Vad är skillnaden på Aum i lotusställning och att andas i fyrkant? - En kvalitativ studie om förkroppsligad religionsundervisning och konfessionella fallgropar

Abstract

Religious studies in Swedish schools must approach religion from an objective and versatile stance, this raises the question about how teachers of religious studies can invite lived religion into the classroom, in the form of bodily practices, without having their students perform confessional acts. The main theme of the essay is about the implementation of bodily practices that are linked to religious traditions and how these practices are used as a pedagogical tool, without crossing the line of becoming a religious act. The essay will present arguments and reasonings from practicing teachers, who have chosen to implement these kinds of practices in their religious studies classes, but also the arguments from a few who have chosen not to do so. The results show that what is considered confessional to the informants lie in connecting a bodily practice to a certain religious tradition, and also that the bodily practices that are used as pedagogical tools are those that stem from east Asian religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.