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This article was downloaded by: [University of Waikato] On: 14 July 2014, At: 03:13 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK British Journal of Religious Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbre20 Religious education and intercultural understanding: examining the role of religiosity for upper secondary students’ attitudes towards RE Anders Sjöborg a a Department of Sociology, Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre , Uppsala University , Uppsala , Sweden Published online: 17 Sep 2012. To cite this article: Anders Sjöborg (2013) Religious education and intercultural understanding: examining the role of religiosity for upper secondary students’ attitudes towards RE, British Journal of Religious Education, 35:1, 36-54, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2012.717015 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2012.717015 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Waikato]On: 14 July 2014, At: 03:13Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

British Journal of Religious EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbre20

Religious education and interculturalunderstanding: examining the roleof religiosity for upper secondarystudents’ attitudes towards REAnders Sjöborg aa Department of Sociology, Uppsala Religion and Society ResearchCentre , Uppsala University , Uppsala , SwedenPublished online: 17 Sep 2012.

To cite this article: Anders Sjöborg (2013) Religious education and intercultural understanding:examining the role of religiosity for upper secondary students’ attitudes towards RE, British Journalof Religious Education, 35:1, 36-54, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2012.717015

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2012.717015

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Religious education and intercultural understanding: examiningthe role of religiosity for upper secondary students’ attitudestowards RE

Anders Sjöborg*

Department of Sociology, Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre, UppsalaUniversity, Uppsala, Sweden

Recent studies show that religious education (RE) may play an impor-tant role for teaching intercultural understanding in many Western socie-ties facing increased cultural and religious pluralism. Quantitative andqualitative research have however failed to examine what role the religi-osity of the students plays in their attitudes towards RE. A nationallyrepresentative Swedish sample of 1850 students answered a classroomquestionnaire. The main result was that, when controlling for back-ground variables such as gender, foreign background, parents’ educationlevel and study programme, the students’ religiosity had a significanteffect on their attitudes towards (a) existential issues, (b) preferences onwhat to study in RE as well as (c) incentives for studying RE. Regres-sion analyses demonstrated that by entering individuals’ religiosity intothe model the effect of foreign background was suspended in 11 out of14 cases. In order to understand the attitude towards RE, it is useful toinclude the students’ religiosity. As a consequence, this article arguesthat in order to reach the citizenship goals of educating for interculturalunderstanding in RE, the subject should be developed to reach male stu-dents, students with parents with lower levels of education, students invocational study programmes and students who are not religious.

Keywords: religious education; secondary; students; attitudes; religiosity

Introduction

Religious education (RE) is, in many countries, given a role in citizenshipeducation which is connected to the notion that the subject is thought toenhance intercultural understanding (Jackson 2003, 2007). Considering this,it is worth noting that it is only recently that research on students’ attitudestoward religion and RE has to any significant extent paid attention to cul-tural diversity (Weisse 2010, 2011). The role of foreign background/ethnicityand religion in this respect needs to be studied more closely. In this article,I intend to contribute by reporting key findings from a quantitative study on

*Email: [email protected]

British Journal of Religious EducationVol. 35, No. 1, January 2013, 36–54

ISSN 0141-6200 print/ISSN 1740-7931 online� 2013 Christian Educationhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2012.717015http://www.tandfonline.com

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students’ attitudes towards RE. The focus is on the role of religion control-ling for relevant background variables such as gender, foreign backgroundand parents’ education level.

This article builds on data from a recent Swedish study among upper sec-ondary students taking RE (age 18–19). The main question in this article is if,and how, the students’ own religiosity affects their attitudes towards RE. Theresults of the analysis are related to recent studies in several European coun-tries, and discussed regarding their consequences for the development of RE.

Review of the literature

Recent studies in a number of Western countries using a quantitative method-ology to research attitudes towards religion and RE among upper secondaryand mid-teen school students reveal that neither religious participation norreligious knowledge is very high (Smith and Denton 2005; Ziebertz and Kay2005; Kay and Ziebertz 2006; Valk et al. 2009; Robbins and Francis 2010).Earlier studies often equate religion with established, organised (Western,Christian) religion in more or less culturally and religiously homogenoussocieties. There has been a shift in the sense that scholarly attention concern-ing the role of RE in culturally diverse settings has increased.

