Ubani / Rissanen / Poulter Contextualising dialogue, secularisation and pluralism

Religion in Finnish public education
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-3-8309-9014-7
Verlag: Waxmann Verlag GmbH
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 230 Seiten

"Dialogue", "secularisation" and "pluralism" have been key concepts in international discussions concerning religion, public space and education for the past decades. Due to increasingly intense intercultural and transnational movements, national educational systems face new challenges in negotiating with the multitude of civic identities and memberships, those being also related to religions and worldviews.
The purpose of this volume is to enrich and complement the discussion concerning religion in education by contextualising the respective phenomena in the current Finnish educational policy and practice, as well as by drawing together empirical and theoretical observations from several case analyses. Even though international comparative studies are integral for the development of knowledge on religion and education, this localised approach concentrating on the Finnish education system provides an interesting case for the analysis in many ways: The Finnish society is rather slowly becoming diverse and plural, whereas the processes of secularisation have recently been quite rapid. The volume at hand discusses how these changes of secularisation and pluralisation in a religious landscape create new conditions for understanding educational dialogue amidst diversity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ubani, Martin

Rissanen, Inkeri

Poulter, Saila

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Imprint and Contents;4
2;Introduction to contextualising dialogue, secularisation and pluralism in Finnish public education (Martin Ubani, Saila Poulter & Inkeri Rissanen);7
3;The governance of religious education in Finland: a state-centric relational approach? (Tuula Sakaranaho);17
3.1;1. Introduction;17
3.2;2. The state-centric relational approach and five modes of governance;19
3.3;3. Governance via hierarchy: the Finnish system of education and educational acts;20
3.4;4. Governance via persuasion: the Finnish National Agency of Education and school curricula;23
3.5;5. Governance via markets: marketization of school books;26
3.6;6. Governance via community: variations of practice on the local level;28
3.7;7. Governance via associations: religious networks as pressure groups;31
3.8;8. Discussion;32
3.9;References;34
4;Religious education as a means of citizenship education in Finland (Saila Poulter);39
4.1;1. Introduction;39
4.2;2. Conceptual and literature basis of civic religious education;42
4.3;3. The Finnish perspective on civic religious education;45
4.4;4. Mapping the future of civic religious and worldview education in Finland;49
4.5;References;51
5;Key challenges in supporting identity development in segregated instruction about worldviews (Harriet Zilliacus);57
5.1;1. Introduction;57
5.2;2. The conceptualization and organization of segregated instruction for minority students;58
5.3;3. Students’ identity development in religious education and ethics;60
5.4;4. Aims of minority religious education and ethics;61
5.5;5. Main arguments for segregated instruction about worldviews;63
5.6;6. Critical issues related to students’ identities;65
5.6.1;6.1 Issues of structural inequality and challenges in the organization of instruction;65
5.6.2;6.2 Issues regarding lack of freedom of choice and autonomy;66
5.6.3;6.3 Issues of essentializing students’ identities;68
5.6.4;6.4 Issues of confessionality and commitment to particular identifications;70
5.6.5;6.5 Issues of exclusion and discrimination as obstacles for identity development;72
5.7;7. Conclusions and visions for a pluralistic education about worldviews;73
5.8;References;76
6;Developing integrative practices in a separative RE system: some Finnish perspectives (Vesa Åhs, Arto Kallioniemi & Saila Poulter);81
6.1;1. Introduction;81
6.2;2. International and Finnish perspectives on integrative RE;84
6.3;3. Worldviews, RE and secular ethics;87
6.4;4. Finnish models of integrative WE: practical perspectives;91
6.5;5. Research data;92
6.6;6. Conclusions;96
6.7;References;99
7;Religion, multiculturalism and Finnish schools: the secularist-culturalist transition (Martin Ubani);105
7.1;1. Introduction;105
7.2;2. Religion and multicultural schools;107
7.2.1;2.1 Culturalisation of religion in public schools;107
7.2.2;2.2 Group identification, religion and multicultural schools;111
7.3;3. Religious education and the secularist-culturalist transition;113
7.3.1;3.1 Isolationism of religious education and the secular outlook on religion;113
7.3.2;3.2 First signs of emerging dialogue education about religions in Finland;116
7.4;4. Concluding remarks;120
7.5;References;122
8;Inclusion of Muslims in Finnish schools (Inkeri Rissanen);127
8.1;1. Conceptual and contextual framework;127
8.1.1;1.1 Introduction;127
8.1.2;1.2 Inclusion of Muslim identities in Europe;128
8.1.3;1.3 Muslims in Finland;130
8.1.4;1.4 Description of the empirical studies;131
8.2;2. What enhances and inhibits Finnish Muslims’ experiences of inclusion in school settings?;132
8.2.1;2.1 Inclusion of cultural and religious diversity in the national core curriculum;132
8.2.2;2.2 Religion-blindness vs. celebration of religious diversity as strategies to reduce prejudices and stereotypes;133
8.2.3;2.3 School-Muslim family collaboration and the role of cultural broker parents and teachers in enhancing Muslim inclusion;135
8.2.4;2.4 Islamic religious education as a space for the negotiation of citizenship and belonging;137
8.3;3. Discussion;139
8.4;References;141
9;Religion and secularity in school festivals – experiences and challenges from Finland (Pia-Maria Niemi);145
9.1;1. Introduction;145
9.2;2. The Finnish context;147
9.3;3. Religious literacy in secular societies;148
9.4;4. Religion in the Finnish educational system;151
9.5;5. Empirical studies about school festivals in Finland;153
9.6;6. Discussion about current challenges;156
9.6.1;6.1 Inclusion through secularization?;156
9.6.2;6.2 Religious literacy;157
9.6.3;6.3 Inclusion through pluralism?;158
9.7;7. Conclusions;160
9.8;References;161
10;Encountering religion in a secular context: How do Finnish students perceive and encounter religions and worldviews in the classroom? (Anuleena Kimanen);165
10.1;1. Introduction;165
10.2;2. Concepts and theories of inter-worldview encounters;167
10.3;3. Finnish teenagers and religion;170
10.4;4. Perceptions of the Other;172
10.5;5. Encountering the Other;175
10.6;6. Discussion;176
10.7;References;179
11;Intercultural and interreligious sensitivities in a Finnish educational context (Kristiina Holm, Elina Kuusisto & Inkeri Rissanen);183
11.1;1. Introduction;183
11.2;2. Intercultural and interreligious sensitivities;185
11.3;3. The reviewed research data;189
11.4;4. The role of gender and geographical location in Finnish students’ intercultural and interreligious sensitivities;190
11.5;5. The role of religiosity in Finnish students’ and student teachers’ interreligious sensitivity;192
11.6;6. Finnish teachers’ tendency to cultural minimization and development of sensitivity to cultural and religious difference in teacher education;194
11.7;7. Concluding remarks;195
11.8;References;197
12;Key issues of religion in Finnish public education (Inkeri Rissanen, Martin Ubani & Saila Poulter);203
12.1;1. The changing role of religion in Finnish society and schools;203
12.2;2. Inclusion of religious and worldview minorities in Finnish schools;206
12.3;3. The current issues and development of religious education in Finland;210
12.4;References;214
13;Discussion (Saila Poulter, Inkeri Rissanen & Martin Ubani);217
14;About the authors;229