Abstract
The aim of this study is to analyse worldview discourses that legitimize different hegemonic and disadvantaged positions and identities of individuals and groups in a Finnish school context. A high degree of secularization and diversity among those formally belonging to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church represents the majority’s worldview in Finland today. The growing number of migrants and new minorities are challenging the traditional understanding of one’s identity in relation to religions and other worldviews. The study illustrates how in classrooms, containing diverse worldviews, the normativity of the ‘secular Lutheran’ worldview causes blindness towards its own position and exclusion towards those different from the norm. Moreover, the concepts employed in education bolster these positions. School knowledge representing an ‘official’ picture of religion with traits that point to the world religion paradigm often excludes lived and practised forms of religions or relegates them to curiosities, thus constricting what it means to be ‘religious’. The findings of this study show that it is vital to challenge and problematize discourses that essentialize and categorize worldview identities resulting in different power positions and othering practices in school.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (66.5% of the population in 2022) together with the Finnish Orthodox Church (1% of the population) have a special legal and cultural position as national churches, enjoying a certain privileged status compared to the minority religions (Sorsa, 2018).
- 2.
For legislative reasons, every pupil still follows the curriculum of her own religion or secular ethics, and thus this is not a new school subject but rather a pedagogical innovation in finding elements of learning together despite worldview differences (see Åhs et al., 2016). In 2017, 88.8% of students in Finland took part in Lutheran RE; 1.5% in Orthodox RE; 2.1% in Islamic RE, 6.3% in secular ethics; and 0.5% in other minority RE classes (Education Statistics Finland, 2017).
- 3.
The two lower-secondary schools of this study were the only schools in Helsinki piloting integrative WE at the time of conducting this research. These schools are rather multicultural and academically high-profiled schools compared to the average Finnish school and there are some differences in the way WE is put into practice, yet there are enough similarities to treat them as exemplars of the same phenomenon of Finnish integrative WE.
- 4.
The first author analysed the data and the second author was later called in “a critical friend” to help with the clarification of the results and theoretical congruence.
References
Åhs, V., Poulter, S., & Kallioniemi, A. (2016). Encountering worldviews: Pupil perspectives on integrated worldview education in a Finnish secondary school context. Religion and Education, 43(2), 208–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2015.1128311
Åhs, V., Poulter, S., & Kallioniemi, A. (2019a). Preparing for the world of diverse worldviews: Parental and school stakeholder views on integrative worldview education in a Finnish context. British Journal of Religious Education, 41(1), 78–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2017.1292211
Åhs, V., Poulter, S., & Kallioniemi, A. (2019b). Pupils and worldview expression in an integrative classroom context. Journal of Religious Education, 67(3), 203–221. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-019-00088-0
Ammerman, N. (2016). Lived religion as an emerging field: An assessment of its contours and frontiers. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society, 29(2), 83–99.
Andreotti, V. (2014). Critical and transnational literacies in international development and global citizenship education. Sisyphus: Journal of Education, 2(3), 32–50. https://bit.ly/3sahe1G.
Baumann, G. (1996). Contesting culture: Discourses of identity in multi-ethnic London. Cambridge University Press.
Baumann, G. (1997). Dominant and demotic discourses of culture: Their relevance to multi-ethnic alliances. In P. Werbner & T. Modood (Eds.), Debating cultural hybridity: Multi-cultural identities and the politics of anti-racism (pp. 209–225). Zed Books.
Cush, D. (2013). Challenging the religious/secular divide [Editorial]. British Journal of Religious Education, 35(2), 121–212.
Dervin, F. (2016). Interculturality in education: A theoretical and methodological toolbox. Palgrave Macmillan.
Dhamoon, R. (2009). Identity/difference politics: How difference is produced, and why it matters. UBC Press.
Education Statistics Finland. (2017). Pupils’ subject choices. Retrieved September 15, 2017, from https://vipunen.fi/en-gb/basic/Pages/Kieli--ja-muut-ainevalinnat.aspx.
Fitzgerald, T. (2000). Ideology of religious studies. Oxford University Press.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings. Harvester Press.
Foucault, M. (1991). Governmentality. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 87–104). Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Geaves, R. (2005). The dangers of essentialism: South Asian communities in Britain and the “world religions” approach to the study of religions. Contemporary South Asia, 14(1), 75–90.
Hahl, K., & Löfström, E. (2016). Conceptualizing interculturality in multicultural teacher education. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 11(3), 300–314.
Hannam, P. (2018). Religious education in the public sphere: Theorizing education. Routledge.
Hsieh, H.-F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288.
Ideland, M., & Malmberg, C. (2014). ‘Our common world’ belongs to ‘us’: Constructions of otherness in education for sustainable development. Critical Studies in Education, 55(3), 369–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2014.936890
Kimanen, A. (2018). Approaching culture, negotiating practice: Finnish educators’ discourses on cultural diversity. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 13(4), 334–347https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2018.1546309.
Kimanen, A., & Poulter, S. (2018). Teacher discourse constructing different social positions of pupils in Finnish separative and integrative religious education. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 39(2), 144–156.
King, R. (2009). Philosophy of religion as border control: Globalization and the decolonization of the “Love of wisdom” (philosophia). In P. Bilimoria & A. B. Irvine (Eds.), Postcolonial philosophy of religion (pp. 35–53). Springer.
Kittelmann Flensner, K. (2015). Religious ducation in contemporary pluralistic Sweden [Doctoral dissertation, University of Gothenburg]. GUPEA. https://bit.ly/3yckcGH.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (1999). Critical classroom discourse analysis. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 453–484.