A good example of this increased interest in the role of RE for enhancingintercultural understanding is the REdCo-project (Religion in Education. Acontribution to dialogue or a factor of Conflict in transforming societies ofEuropean Countries, 2006–2009). This quantitative study among pupils ofcompulsory school (age 14–16) in the eight countries included contributesinteresting results (Weisse 2010, 2011). There are significant differencesbetween pupils who have no ties to organised religion and pupils with suchconnexions. For the former group, school emerges as the main forum forlearning about religion and the religious ideas of other students. For the lattergroup, the pupils are given the opportunity to come into contact with otherreligions through school RE. Further, the study revealed that while there areplenty of prejudices towards other religions among the respondents, many ofthem state, at the same time that they are ready to engage in dialogue withothers out of curiosity and interest. Finally the REdCo-project demonstratedthat support for RE among the respondents was high on an individual as wellas a societal level. My summary here is naturally highly condensed and thereare significant national variations, since Weisse and his colleagues in thenational research teams also stressed the relevance of contextual factors, suchas the role of religion in the national society, local city, curricula, teachers’training, confessional/non-confessional education, etc (Bertram-Troost 2011).

In Swedish studies on students’ attitudes towards religion and RE usingquantitative methodology, the omission of cultural diversity is obvious(Gustafsson 1974; Skolöverstyrelsen 1980; Sjödin 1995, 2001, 2002). Thefew studies that exist which do pay such attention contribute results which

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certainly call for closer examination, theoretically as well as empirically.From a qualitative study (von Brömssen 2003) carried out in one school ina multicultural urban setting, it seems that among students with foreignbackgrounds, religion was seen as a resource for a person’s identity, eventhough pupils (in that study: 14–15 years of age) often tended to negotiatebetween different conceptions of what a ‘proper’ Muslim, Buddhist, etc.would be. The students born in Sweden of Swedish parents were, accordingto von Brömssen, more inclined to take a position against religion: ‘as I amSwedish, I am not religious’. Her interviews demonstrate that religion inschool is constructed as something clearly connected with ‘the Other’.

Of value for this article is the fact that in the international field ofresearch on teenage students’ attitudes toward religion and RE, the mainresults indicate that factors such as gender, study programme (academic orvocational), parents’ educational level and foreign background seem to affectthe students’ attitudes towards religion and RE. ‘Foreign background’ is acommonly used though none the less problematic categorisation. In Swedishstatistics, the term ‘foreign background’ denotes a person born outside ofSweden, or a person both of whose parents are born outside Sweden. Asalready mentioned, the dimension of ethnicity has not been exhaustivelycovered, nor have these studies focused on the students’ own religiosity.

Five more recent studies which also concern comparable cultural contextssuggest that the dimension of ethnicity or foreign background is a highlyrelevant addition to the analysis: Von Brömssen and Johansson (von Bröms-sen 2003, 2009; Johansson 2008) both indicate, using qualitative data, thatthe ethnic dimension brings about difference when talking about religion inmulticultural school settings. Von Brömssen also demonstrates how indiffer-ence concerning the subject of RE is evident among ethnic Swedes (‘RE isabout “them”, not about me’).

From the REdCo-studies, the Norwegian case (Skeie and von der Lippe2009) shows how there is a clear demarcation regarding attitudes towards REbetween students who are personally religious and students who do not havesuch a background. A similar finding arises in the German case (Jozsa, Knauth,and Weisse 2009), where it is not the label ‘Christian’ or ‘Muslim’ that bringsabout different attitudes towards the possibilities of RE for intercultural under-standing and dialogue, but rather the personal religious commitment.

From these studies, it is possible to derive some hypotheses which willbe tested in this article. This article focuses on students’ attitudes toward REby examining their attitudes in three areas: (a) existential issues, (b) prefer-ences on what to study in RE and (c) incentives for studying RE.

(1) Hypothesis 1: Religious students are more positive towards RE thannon-religious students.

(2) Hypothesis 2: Religiosity affects students’ attitudes towards RE whensocio-economic variables are controlled for.

