Browsing by Author "Pietarinen, Olli"

Objectives. This study is part of a larger discussion in the Finnish society on religious education (RE). The central topics in this discussion are whether religion should be taught in Finnish state schools and how RE should be organised in schools. Earlier research has studied the views of both ordinary citizens and teachers regarding RE. The interest of this study is on the views of class teachers in this matter. As experts on education working in primary schools, class teacher could be seen as having a unique view on the subject of RE. The objectives of this study are to discover which kind of religious education models class teachers regard as best, and what sort of positive or negative aspects do they see in their model of choice. It is also of interest to find out how the views of class teachers differ from the general discussion on the subject. Methods. For this purpose, an e-survey was sent to about a thousand Finnish elementary school teachers. In the survey the teachers were asked to write an essay, in which they would present what they regarded as the best religious education model along with arguments on its behalf and also against it. 78 teachers answered the survey. This study is partial to the qualitative research tradition and the data was analysed using theory related content analysis. The survey answers were categorised based on which model of religious education it represented. Within these main categories the arguments for and against the model and variations within the model were categorised. These categories were the premises for the results. The theory presented in this study was used in the categorisation process whenever it was deemed applicable. The results of the categorisation was also reflected on the theory. Results and conclusions. Three main categories were formed from the data: current model, common subject and combined model. The last was a combination of the two first models. The arguments for the current model were related to the understanding of Finnish cultural history and to furthering the pupil's sense of self. The arguments against this model were practical in nature. The arguments for the common subject were related to the removal of confessional RE from schools, the increased dialogue between students and the low cost of the model. The arguments against were related to freedom of religion and the qualifications of the teacher. The combined model produced arguments similar to the other two models.