Secularized and Multi-Religious Classroom Practice-Discourses and Interactions

Abstract

Secularization and diversity are two social features that characterize the contemporary world. The rhetoric of the public debate in a number of countries has become increasingly polarized and characterized by a "we" and "them" thinking that relates a national "we" to a specific religion. This occurs in part as a reaction to the changes in national monocultural paradigms as most communities today are characterized by pluralism regarding lifestyles, religion, language and geographical background. Thus, secularization processes are ongoing while many countries, not least Sweden, are becoming increasingly pluralistic and multi-religious. The school and classrooms are a mirror of the communities they are a part of. The aim of the article is to explore how secularization and increasing pluralism finds expression and interact in the classroom practice of Religious Education. The analysis is based on ethnographic data from classroom observations of Religious Education in four different Swedish upper secondary schools. The results indicate that secularism and non-religious positions are considered a neutral and objective position and that secularism is used as a way to maneuver diversity in the classroom which affects the possibilities of dialogue and understanding.

Challenges Related to Rituals and Law Facing Saudi Students in the UK

“…Some students are easily identified with different religious practices, while rest completely lack the kind of language and experiences for what it possibly could mean to be part of religious culture. A wide variety of religious and non-religious perspectives have been characterized in some classrooms (Flensner, 2018). Religification has a complicated association with education and schooling based on a dialogic process of identification and proclamation.…”

Le fardeau de la preuve : le débat Bouchard-Rocher sur la Loi 21

“…Dans le cadre de cette recherche, 13 enseignantes ou enseignants offrant les cours d' enseignement religieux ont été suivis, et ce, dans 24 groupes différents, pour un total de 125 séances. Flensner (2018) propose donc une utilisation secondaire de ces données auxquelles elle ajoute, pour nuancer son propos et problématiser l'image qui se dégage de ce matériau, des données récoltées dans le cadre d'un autre projet de recherche mené en 2017 portant sur le traitement des conflits religieux mondiaux dans les classes de religion. Dans ce casci, les données reposent sur des observations participatives, mais également sur des entretiens menés auprès d'enseignantes et d' enseignants et d' élèves.…”

“…Selon Flensner (2018), alors qu'il y avait, dans toutes les classes de toutes les écoles, des élèves s'identifiant à diverses confessions, ces derniers se montraient actifs dans les conversations privées et en petits groupes, mais dans la plupart des cas silencieux lors des discussions en grand groupe. Les enseignantes et les enseignants, ainsi que les élèves non religieux, auraient d'ailleurs tendance à dévoiler leur position beaucoup plus facilement que les élèves religieux, cette position étant définie par eux comme étant celle de la neutralité.…”

Emplotting a privileged position. The construction of the history of secular humanism in Norwegian religious education textbooks

“…However, the question of who holds a privileged position during religious education classes is not a straightforward one. There is empirical evidence suggesting that there is an increasingly secularistic discourse in RE classrooms (Flensner 2015;Lidh 2016;Husebø et al 2019), where secularism and non-religious positions are considered by many to be neutral and objective, while religion is a historical remnant and a thing of the past, at least in Scandinavia (Flensner 2018).…”