Book abstract:

In this volume, questions are addressed revolving around religious literacy and education. The term religious literacy is explored as the ability to discern and analyze intersections of religion with social, political, and cultural life in pluralistic societies. Questions about what types of religious literacies are possible in a non-confessional, and even secular, educational context are in focus. It delves into the intricate relationship between religious literacy, religious education in the Nordic countries, and the development of subject knowledge and generic abilities. The Nordic countries, as modern secular welfare states with shared characteristics, provide an intriguing framework for comparison. The exploration of variations in the organization, content, and goals of religious education in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden sheds light on the process of shaping educational content within specific historical and societal contexts and the anthology broadens its scope by incorporating global perspectives from the Indian, Italian, and Indonesian contexts.

The volume features contributions from 18 researchers who explore empirical, methodological, and theoretical aspects of religious literacy and education. The concept of religious literacy, encompassing both knowledge and generic skills, proves to be indispensable for navigating the diverse religious and non-religious worldviews present in pluralistic societies.

Tailored for students, educators, education researchers, and policymakers, this anthology contributes to the ongoing discourse on religious literacy. It not only provides valuable insights into the Nordic educational landscape

The mission of all primary schools includes offering all pupils educational quality and equality. Municipalities struggle with the negative consequences of school segre-gation, and some local councils decide to implement extensive changes in their school organization to offer all pupils equal opportunities.

This study analyzes the experi-ences of staff and students when a local council implemented organizational changes to reduce the negative consequences of school segregation. A narrative analysis of documentation from the education authority and interviews with pupils and school staff were used to understand the perspectives of staff and pupils. There was strong support from the staff for implementing the changes but also strong criticism of how these changes were carried out. One conclusion is that municipalities implementing similar changes need to plan for the whole process and the participation of pupils and school staff in a systematic way.

Book abstract:

In this volume, questions are addressed revolving around religious literacy and education. The term religious literacy is explored as the ability to discern and analyze intersections of religion with social, political, and cultural life in pluralistic societies. Questions about what types of religious literacies are possible in a non-confessional, and even secular, educational context are in focus. It delves into the intricate relationship between religious literacy, religious education in the Nordic countries, and the development of subject knowledge and generic abilities. The Nordic countries, as modern secular welfare states with shared characteristics, provide an intriguing framework for comparison. The exploration of variations in the organization, content, and goals of religious education in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden sheds light on the process of shaping educational content within specific historical and societal contexts and the anthology broadens its scope by incorporating global perspectives from the Indian, Italian, and Indonesian contexts.

The volume features contributions from 18 researchers who explore empirical, methodological, and theoretical aspects of religious literacy and education. The concept of religious literacy, encompassing both knowledge and generic skills, proves to be indispensable for navigating the diverse religious and non-religious worldviews present in pluralistic societies.

Tailored for students, educators, education researchers, and policymakers, this anthology contributes to the ongoing discourse on religious literacy. It not only provides valuable insights into the Nordic educational landscape but also fosters a global dialogue on the crucial role of education in understanding diverse worldviews.

In this volume, questions are addressed revolving around religious literacy and education. The term religious literacy is explored as the ability to discern and analyze intersections of religion with social, political, and cultural life in pluralistic societies. Questions about what types of religious literacies are possible in a non-confessional, and even secular, educational context are in focus. It delves into the intricate relationship between religious literacy, religious education in the Nordic countries, and the development of subject knowledge and generic abilities. The Nordic countries, as modern secular welfare states with shared characteristics, provide an intriguing framework for comparison. The exploration of variations in the organization, content, and goals of religious education in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden sheds light on the process of shaping educational content within specific historical and societal contexts and the anthology broadens its scope by incorporating global perspectives from the Indian, Italian, and Indonesian contexts.

The volume features contributions from 18 researchers who explore empirical, methodological, and theoretical aspects of religious literacy and education. The concept of religious literacy, encompassing both knowledge and generic skills, proves to be indispensable for navigating the diverse religious and non-religious worldviews present in pluralistic societies.

Tailored for students, educators, education researchers, and policymakers, this anthology contributes to the ongoing discourse on religious literacy. It not only provides valuable insights into the Nordic educational landscape but also fosters a global dialogue on the crucial role of education in understanding diverse worldviews.

Swedish schools are highly segregated along the lines of non-im/migrants and im/migrants and their descendants. In this study we explored the processes involved in the negotiation of social identities following a school desegregation initiative in Sweden, aimed to create schools with more heterogeneous student bodies.

We conducted 58 interviews with students and school staff at the closing and receiving schools, before and following the initiative. Drawing on identity theories at the intersection of macro- and micro-levels, we a) descriptively explored the identity labels at each level, and b) analyzed how these identities were negotiated in relation to prevailing power hierarchies. Results showed macro-level identities related to nationality, background, and overarching norms and narratives, while micro-level identities included labels related to “old” and “new” schools/classes/friends, to in-groups based on differences in language proficiency, academic levels, and social needs.

The initiative triggered identity negotiation for all students. However, while students already attending the receiving schools mainly negotiated identities at the micro-level, the dispersed students had to (re)negotiate their identities in relation to both the macro- and micro-levels. Thematic analyses showed four themes of macro-micro negotiations: rejection, accommodation, positioning, and conditioning, where identities at one level restricted possible identities at the other level.

This article reports part of a research project that investigated the learning and social inclusion conditions of ‘newly arrived students’ in Swedish primary schools in two municipalities. Newly arrived students are the category of students who have lived abroad and started their education in Sweden when they were seven years old or older within the last four years. Most of these children and youth have a history of migration. This article focuses firstly on the Swedish migration context, the ‘migration crisis’ in 2015 and the changes in the Swedish reception system that took place soon thereafter and, second, ethnographic observations from Primary Schools of two specific perspectives in education, namely a perspective on ‘Framing of the day and the lesson’ and ‘Study tutoring in the mother tongue in regular teaching’. The results indicated that strong supporting structures and structured social interaction are needed as well as caring and empathy on the part of teachers to promote learning and social inclusion of newly arrived students are required. Furthermore, study tutoring in the mother tongue in regular teaching seems to be important while the study tutors’ view of their mission varies.