistic context of contemporary Sweden. The result is based on findings from participant observations of 125 Religious Education lessons at three upper secondary schools in Sweden, both on vocational programs and on preparatory programs for higher education. Discourse analysis, curriculum theory, and didaktik of religion are used as theoretical and analytic approaches. The findings indicate that a secularist discourse was hegemonic in the classroom practice and implied norm of talking about religion, religions and worldviews as something outdated and belonging to history. A non-religious, atheistic position was articulated as neutral and unbiased in relation to the subject matter and was associated with being a rational, critically thinking person. However, there were also spiritual and swedishness discourses of religion that in some respects challenged the hegemonic discourse, but also enforced it. The programs at upper secondary schools were influenced by different educational discourses called a private discourse and an academic rational discourse, which affected the construction of the subject in these different contexts. Implications of the discourses are discussed in relation to the classroom practice and aims of Religious Education.
‘One needs to be free’: making sense of young people’s talk about religion in multicultural Sweden
Journal of Religious Education, 2015
This article unfolds patterns of pupils' talk about religion and Religious Education in upper secondary school in Sweden (age 18-19). At the same time highly secularized and increasingly religiously diverse, Swedish society provides an interesting case for understanding better the role of religion in the contemporary world. A recent and nationally representative survey among pupils in upper secondary school demonstrated the role of the pupils' religiosity along with background variables such as gender, study program, and parents' educational level for the pupils' attitudes towards both Religious Education and religious diversity in society. However, attitudes towards such a complex phenomenon as religion may hardly be fully captured by quantitative survey methodology. Therefore focus group interviews were conducted with in all 45 pupils representing a range of religious traditions and none. The composition of interview groups also catered for aspects such as gender, ethnicity, living region and study programme. Patterns emerging from the analysis suggest that central themes in the pupils' understanding of religion involve framing themselves as reflexive agents, seeing themselves as free from structures which they argue would hinder them from leading fulfilled lives. This pattern was interestingly recurring both among pupils who saw themselves as religious or believers and among pupils who saw themselves as nonreligious. In their talk about the role of religion in society, in school, and for themselves it was just different things that were seen as obstacles and liberators. These ways of talking about religion reveals sociologically salient configurations regarding how religion is constructed in contemporary Sweden. In this paper findings are discussed using perspectives from post-colonial theory.
Oxford Journal of Law and Religion
This article takes its point of departure in the recommendations by the Council of Europe, and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that recommend that European states should offer education about religions for all school students, regardless of religious or non-religious background. Sweden is one of the countries that provides such education through a compulsory non-denominational religion education (RE) school subject. The compulsory nature of the school subject is possible as long as the teaching is both ‘objective and pluralistic’. In this article, the concept of objectivity but also neutrality is discussed, using the Swedish school subject as an example. The argument pursued is that RE in Sweden, although presented as objective and neutral, also can be understood as ‘marinated’ in Lutheran Protestantism. In the end, the protestant taste of the Swedish non-denominational and compulsory RE is used as a call for further awareness of how the religious history...
2015
In Sweden, the didactics of religious education is perceived as a relatively new field of research. In this study we show that, in fact, the field has very old roots and that there were the beginnings of an academic field of research in the 1970:s. The latter has in large parts been neglected or forgotten. We suggest that there currently is a lack of debate concerning the fundamental views of what the subject should be, as well overarching goals -the lack of a “big picture”, if you will -and that active teachers might lack a professional vocabulary. One might even question if there indeed is a field of didactics of religious education in Sweden. In this essay, we seek to look at that question. The main material is an overview of titles used in RE-teacher’s education, which illustrate the debate among scholars of religious education, as well as academic reviews of the subject. This is supplemented by interviews with three teachers. The study shows a fragmented field. No serious attem...