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Methods

The collection of questionnaires took place during the autumn and winter of2009/10. In all, 20 Swedish municipalities were selected in order to create arepresentative sample, and in each municipality, one upper secondary schoolwas selected. Special attention was paid to the number of pupils with for-eign background at school level. School officials were asked to distribute150 questionnaires among their students in year three (age 18–19), whowere enrolled (or had been enrolled) in RE. The dropout rate was a littlelower than could be expected considering the circumstances and the finaltally was questionnaires from 1850 students; response rate is 61.7%. In thedata, female students comprise 51.8% of the students, while the rate in thecountry at large is 48.7%. Students who have a ‘foreign background’ com-prise 17.2% in the data, and 17.1% in the population of third year students.In the Swedish school system, upper secondary school study programmesare divided into theoretical (or academic) and vocational programmes. In thedata, the students taking theoretical programmes comprise 52.2%, which isthe same share as in the country as a whole. In other words, the collecteddata is fairly representative of the population – upper secondary students intheir third year.

The questionnaire was designed for this particular study, but builds onprevious research in significant ways. In order to enable comparisons overtime, items from earlier Swedish studies (Gustafsson 1974; Sjödin 1995)were included. Also, some items from another Swedish survey carried out in2009 among 16–24-year-olds were used (Lövheim and Bromander 2012).Pilot versions of the instrument were tested before finalising the question-naire. The questionnaire was in Swedish, administered in the classroomusing paper and pencil. The entire empirical part of the study was approvedby the Regional Ethics Review Board in Uppsala.

Context: Sweden

The cultural context of Sweden needs a brief comment. Sweden has beencharacterised both as one of the most secularised countries in the world andlately as an increasingly culturally and religiously diverse society (Pettersson2006). This has brought about changes in the religious socialisation of newgenerations. Many sociologists of religion underline the changes that havetaken place during the past 50 years in particular. The shift from a subjectteaching confessional Christianity to a non-confessional RE subject tookplace during the 1950s and 1960s (Pettersson and Osbeck 2009). Since 1970,the proportion of all young people taking part in confirmation in the Churchof Sweden has dropped from 81 to 32% (Church of Sweden 2010). In arecent survey of youth aged 16–24 years (Sjöborg 2012), school and massmedia clearly stand out as the main sources of information about religion. Ofcourse, there are differences: among the 16–24-year-olds, the vast majority,

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about 60% has no regular contact with organised religion, they seldom orrarely speak about religion at home, and thus rely on school and mass mediafor information about religion. A small minority of the 16–24-year-olds,about 8%, can be said to be ‘organized religious’, based on religious involve-ment and self-definition, and these young people come into contact withissues related to religion much more frequently and in other ways: not onlyschool or mass media but also much more often among friends, family and‘in a church or other religious place’. In between these categories, there wasalso the ‘individualised religious’ who mostly depended on mass media andfriends as their source of information about religion. Findings from the studyamong upper secondary students presented in this article demonstrate a simi-lar pattern. From a comparison of these two surveys, therefore, shows clearlythat it is imperative to study young peoples’ use of different sources of infor-mation about religious issues more if one is interested in how the newgenerations make sense of religion in an increasingly diverse society.

Operationalisation

The data analysis in this article is conducted in two steps which correspondto the two main hypotheses. First, the categories religious and non-religiousstudents are compared regarding their attitudes towards RE, to explore ifand how students’ religiosity play a role in this regard. Second, multipleregression analysis is used in order to investigate whether students’ religios-ity affects their attitudes towards RE, controlling for socio-economicvariables. In each of these two steps attitudes towards RE are studiedregarding (a) existential issues, (b) preferences on what to study in RE aswell as (c) incentives for studying RE.

The questionnaire contained several items which could be combined toproduce the independent variable religion. The most relevant items con-cerning the religious practice and self-definitions of the students are pre-sented here. Almost every 10th respondent, 9.9%, attends religiousservices at least once a month, which corresponds well with a recent sur-vey amongst young people in Sweden, mentioned above (Lövheim andBromander 2011). About the same proportion, 11.1%, pray weekly, whileonly 5.3% read sacred texts weekly. The respondents were also asked ifthey fast, eat special food or wear special clothing or symbols relating toreligion, 12.2% stated they practise fasting, 5.4% eat special food relatingto religion, 2.6% stated they wear special clothing and 6.8% answeredthey wear other symbols relating to religion. 18.6% said they had spenttime during the past six months developing their faith or worldview, and23.1% stated that they believe in a personal God (agree totally or agreepartly). The questionnaire also included an item on religious self-defini-tion, where 10.9% answered that they consider themselves as ‘religious’,and 16.7% agreed with the definition ‘believer.’1 In this article, these data

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on religious practice, beliefs and self-definition will be used in two ways.For the first step of the analysis, the new category ‘religious’ was com-pared to all other respondents. For the second step of the analysis, allthe items presented in this paragraph were used to construct a religiosityindex which was intended to cover relevant aspects of the multidimen-sional phenomenon of religiosity. The index was composed of 11 itemswith a Cronbach’s alpha reliability of .856. The index ranges from 1 to5, with a mean of 1.67 and standard deviation of .74.

