The Future of Education

In the non-confessional Swedish subject religious education (RE), teachers regularly address sensitive questions, e.g. concerning pupils’ convictions, which sometimes can be regarded as controversial issues [1] [2]. Hence, the overall purpose of this paper is to present, analyze and discuss a small web survey of which issues RE teachers in secondary school consider to be controversial and how they handle them in the classroom. In this paper I will discuss (a) if controversial issues can be understood as topics that challenge or violate the prevailing ideals, norms and values in a given context, as well as (b) if the teachers’ strategies tend to decrease or increase such value conflicts. Two theoretical assumptions are used in order to analyze the results: (1) A distinction between individualist values, predominant in secular societies, and collectivist values, predominant in religious societies [4]. (2) That teachers' strategies for handling controversial issues, e.g. through different routines and working methods, influence the values which are reproduced in education [5] [6] [7]. This study indicates that the issues the participating RE teachers consider to be controversial tend to defy a set of individualist values. The study also show that a majority of the RE teachers stated that they handled controversial issues by staying neutral or presenting a balanced point of view. This can be interpreted as a way of socializing the pupils to embrace a set of individualist values where they are expected to make autonomous decisions and take responsibility for their choices. In the concluding discussion, it will be suggested, that the prevailing individualist perspective of Swedish RE may give a biased understanding on alternative point of views.

Keywords: Controversial issues, Religious education, Values.

References:
[1] Jackson (2014). Signposts – Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
[2] Stradling (1984) The Teaching of Controversial Issues: an evaluation, Educational Review, 36:2.
[3] Lindström & Samuelsson (2018). “Lärares yrkesetik och etiskt resonerande”. Yrkesetik och läraren, (ed.) Irisdotter Aldenmyr. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
[4] WVS (2015). World Values Survey Wave 6: 2010-2014.
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp.
[5] Inglehart & Oyserman (2004). Individualism, Autonomy and Self-expression. Vinken, Soeters & Ester (ed.) Comparing Cultures. Leiden: Brill.[6] Bourdieu & Passeron (1979). The Inheritors, French Students and Their Relation to Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
[7] Jackson, Boostrom & Hansen (1993). The moral life of schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.