Browsing by Author "Sundqvist, Matilda"

The aim of this study is to examine and compare the Swedish and the Danish curricula in the subjects of ”religionskunskap” and ”kristendomskudskab” to see how confessonality has left its mark on the public school. The two countries share a long history of Christianity being the dominating religion, but as society has become more globalized the plurality of religions has increased and the position of Christianity has weakened. This creates new demands on RE and according to both the Swedish and Danish school law, the education should no longer be confessional. Previous research shows, however, that Christianity still has some influence in schools and that the confessional character may not have completely disappeared which would not only contradict the school but create problems in terms of inclusion. Therefore, in this study I aim to shed light on these traces of confessionality that remain today. The research approach was comparative in that the Swedish and the Danish curricula in the religious subjects were compared to elucidate features in relation to confessionality as described by Kimanen (2015) and Hull and Grimmitt (2001). The material consisted of syllabuses from Sweden (2011) and Denmark (2019) in ”religionskunskap” and ”kristendomskudskab”, as well as some supporting documents. The material was analyzed using qualitative content analysis which gave rise to the four categories presented in the results. The results showed that there were aspects mainly in the Danish curriculum that corresponded with Kimanen’s (2015) and Hull and Grimmitt’s (2001) explanatory models of confessional RE. The Swedish curriculum showed such aspects as well, though neither the Swedish or the Danish curricula could be placed under the category confessional or non-confessional. It was also possible to show some ambiguities in the Swedish and the Danish curricula’s instructions regarding religious activities at schools. On the basis of the study’s results as well as the theoretical background it can ba stated that there is a need to review the school law and the curriculum in both Sweden and Denmark and clarify how non-confessionality is to be implemented in schools.