Religion education in Scandinavian countries and Finland – Perspectives to present situation
2015
This article looks into the Religion Education (RE) in Finland, approaching the topic first of all from the international, mainly European, discussion, and then focusing more into the Nordic or Scandinavian setting, and finally the current trends and issues discussed in relation to the Finnish model. We have chosen to use the term religion education instead of religious education when discussing the present state in the Scandinavian countries to illustrate the nature of RE as officially non-denominational that is based on a Study of Religions approach (see Berglund 2013). However, in Finnish case, the term religion education is complex since the subject is officially nondenominational, yet the RE model is organized according to the membership of religious communities. The increased mobility of people, globalization, diversification, secularization and individualism each contribute into keeping society in constant change. Besides strengthening and enriching the society in a variety of ways, the change also necessitates some re-evaluation of what have been seen as the customary policies and practices. This applies very strongly to education, where the need for the educators to be able to look "through other eyes" is particularly essential (Poulter, Riitaoja & Kuusisto 2015). Religions, world views, values-and dialogue in education as their relationshipand in particular, learning from religions and world views, has become one of the cores of social debate in recent years. This debate has become more and more visible in both national and international arenas. (Weisse 2009, 11.) According to Professor Robert Jackson, one of the leading experts in the field internationally, the theme has never in the history been discussed so widely and actively than at the moment. Besides the experts of Religious Education, the debate has involved politicians, citizens and public at large. (Jackson 2011; ix-xxii.) The discussion has included a quest
CEPS Journal, 2019
• Religious education appears in many different models and varies between educational systems and national contexts. Theoretically, religious education is usually divided into confessional and non-confessional models. However, as several researchers have pointed out, the non-confessional models can be 'marinated' in confessional religion. In most national contexts, regardless of the model on which it is based, religious education is intended to serve the promotion of social cohesion by way of promoting knowledge and understanding of the new multi-religious world. However, in official documents and scholarly literature, there is a taken-for-granted relationship between 'knowledge of religion' and such general aims. In the article, critical questions concerning this relationship will be raised.
Journal of Empirical Theology, 2008
The study investigated variation in the ways in which a group of students and teachers of Evangelical Lutheran religious education in Finnish upper secondary schools understand 'Lutheranism' and searched for educational implications for learning in religious education. The aim of understanding the qualitative variation in understanding Lutheranism was explored through the relationship between the following questions, which correspond to the results reported in the following original refereed publications: 1) How do Finnish students understand Lutheranism? 2) How do Finnish teachers of religious education constitute the meaning of Lutheranism? 3) How could phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning contribute to learning about and from religion in the context of Finnish Lutheran Religious Education as compared to religious education in the UK? Two empirical studies (Hella, 2007; Hella, 2008) were undertaken from a phenomenographic research perspective (e.g., Marton, 1981) and the Variation Theory of Learning (e.g., Marton & Tsui et al. 2004) that developed from it. Data was collected from 63 upper secondary students and 40 teachers of religious education through written tasks with open questions and complementary interviews with 11 students and 20 teachers for clarification of meanings. The two studies focused on the content and structure of meaning discernment in students' and teachers' expressed understandings of Lutheranism. Differences in understandings are due to differences in the meanings that are discerned and focused on. The key differences between the ways students understand varied from understanding Lutheranism as a religion to personal faith with its core in mercy. The logical relationships between the categories that describe variation in understanding express a hierarchy of ascending complexity, according to which more developed understandings are inclusive of less developed ones. The ways the teachers understand relate to student's understandings in a sequential manner. Phenomenography and Variation Theory were discussed in the context of religious education in Finland and the UK in relation to the theoretical notion of 'learning about and from religion' (Hella & Wright, 2008). The thesis suggests that variation theory enables religious educators to recognise the unity of learning about and from religion, as learning is always learning about something and involves simultaneous engagement with the object of learning and development as a person. The study also suggests that phenomenography and variation theory offer a means by which it is possible for academics, policy makers, curriculum designers, teachers and students to l earn to di scern different way s of understanding the contested nature of religions.
Religious Education in the European Context. Comparing aims in the Swedish and Greek curriculum
2020
Over the previous decade, a rise in terrorism combined with the growing discrimination on multi-religious societies, have put global peace in danger, highlighting the role of religious education (RE) and the need to be brought in discussion anew. Globalization of the education arena has led to supranational organizations having increasing influence over national policymaking, raising questions about the extent that the suggestions of international institutions are reflected in the national curricula. This article looks into the cases of Sweden and Greece. A comparison of curricula, and more specifically aim catalogues, demonstrates how the same suggestions can take different forms in different national contexts. The Council of Europe has refrained from defining religious education. However, acknowledging the important role religious education can play, the intercultural education approach has been linked with religious education in an attempt to develop critical empathy and dialogue that will foster respect for the rights of others. For that purpose, it is suggested that the aims and values of intercultural education should be infused in the subject of religious education. Therefore, both Greece and Sweden are expected to comply with the learning about and learning from religions approach. Learning about religion, or education about religion, referrs to the acquisition of knowledge about different religions and non-religious outlooks of life. Moreover, learning from religion or education from religion, aims to assist students widening and deepe ning their understanding of religions. The method of the study is thematic template analysis. This style of analysis is more flexible regarding the format of the coding template, since it does not suggest a specific sequence of coding levels. The themes emerging are compared with reference to the Greek and Swedish curriculum, but also with the themes emerging from the suggestions of supranational organizations on the subject of religious education.