Discourses onreligion inresearch thatfocuses onstudents’ perspectives

• In this article, the aim is twofold: firstly, to explore, through a systematic literature review, what discourses on religion may be identified in previous research that focuses on students’ perspectives, and secondly, to discuss this in relation to reseocrarch concerning challenges and opportunities in Scandinavian religious education (RE) and classroom negotiations, which is presented as a background to and scientific landscape for the study. Seven dis-courses relating to students’ understanding of religionhave been identified in the text sam-ple from the systematic review, religion as: threatening, a relic, needing to be tolerated, truth claims, plastic, a source of existential curiosity,and security and comfort. The find-ings show how these discourses together constitute a broader repertoire of discourses on religion than can be found in the Scandinavian RE classroom research presented as a frame for the study, especially when taking into account current orders of discourse and domi-nance structures. As stressed by discourse theory and sociocultural perspectives on learn-ing, having access to broad repertoires of discourses on religion provides a basis for more nuanced ways of thinking about religion. It is vital that teachers are aware of this and can challenge dominant discourses and broaden existing repertoires. An important step in such a direction is an awareness of discourses on religion, such as the seven presented here, which may potentially be present in the classroom, even in practices other than the ones these discourses emanated from.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Religious education

Discourses on religion

Religion

Religiousness

Students

Pupils

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)