Browsing by Author "Voutilainen, Vincent"

The aim of this study was to examine elementary school teachers’ opinions on education in religion and ethics. How teachers perceive the education in religion and ethics today and how they perceive the thought of a common subject for all religions and ethics. Earlier studies shows that Finland is going more and more towards a multicultural society (Odiah, 2007; Mäkelä et al. 2017). Researchers have found out that the education in religion is not equal and that it is categorizing people into different groups (Salmenkivi & Åhs, 2022). In this master’s thesis I’m going to examine the teachers specific perceives and opinions about the education of religion and ethics today and how they perceive the education in the future. This master’s thesis is a qualitative study with a phenomena graphic approach. Six elementary school teachers from Uusimaa are the study’s informants. The material was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with the class teachers. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results of the study showed that there are mainly two different perceptions about the teaching of religion and ethics today. These perceives correlates with how the elementary school teachers perceive the idea of ​​a common subject for all religions and ethics. Five out of six teachers felt that the current model should be changed and perceived a common subject positively, while one out of six teachers was satisfied with the current model and did not consider a need for a common subject. The study resulted in the following themes being highlighted: equality, practical arrangements, overlapping teaching, fear of marginalized religious teaching and community, understanding and world view. These themes were perceived by the majority of teachers as problematic in the current model and as themes that could be improved through a common teaching subject for all viewpoints.