The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology
PurposeDue to the global outbreak of Covid-19, Swedish teachers in upper secondary education were... more PurposeDue to the global outbreak of Covid-19, Swedish teachers in upper secondary education were forced to conduct emergency remote teaching. As of today, there is a stream of research that addresses digitalization in education in light of the pandemic. Previous studies show that the challenges with the sudden intensification of digitalization have been particularly challenging in practical and aesthetic subjects. The research question is as follows: What challenges did vocational teachers experience during the emergency remote teaching caused by Covid-19 and what emergent tactics can be identified in vocational teaching practice?Design/methodology/approachThe empirical data consists of (1) interviews with two vocational teachers and, (2) workshops with 25 teacher students from different vocational programmes that addressed vocational teaching during the Covid-19 crisis.FindingsEmergency remote teaching meant challenges due to the changed socio-material environment that cannot easi...
This book is about Religious Education, a school subject that manoeuvres in the midst of a field ... more This book is about Religious Education, a school subject that manoeuvres in the midst of a field that, on the one hand concerns crucial knowledge in a pluralistic society and, on the other hand, deals with highly contested questions in a society characterised by diversity and secularity. Increased migration and travel, changing conditions with regard to social media and the use of the Internet are some of the factors that have contributed to a more pluralistic society. This development has also contributed to the new visibility of religion. Simultaneously, secularity (In the literature, the words secularity and secularism are often used interchangeably. I will, however, in line with Possamai (Sociology of religion for generations X and Y. Equinox, London, 2009) and Scharffs (Relig Hum Rights 6(2):109–126, 2011), distinguish between the two concepts and use the word secularity descriptively when referring to secularity as a result and part of theories of secularity that try to grasp ...
The overall aim of the study presented in this book is to explore how Religious Education was con... more The overall aim of the study presented in this book is to explore how Religious Education was constructed in practice in a contemporary Swedish pluralistic context. How, then, could this goal be achieved? And what is a school subject in practice? What is possible to observe of a subject in a classroom? Since the interest of this study specifically concerns the expressions of a school subject in practice, it was apparent early on in the processes involved in carrying it out that the empirical data collected would concern classroom events, focusing on the interactions between students, teachers and the subject’s content. In this chapter the methodological considerations made in the study are presented as well as the theoretical approaches of analyses.
Discourses of Religion and Secularism in Religious Education Classrooms, 2017
How do young people in today’s society perceive and talk about religion? How do migration, global... more How do young people in today’s society perceive and talk about religion? How do migration, globalisation and secularisation influence young peoples’ attitudes to religion? The study presented in this book concerns the school subject of Religious Education, and all school subjects must be understood in relation to their historical, political, social, and religious contexts. This section aims to describe some aspects of the religious landscape and young peoples’ perceptions and attitudes toward religion based on research conducted in the field that constitutes the context of Religious Education. In descriptions of religiosity in the Western world, not least in Sweden, secularisation is a concept that has been used in order to describe the changes society has undergone. However, the concept is contested, and scholars disagree on what it means and whether it is a useful concept to describe and understand religiosity in contemporary society. Therefore, I begin this section with a brief summary of different perspectives on the concept of secularity before I turn to the matter of research concerning the attitudes of young people toward religion.
Discourses of Religion and Secularism in Religious Education Classrooms, 2017
Is Religious Education like any other school subject or is it a special case? Do we talk about th... more Is Religious Education like any other school subject or is it a special case? Do we talk about the same thing when we use the concept Religious Education? What are the relations to the university subjects of Theology and Religious Studies? Religious Education is a school subject that shows considerable variation between countries with regard to content, objectives and design. In many countries, there is a strong relationship between national identity and religion and thus the social construction of Religious Education. In this chapter, perspectives on school subjects are elaborated on and an overview of different models of Religious Education are given. The educational system is characterized by the national history and the specific context of which it is a part and so is the subject of Religious Education. In order to give the reader a background to the current Swedish Religious Education, the development of Religious Education and factors that have framed the subject are outlined and the present-day subject according to the current syllabus is presented.
Ja vem vagar vara interkulturell? : Recension av Vem vagar vara interkulturell? En vanbok till Pi... more Ja vem vagar vara interkulturell? : Recension av Vem vagar vara interkulturell? En vanbok till Pirjo Lahdenpera av Kirsch, F-M, Leon Rosales, R & Rodell Olgac, C (red.)
The previous chapters have shown how articulations of a secularist way of relating to religion do... more The previous chapters have shown how articulations of a secularist way of relating to religion dominated the utterances about religion and Christianity in the classrooms observed but also how the secularist discourse was challenged by a spiritual discourse. However, the concepts Christian and Christianity were signs that were occasionally given another meaning. Even if Sweden was articulated as a secular country, it could also, during the very same lesson, be stated that Sweden is a Christian nation. This chapter, having the subtitle “A Swedishness discourse”, involves articulations about how, who and what “we” are, or, just as importantly, how, who and what “we” are not. These articulations are labelled a Swedishness discourse and this discourse of religion is distinguished by notions of national characteristics. The Swedishness discourse was built up through descriptions of what is Swedish and hence what is not Swedish and articulated as un-Swedish through clusters of articulation...
... SOCIETY LITERATURE REVIEW: INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES Dr Anna Halsall and Pro... more ... SOCIETY LITERATURE REVIEW: INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES Dr Anna Halsall and Prof Bert Roebben, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany This paper relates to work in progress. It may be downloaded for personal use only. Page 2. ...
