Religionsundervisningens utmaningar. En kvalitativ studie av gymnasieungdomars relation till religion

Abstract

The aim of this study has been to investigate ten secondary school students´ view on religion and belief and, based on the result of the study, also discuss what kind of didactic challenges this may put to religious education and finally try to give some thoughts on how these challenges can be met. The method used is a qualitative method, with semi structured interviews, performed by using an interview guide. The theoretical base, that has enabled a discussion of the result of the interviews, has been theories by Grace Davie and Abby Day on how young people relate to religion and the theory of development psychology. The result of the study has confirmed earlier studies of youths both in Sweden and Western Europe and has shown a tendency amongst the youths not to view traditional institutionalised religious practise as a resource in life. At the same time the result of the study shows an openness towards more spiritual ways of viewing the world and a need amongst the informants to find a conception of life, something which they could belong to. But, as they seldom discussed existential matters with family and friends, the result also shows that they were often rather alone in their search for meaning. School was, finally, one of the few places where they talked about religion and existential questions. This requires religious education to move beyond either teaching about religion as readymade systems, practised by others, or to focus only on personal feelings. Instead religious education should focus on providing an arena where youths, parallel to investigating different religious systems, also are given the opportunity to discuss existential questions.