Christianity comprises an umbrella of communities with different orientation and heritage. This plurality entails a challenge for the RE-teacher, located in a classroom (often) including students with different orientations of Christianity (and non-Christian religions/worldviews). Christian plurality in West-European countries is, due to ensuing immigration from countries in- and outside Europe, such as Latin-America and the Middle East, further impacting on the composition of several school classes. Simultaneously Christianity represents an essential component of majority culture, in Sweden and several other European countries. As majority conceptions may impact on RE teaching content (Berglund 2020) this condition could imply a challenge for social cohesion including both majority and minority orientations of Christianity. Swedish RE-curriculum states that RE should support co-existence and cohesion in the plural society. However, we need to approach such an ambition critically regarding its curricular conditions. 

In this contribution we examine how Christianity is represented in national RE teaching books for Swedish upper secondary school. We have found a general tendency to favorize a modern liberal Christianity in favor of other non-majority (in different respects) conservative Christian orientations. The purpose of our contribution is to examine how liberal Christianity is shaped in teaching books for the Swedish upper secondary school. The selection of books is based on the actual use by RE-teachers in two Swedish regions. Eight books by different authors comprises material for our study. Based in the disciplines of educational research and religious studies, a practical-text-approach (Hellspong & Ledin 1997) is applied, discerning three levels of implicit meaning and their internal relationships: the overall composition, the intertextual links and semantic content. Our preliminary results show a tendency to favorize a modernized liberal Christianity, often through recurrent linguistic means. We will discuss the implications of our results in relation to the significance of religions and worldviews in education for social cohesion.  

The objective to teach Christianity is stated in the Swedish national syllabus since the very beginning of compulsory school. Initially, teaching proceeded from the Lutheran catechesis; a mission successively replaced by biblical studies and later developed into (Lutheran) Christianity as being part of non-confessional “Religious Studies” (Religionskunskap). However, the mission to pay certain weight to Christianity has survived, although in a new and secularized Swedish context. The privilege of Christianity is today instead motivated by its cultural position rather than from a religious rationale, and the ambition to conduct a cultural legacy. We will approach how Christianity is depicted in compulsory school by analysing currently used teaching books. This will be done within the frame of educational research, more specifically subject didactics. The purpose of our paper is to describe and problematize the depiction of Christianity in Swedish textbooks for Swedish compulsory Religious Studies.

Nine national and prominent textbooks for the lower secondary school has been selected. Using discourse analysis (Fairclough 2003; von der Lippe 2011), dominating patterns will be revealed and related to broader discourses in society, within and outside Sweden. Our preliminary analysis shows that Christian doctrines are highlighted without relating them to religious practice, resembling a teaching tradition of presenting doctrines as demarcated facts; Christianity is further presented foremost in terms of church history which relate to an idea of religions as old entities carried by traditions from the past; the teaching books also tends to connect the teaching of Jesus with modern, protestant liberal theology.

In the Swedish curriculum for the compulsory school Christianity's influence on Swedish society and its values ​​is a prominent theme.  The research question in this paper is: how does the depiction of Christianity relate to the present Swedish society? Teaching books aimed for the compulsory national school system (year 7-9) has been analysed out from the assumption that the national context comprises a stronger link to its representation, rather than the context of religious communities. Ten teaching books were chosen from prominent publishers from 2011, the year of the present curriculum, until 2014. The books were read several times searching for preliminary and successively final patterns. One recurrent theme was identified: a preference for liberal, modernized Christianity. Language patterns regarding overall composition, intertextual links and choice of words were discerned in the excerpts favouring modern Christianity. This theme is contextualised in relation to the Swedish majority culture as post-Church, i.e. secular Lutheranism likewise recognisable in the Swedish curriculum. We suggest that the links between the teaching books and Swedish majority culture contributes to the reproduction of Swedish majority culture as a post-Church society.      

This article explores supervision conferences in RE teacher education in Sweden. Two discourses that are often articulated in supervision conferences are ‘representation’ and ‘safe space’. These are investigated and presented as necessary components for becoming a competent teacher of upper secondary school RE in Sweden. The empirical material consists of observations of six RE supervision trialogues and interviews with the participants–student teachers, upper secondary school supervisors and university-based teacher educators. Based on the analysis of the empirical material, representation and safe space emerge as essential ‘RE teacher knowledge’. Furthermore, the antagonism between representation and safe space that emerges in the supervision trialogues is explored and highlighted. By way of conclusion, the presented discursive struggle is reflected on as a battle over power within the supervision triad.

This paper discusses how secular worldviews could be included in non-confessional religious education. Knowledge about secular worldviews can be understood in different ways. The paper distinguishes between two types of knowledge: the standard model of secular worldviews and the nonstandard model. The first model reflects the self-understanding of modernity, while the second represents a more critical stance influenced by late modern thinking. The nonstandard model is presented as a hermeneutical approach for teaching secular worldviews in non-confessional religious education, using atheism as an example. In the paper, this model is elaborated on, as it is argued that only the nonstandard model is suitable for religious education in schools if the aim is to conduct an inclusive, non-confessional education.

The objective to teach Christianity is stated in the Swedish national syllabus for RE since the very beginning of compulsory school. Actually, the syllabus from a century ago states teaching both about, and in, the Lutheran catechesis – a mission that was successively replaced by biblical studies and later developed into the subject “Religionskunskap”. The latter in which Christianity was only one of several (foremost world-)religions and prominent views of life. However, the mission to pay a certain weight to Christianity has survived although in a new and (post)secular context. The privilege of Christianity is today typically motivated by its cultural position rather than from a religious or moral rationale. 

In the Swedish context, in which Religionskunskap is a mandatory school subject, students are engaged in teaching and learning Christianity back and forth during their compulsory period of school. Widening the context from the school system, there has been debates regarding the status of Christianity in the Swedish RE syllabus. A common argument in defence of the privileged position of Christianity is the importance of a “Christian common heritage”. One way to address how students are engaged with Christianity on the arena of compulsory education is to investigate teaching materials currently used in school. The purpose of our paper is to investigate the depiction of Christianity in current and widely used Swedish teaching materials. Using discourse analysis, prominent and dominating discourses will be revealed. The results from the analysis will be used to reflect on and discuss the position of Christianity in Swedish schools within a cultural-historical context in Sweden and Europe.

The paper discusses how secular world views should be included in RE. Knowledge of secular world views can be understood in different ways. The paper distinguishes between two types of knowledge of secular world-views. The first type reflects the self-understanding of modernity while the second one represents a more critical stance influenced by post-modern thinking. It is argued that only the latter type is suitable for RE in public schools if the aim is to conduct an inclusive, non-confessional education.