Browsing by Subject "elämänkatsomus"

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to find out how Finnish class teachers think spiritual education (in this abstract the term spiritual education is used to describe both religious and moral education) should be executed in elementary schools. The study stems from the active discourse in Finland in the last few years on religious education in schools. Several ways to execute spiritual education have been presented in literature on education. In addition to these, this study views how spiritual education is executed in other European countries. The views of class teachers are examined by finding out how important they regard the different study contents of Evangelical Lutheran religion for grades 1–5 in the Finnish lesson plan and what they feel is the best model for spiritual education. Methods. The data was gathered by sending an online questionnaire to 1200 Finnish class teachers. 175 teachers around the country replied. The data was then analysed quantitatively by using SPSS analysing program. Two distinct binned variables were created from the lesson plan’s study contents, secular and religious contents. In the analysis, the background variables of the respondents were compared to their answers on the importance of the study contents and to their choice of the best way to execute spiritual education. In addition, their answers to the importance of the study contents were compared to their spiritual education model of choice. Results and conclusions. The only background variable that had a connection to the other examined variables was the length of the respondents teaching career. Based on the results, a longer career meant holding religious contents more important. The teachers who supported the spiritual education model in Finland today considered the secular and religious contents almost equally important. The teachers who supported the model of a singular school subject with no religious ties considered secular contents to be more important. Overall the respondents considered secular contents to be more important. Most of the class teachers felt the best spiritual education model was the one where every student participated in only a single spiritual subject with no religious ties. The second most popular choice was the model Finnish schools are using now