The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology
PurposeDue to the global outbreak of Covid-19, Swedish teachers in upper secondary education were... more PurposeDue to the global outbreak of Covid-19, Swedish teachers in upper secondary education were forced to conduct emergency remote teaching. As of today, there is a stream of research that addresses digitalization in education in light of the pandemic. Previous studies show that the challenges with the sudden intensification of digitalization have been particularly challenging in practical and aesthetic subjects. The research question is as follows: What challenges did vocational teachers experience during the emergency remote teaching caused by Covid-19 and what emergent tactics can be identified in vocational teaching practice?Design/methodology/approachThe empirical data consists of (1) interviews with two vocational teachers and, (2) workshops with 25 teacher students from different vocational programmes that addressed vocational teaching during the Covid-19 crisis.FindingsEmergency remote teaching meant challenges due to the changed socio-material environment that cannot easi...
This book is about Religious Education, a school subject that manoeuvres in the midst of a field ... more This book is about Religious Education, a school subject that manoeuvres in the midst of a field that, on the one hand concerns crucial knowledge in a pluralistic society and, on the other hand, deals with highly contested questions in a society characterised by diversity and secularity. Increased migration and travel, changing conditions with regard to social media and the use of the Internet are some of the factors that have contributed to a more pluralistic society. This development has also contributed to the new visibility of religion. Simultaneously, secularity (In the literature, the words secularity and secularism are often used interchangeably. I will, however, in line with Possamai (Sociology of religion for generations X and Y. Equinox, London, 2009) and Scharffs (Relig Hum Rights 6(2):109–126, 2011), distinguish between the two concepts and use the word secularity descriptively when referring to secularity as a result and part of theories of secularity that try to grasp ...
The overall aim of the study presented in this book is to explore how Religious Education was con... more The overall aim of the study presented in this book is to explore how Religious Education was constructed in practice in a contemporary Swedish pluralistic context. How, then, could this goal be achieved? And what is a school subject in practice? What is possible to observe of a subject in a classroom? Since the interest of this study specifically concerns the expressions of a school subject in practice, it was apparent early on in the processes involved in carrying it out that the empirical data collected would concern classroom events, focusing on the interactions between students, teachers and the subject’s content. In this chapter the methodological considerations made in the study are presented as well as the theoretical approaches of analyses.
Discourses of Religion and Secularism in Religious Education Classrooms, 2017
How do young people in today’s society perceive and talk about religion? How do migration, global... more How do young people in today’s society perceive and talk about religion? How do migration, globalisation and secularisation influence young peoples’ attitudes to religion? The study presented in this book concerns the school subject of Religious Education, and all school subjects must be understood in relation to their historical, political, social, and religious contexts. This section aims to describe some aspects of the religious landscape and young peoples’ perceptions and attitudes toward religion based on research conducted in the field that constitutes the context of Religious Education. In descriptions of religiosity in the Western world, not least in Sweden, secularisation is a concept that has been used in order to describe the changes society has undergone. However, the concept is contested, and scholars disagree on what it means and whether it is a useful concept to describe and understand religiosity in contemporary society. Therefore, I begin this section with a brief summary of different perspectives on the concept of secularity before I turn to the matter of research concerning the attitudes of young people toward religion.
Discourses of Religion and Secularism in Religious Education Classrooms, 2017
Is Religious Education like any other school subject or is it a special case? Do we talk about th... more Is Religious Education like any other school subject or is it a special case? Do we talk about the same thing when we use the concept Religious Education? What are the relations to the university subjects of Theology and Religious Studies? Religious Education is a school subject that shows considerable variation between countries with regard to content, objectives and design. In many countries, there is a strong relationship between national identity and religion and thus the social construction of Religious Education. In this chapter, perspectives on school subjects are elaborated on and an overview of different models of Religious Education are given. The educational system is characterized by the national history and the specific context of which it is a part and so is the subject of Religious Education. In order to give the reader a background to the current Swedish Religious Education, the development of Religious Education and factors that have framed the subject are outlined and the present-day subject according to the current syllabus is presented.
Ja vem vagar vara interkulturell? : Recension av Vem vagar vara interkulturell? En vanbok till Pi... more Ja vem vagar vara interkulturell? : Recension av Vem vagar vara interkulturell? En vanbok till Pirjo Lahdenpera av Kirsch, F-M, Leon Rosales, R & Rodell Olgac, C (red.)
The previous chapters have shown how articulations of a secularist way of relating to religion do... more The previous chapters have shown how articulations of a secularist way of relating to religion dominated the utterances about religion and Christianity in the classrooms observed but also how the secularist discourse was challenged by a spiritual discourse. However, the concepts Christian and Christianity were signs that were occasionally given another meaning. Even if Sweden was articulated as a secular country, it could also, during the very same lesson, be stated that Sweden is a Christian nation. This chapter, having the subtitle “A Swedishness discourse”, involves articulations about how, who and what “we” are, or, just as importantly, how, who and what “we” are not. These articulations are labelled a Swedishness discourse and this discourse of religion is distinguished by notions of national characteristics. The Swedishness discourse was built up through descriptions of what is Swedish and hence what is not Swedish and articulated as un-Swedish through clusters of articulation...
... SOCIETY LITERATURE REVIEW: INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES Dr Anna Halsall and Pro... more ... SOCIETY LITERATURE REVIEW: INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES Dr Anna Halsall and Prof Bert Roebben, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany This paper relates to work in progress. It may be downloaded for personal use only. Page 2. ...
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