Lahlali, E. M. (2007). Critical discourse analysis and classroom discourse practices. Lincom Europa.
Lappalainen, S. (2007). Johdanto: Mikä ihmeen etnografia? [Introduction: What is ethnography?] In S. Lappalainen, P. Hynninen, T. Kankkunen, E. Lahelma, & T. Tolonen (Eds.), Etnografia metodologiana (pp. 9–14). Vastapaino.
MacNaughton, G. (2004). Doing foucault in early childhood studies: Applying poststructural ideas. Routledge.
Maldonado-Torres, N. (2004). The topology of being and the geopolitics of knowledge: Modernity, empire, coloniality. City, 8(1), 29–56.
Masuzawa, T. (2005). The invention of world religions: Or, how European universalism was preserved in the language of pluralism. University of Chicago Press.
Mignolo, W. D. (2009). Enduring enchantment: Secularism and the epistemic privileges of modernity. In P. Bilimoria & A. B. Irvine (Eds.), Postcolonial philosophy of religion (pp. 273–292). Springer.
Moberg, M., Broo, M., Kontala, J., & Nynäs, P. (2015). Contemporary discursive formations. In R. Illman, T. Martikainen, & P. Nynäs (Eds.), On the outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, fluidities and new spaces of religion in Finland (pp. 55–72). Lit Verlag GmbH.
Nasser, R. (2019). Identity beyond borders: National identity and the postcolonial alternative. Social Semiotics, 29(2), 145–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2018.1425317
Nynäs, P., Illman, R., & Martikainen, T. (2015). Emerging trajectories of religious change in Finland. In R. Illman, T. Martikainen, & P. Nynäs (Eds.), On the outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, fluidities and new spaces of religion in Finland (pp. 217–226). Lit Verlag GmbH.
Owens, S. (2011). World religions paradigm: Time for a change. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 10(3), 253–268.
Pfändtner, W. (2010). Constructive dialogical pluralism: A context of interreligious relations. Sophia, 49(1), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-009-0156-x
Popkewitz, T. (2008). Cosmopolitanism and the age of school reform: Science, education, and making of society by making the child. Routledge.
Poulter, S., Kuusisto, A., Matilainen, M., & Kallioniemi, A. (2017). Examining religious education in Finland from a human rights perspective. In A. Sjöborg & H.-H. Ziebertz (Eds.), Religion, education and human rights: Theoretical and empirical perspectives (pp. 49–61). Springer International Publishing AG.
Poulter, S., Riitaoja, A.-L., & Kuusisto, A. (2016). Thinking multicultural education ‘otherwise’: From a secularist construction towards a plurality of epistemologies and worldviews. Globalization, Societies, Education, 14(1), 68–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2014.989964
Poulter, S., Ubani, M., & Rissanen, I. (2019). Discussion. In M. Ubani, I. Rissanen, & S. Poulter (Eds.), Contextualizing dialogue, secularization and pluralism: Religion in Finnish public education (pp. 217–227). Waxmann.
Riitaoja, A.-L., & Dervin, F. (2014). Interreligious dialogue in schools: Beyond asymmetry and categorisation? Language and Intercultural Communication, 14(1), 76–90.
Riitaoja, A.-L., Poulter, S., & Kuusisto, A. (2010). Worldviews and multicultural education in the Finnish context: A critical philosophical approach to theory and practices. Finnish Journal of Ethnicity and Migration, 5(3), 87–95.
Riitaoja, A-L., Poulter, S. and Kuusisto, A. (2016). Thinking multicultural education ‘otherwise’ – From a secularist construction towards a plurality of epistemologies and worldviews. Globalisation, societies and education, 14(1), 68-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2014.989964
Rissanen, I. (2019). School principals’ diversity ideologies in fostering the inclusion of Muslims in Finnish and Swedish schools. Race Ethnicity and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2019.1599340
Rizvi, F. (2006). Epistemic virtues and cosmopolitan learning. The Australian Educational Researcher, 35(1), 17–35.
Selçuk, M., & Valk, J. (2012). Knowing self and other: A worldview model for religious education in Turkey. Religious Education, 7(5), 443–454.
Shi-xu. (2005). A cultural approach to discourse. Palgrave Macmillan.
Sjöborg, A. (2015). ‘One needs to be free’: Making sense of young people’s talk about religion in multicultural Sweden. Journal of Religious Education, 63(2–3), 117–128.
Sorsa, L. (2018). Uskonnolliset tavat ja julkinen tila Suomessa [Religious life and public space in Finland]. Kirkon tutkimuskeskus. https://bit.ly/3MKn29S.
Valk, J., Albayrak, H., & Selçuk, M. (2017). An Islamic worldview from Turkey: Religion in a modern, secular and democratic state. Palgrave Mcmillan.
von Brömssen, K. (2003). Tolkningar, forhandlingar och tystnader: Elevers tal om religion I det mångkulturella och postkoloniala rummet. University of Gothenburg.
Zilliacus, H., & Holm, G. (2013). We have our own religion: A pupil perspective on minority religion and ethics instruction in Finland. British Journal of Religious Education, 35(3), 282–296.
Zilliacus, H., Paulsrud, B., & Holm, G. (2017). Essentializing vs non-essentializing students’ cultural identities: Curricular discourses in Finland and Sweden. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 12(2), 166–180.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Poulter, S., Åhs, V. (2023). Worldview Identity Discourses in Finnish Religious and Worldview Education: Mechanisms of Inclusion and Exclusion. In: Gross, Z. (eds) Reimagining the Landscape of Religious Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20133-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20133-2_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-20132-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-20133-2
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)