The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator Perspective

The Finnish education system offers faith-specific religious education throughout the comprehensive school. Today separate minority religious classes are offered parallel to the majority Lutheran and secular ethics education. The purpose of this study is to investigate how minority RE teachers and t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Harriet Zilliacus
Format: Article
Language:Danish
Published: Karlstads Universitet 2015-12-01
Series:Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-30086
_version_ 1818392485913690112
author Harriet Zilliacus
author_facet Harriet Zilliacus
author_sort Harriet Zilliacus
collection DOAJ
description The Finnish education system offers faith-specific religious education throughout the comprehensive school. Today separate minority religious classes are offered parallel to the majority Lutheran and secular ethics education. The purpose of this study is to investigate how minority RE teachers and teacher coordinators view the inclusion of minority religious education in the school culture. Teacher and coordinator perspectives are investigated through an interview study with 23 religion teachers and 3 teacher coordinators in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The results show that teachers and coordinators experienced education as gaining stronger acceptance and equality in the school culture. However, issues of exclusion and discrimination emerged which raise questions on the viability of the current system of RE. The study argues for a need to improve structural issues in education as well as increased teacher participation and dialogue in the school culture.
first_indexed 2024-12-14T05:30:10Z
format Article
id doaj.art-ebcd9aa6346548249a0cea5cda8b9bc3
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2000-9879
2000-9879
language Danish
last_indexed 2024-12-14T05:30:10Z
publishDate 2015-12-01
publisher Karlstads Universitet
record_format Article
series Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education
spelling doaj.art-ebcd9aa6346548249a0cea5cda8b9bc32022-12-21T23:15:22ZdanKarlstads UniversitetNordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education2000-98792000-98792015-12-0120132013:293114The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator PerspectiveHarriet ZilliacusThe Finnish education system offers faith-specific religious education throughout the comprehensive school. Today separate minority religious classes are offered parallel to the majority Lutheran and secular ethics education. The purpose of this study is to investigate how minority RE teachers and teacher coordinators view the inclusion of minority religious education in the school culture. Teacher and coordinator perspectives are investigated through an interview study with 23 religion teachers and 3 teacher coordinators in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The results show that teachers and coordinators experienced education as gaining stronger acceptance and equality in the school culture. However, issues of exclusion and discrimination emerged which raise questions on the viability of the current system of RE. The study argues for a need to improve structural issues in education as well as increased teacher participation and dialogue in the school culture.http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-30086 RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONINCLUSIONRELIGIOUS MINORITIES
spellingShingle Harriet Zilliacus
The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator Perspective
Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
INCLUSION
RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
title The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator Perspective
title_full The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator Perspective
title_fullStr The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator Perspective
title_full_unstemmed The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator Perspective
title_short The Inclusion of Minority Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School: A Teacher and Teacher Coordinator Perspective
title_sort inclusion of minority religious education in the finnish comprehensive school a teacher and teacher coordinator perspective
topic RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
INCLUSION
RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
url http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-30086
work_keys_str_mv AT harrietzilliacus theinclusionofminorityreligiouseducationinthefinnishcomprehensiveschoolateacherandteachercoordinatorperspective
AT harrietzilliacus inclusionofminorityreligiouseducationinthefinnishcomprehensiveschoolateacherandteachercoordinatorperspective