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Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis Studies in Religion and Society 17 Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis Studies in religion and society 17 ‘Stay Awhile and Listen’ Understanding the Dynamics of Mediatization, Authority, and Literacy in Swedish Religious Education Maximilian Broberg Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Hall IV, Universitetshuset, Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala, Friday, 13 December 2019 at 14:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Faculty of Theology). The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Geir Afdal (Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society). Abstract Broberg, M. 2019. 'Stay Awhile and Listen'. Understanding the Dynamics of Mediatization, Authority, and Literacy in Swedish Religious Education. Studies in Religion and Society 17. 84 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0800-5. The aim of this article-based dissertation is to explore the role media play in Swedish Religious Education (RE). The purpose is to study Swedish RE teachers’ practices and how these can be related to various dynamics of mediatization, authority, and literacy. Conducted within the Teaching Religion in Late Modern Sweden project at Uppsala University, this study draws on a national survey, as well as semi-structured interviews and classroom observations with 22 RE teachers. Four specific research questions are posed, each addressed separately in four articles. (1) What kinds of media materials do Swedish RE teachers use in their teaching? (2) What kinds of media dynamics are present in RE classrooms where media materials are used? (3) How can RE teachers’ and students’ engagements with mediated religion be analysed from a multiple media literacies perspective? And, (4) how do RE teachers construct authority on religion in a mediatized situation? The first question is approached through a quantitative analysis of survey material, while the three remaining questions were analysed by the use of qualitative thematic analysis of the observations and interviews. The study finds that RE teachers in Sweden use and relate to various forms of media to a large extent in their daily teaching practices, and that these engagements with mediated religion illustrate the complex balance between the individual agency of the teacher on the one hand, and the media dynamics of amplification, framing and performative agency, and co-structuring, on the other. The teachers’ practices in relation to this are in the study viewed as a form of institutional work that is both caused by, and a contributing factor to, an increased mediatization of contemporary Swedish RE. The findings of the four articles are discussed in light of previous research on mediatization of religion in a Nordic context, specifically with regard to literacy and authority. The author argues that by studying these processes within an educational setting – a context that until recently has been under- explored within mediatization of religion research – the study provides new empirical as well as theoretical knowledge not only to the field of sociology of religion, but also to research on authority and religious education. Maximilian Broberg, Department of Theology, Box 511, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden. © Maximilian Broberg 2019 ISSN 1654-630X ISBN 978-91-513-0800-5 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-395675 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-395675) For Billie and Onyxia, the loves of my life. List of Papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. I Broberg, Maximilian. 2017. ‘The Use of Teaching Materials in Religious Education in Sweden. A quantitative analysis of Swe- dish religious education teachers’ reported use of teaching mate- rials in RE classrooms.’ British Journal of Religious Education. DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2017.1405795. II Toft, Audun, and Maximilian Broberg. 2018. ‘Perspectives: Me- diatized Religious Education.’ In Knut Lundby (ed.). Contesting Religion: The Media Dynamics of Cultural Conflicts in Scandi- navia. Boston: De Gruyter. III Broberg, Maximilian, and Anna Wrammert. ‘Multiple Media Literacy in Religious Education. A Qualitative Study of Teachers and Students’ Thoughts on Critically Engaging with Mediatized Religion.’ Under review. IV Broberg, Maximilian. ‘Authority on Religion in Mediatized Classrooms.’ Under review. Reprints were made with permission from the respective publishers. Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................. 13 1.1 Purpose and Research Questions ........................................................ 18 1.1.1 Purpose ....................................................................................... 18 1.1.2 Research Questions ..................................................................... 19 1.2 Structure of the Thesis ........................................................................ 20 1.2.1 The articles ................................................................................. 22 Chapter 2. Research Context and Theory ..................................................... 24 2.1 Sociology of Religion ......................................................................... 24 2.2 Religious Education in Sweden .......................................................... 26 2.3 Media and Mediatization .................................................................... 28 2.3.1 Mediatization .............................................................................. 28 2.3.2 Media: a multifarious concept .................................................... 33 2.4 Authority ............................................................................................ 35 2.4.1 Various forms of authority .......................................................... 35 2.4.2 Authority and secularization ....................................................... 37 2.4.3 From religious authority to authority on religion ....................... 38 2.5 Media Literacy ................................................................................... 39 2.5.1 Multiple media literacies ............................................................ 40 2.5.2 Religious literacy and religious media literacy ........................... 42 2.6 Summary ............................................................................................ 44 2.6.1 Research questions revisited and explained ................................ 44 Chapter 3. Methodology and Methods .......................................................... 46 3.1 Methodological Considerations .......................................................... 46 3.1.1 What is a case? ............................................................................ 46 3.1.2 Multiple methods give multiple materials .................................. 47 3.2 Methods .............................................................................................. 49 3.2.1 The survey .................................................................................. 49 3.2.2 Analysing the survey .................................................................. 50 3.2.3 The observations and interviews................................................. 51 3.2.4 Analysing the qualitative material .............................................. 52 3.3 Why this Design? ............................................................................... 53 3.4 Trustworthiness .................................................................................. 54 3.5 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................ 56 Article Abstracts ........................................................................................... 58 Article I .................................................................................................... 58 Article II ................................................................................................... 58 Article III .................................................................................................. 59 Article IV.................................................................................................. 59 Chapter 4. Results and Discussion ................................................................ 61 4.1 Results ................................................................................................ 61 4.1.1 What kinds of media materials do Swedish RE teachers use in their teaching? ...................................................................................... 61 4.1.2 What kinds of media dynamics are present in RE classrooms where media materials are used? ......................................................... 63 4.1.3 How can RE teachers and students’ engagements with mediated religion be analysed from a multiple media literacies perspective? ......................................................................................... 65 4.1.4 How do RE teachers construct authority on religion in a mediatized situation? ........................................................................... 66 4.2 Discussion .......................................................................................... 70 4.2.1 Studying mediatization of religion in an educational setting ...... 70 4.2.2 Authority on religion in Swedish RE .......................................... 72 4.2.3 Religious media literacy: a
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