RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY PLURALISTIC SWEDEN Karin Kittelmann Flensner DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE, HISTORY OF IDEAS, AND RELIGION Religious Education in Contemporary Pluralistic Sweden DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE, HISTORY OF IDEAS, AND RELIGION Religious Education in Contemporary Pluralistic Sweden Karin Kittelmann Flensner Doctoral dissertation in Humanities with specialization in Educational Science, defended 11 December 2015 at the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, University of Gothenburg. Doctoral thesis 44. This doctoral thesis has been prepared within the framework of the graduate school in educational science at the Centre for Educational and Teacher Research, University of Gothenburg. Centre for Educational Science and Teacher Research, CUL Graduate School in educational science Doctoral thesis 54 In 2004 the University of Gothenburg established the Centre for Educational Science and Teacher Research (CUL). CUL aims to promote and support research and third-cycle studies linked to the teaching profession and the teacher training programme. The graduate school is an interfaculty initiative carried out jointly by the Faculties involved in the teacher training programme at the University of Gothenburg and in cooperation with municipalities, school governing bodies and university colleges. www.cul.gu.se Religious Education in Contemporary Pluralistic Sweden © Karin Kittelmann Flensner, 2015 ISBN 978-91-88348–68-5 Online: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/40808 Cover: Julia Strandberg Print: Reprocentralen, Campusservice, Göteborgs universitet, 2015 Abstract Title: Religious Education in Contemporary Pluralistic Sweden Author: Karin Kittelmann Flensner Language: English with a Swedish summary ISBN: 978-91-88348-68-5 Keywords: Religious Education, secularism, spirituality, nationalism, Swedishness, education, ethnography, classroom observation, discourse analysis. 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. To Vanja, Bina and Emanuel Contents Acknowledgements 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 17 Aim and questions ............................................................................................. 21 Disposition ......................................................................................................... 21 2. BACKGROUND .............................................................................................. 23 Perspectives on school subjects ....................................................................... 23 The curricula and perspectives of knowledge .......................................... 25 Different models of Religious Education ....................................................... 27 Different pedagogical approaches to RE .................................................. 29 From fostering into Christianity to critical analysis of religion in society - the development of RE in Sweden ........................................................................ 30 RE and the emerging democracy ............................................................... 31 The “objectivity requirement” .................................................................... 33 Fundamental values ..................................................................................... 36 The development of upper secondary school ................................................ 39 RE in comprehensive school and upper secondary school .................... 41 The syllabi for RE in 1994 and 2011 - a comparison .............................. 42 Previous research ............................................................................................... 44 The religious landscape ............................................................................... 44 Classroom Research..................................................................................... 56 Previous research in relation to this study ................................................ 64 3. THEORETICAL APPROACHES ....................................................................... 67 Discourses as constructions of meaning ........................................................ 67 Contingency ........................................................................................................ 69 Didaktik of RE ................................................................................................... 69 Religious Education and Religious Studies .................................................... 72 The subject and the classroom as discursive practices ................................. 73 Religions and worldviews - definitions ........................................................... 75 Discourse analysis in this study ........................................................................ 80 4. METHOD ....................................................................................................... 83 Ethnography ....................................................................................................... 84 Ethnography in school settings .................................................................. 84 Quality in qualitative studies............................................................................. 86 Criteria of quality ......................................................................................... 87 Reflexions on the role of researcher .......................................................... 89 Empirical data .................................................................................................... 91 Pilot study ..................................................................................................... 91 The study....................................................................................................... 92 Implementation of the study ...................................................................... 98 Analysis ....................................................................................................... 100 Ethical considerations ..................................................................................... 102 5. “I AM NEUTRAL!” - A SECULARIST DISCOURSE .................................. 107 Prime time of history ...................................................................................... 108 Diversity of views ............................................................................................ 110 A neutral position ............................................................................................ 115 Non-religious views seen as neutral ......................................................... 115 Atheism as neutrality ................................................................................. 117 Atheism as normality ................................................................................. 118 Criticism of Religion ....................................................................................... 120 Critical thinking .......................................................................................... 120 To criticize .................................................................................................. 121 Criticism that is not permitted ................................................................. 123 Science and faith .............................................................................................. 125 Individualism .................................................................................................... 130 My own choice ........................................................................................... 130 Individualism and the rights of children ................................................. 133 The highest authority ................................................................................. 134 Modern myths .................................................................................................