Other than religiosity, the independent variables used in the second stepof the analysis were gender (male = 0 and female = 1), parents’ level of edu-cation (0–5), study programme (vocational = 0 and academic = 1) and foreignbackground (foreign background = 1). By foreign background is meant thateither the pupil or both parents were born outside of Sweden. Of all 320respondents with a foreign background, 51.7% were born in Sweden, 1.9%in another Nordic country, 17.9% in another European country, while 28.5%were born outside of Europe. Among pupils born in Sweden with both par-ents born abroad about 6 of 10 have parents born outside of Europe, while3 of 10 have parents from other countries in Europe.

Three aspects of attitudes towards RE were used as dependent vari-ables: (a) existential issues, (b) preferences on what to study in RE and(c) incentives for studying RE. The first of these may need some expla-nation. Existential issues is an integral part of the RE syllabus in Swe-den, both in primary and secondary schooling.2 The notion of existentialissues has therefore also been central to earlier Swedish studies of stu-dents’ attitudes towards RE (Skolöverstyrelsen 1974, 1980; Sjödin 1995).Sjödin (1995) stated that existential issues related to interpersonal rela-tions were seen as far more topical by pupils than existential issuesrelated to established elements of Christianity. The National Board ofEducation (Skolöverstyrelsen 1980) concluded that even if students foundit intriguing to discuss existential issues, they were not able to make theconnections between these issues and the world religions studied in RE,which was seen as a shortcoming in relation to the expected learningoutcome. The second aspect concerned the preferences on what topics tostudy in RE. The third aspect pertains to the incentives and motives forstudying RE.

For the first hypothesis, frequencies or mean scores are reported. χ² andt-test were used to compare groups. For the second hypothesis, results frommultiple regression analyses are reported with adjusted R²s and standardisedbeta coefficients. Forced entry method was used.

Results

For the first step of the analysis, the new category ‘religious’ is comparedwith all other respondents for all three aspects of attitudes towards RE.

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Attitudes towards RE: existential issues

Items on which existential issues are perceived by pupils as being the mostimportant have been central to large school surveys in Sweden since theearly 1970s (Gustafsson 1974; Sjödin 1995). In this survey, a list of existen-tial issues was included for the students to indicate to which degree theyfound these important or not (a five-step Likert scale was used). Issuesrelated to love and relationships are seen as important by almost all respon-dents, while issues more related to an institutional religious setting clearlyattracted less interest. For this analysis, the list of existential issues wasreduced by means of principal component analysis.3 In this way, fourdimensions of existential issues were identified. The dimensions were (1) anexistential-philosophical dimension (God, meaning of life, if there is any-thing after death), (2) political dimension (gender equality, racism and xeno-phobia), (3) responsibility dimension (bullying, evil, guilt and responsibility)and (4) relational dimension (friendship and relations, love and sex, respec-tively). For each of these dimensions, individual means ranging from 1 to 5were created. Comparing mean scores for each of these dimensions showsthat the religious students were more interested in all dimensions of existen-tial issues than the non-religious, with the exception of the relational dimen-sion (Table 1). Regarding the existential-philosophical dimension, thepolitical dimension and the responsibility dimension, there were significantdifferences between the two groups compared in that the religious groupscored higher than did the other respondents. This comparison shows thatreligion has an impact on which existential issues students find important.

Attitudes towards RE: preferences on what to study in RE?

The issue of what components to include in the RE course is addressed in thenational syllabus (Swedish National School Agency 2011). There, it is alsostressed that students should be involved in the didactic choices concerningwhere to put the emphasis in RE. The following question has been used earlier

Table 1. Priority for existential issues dimensions, by categories religious/non-religious. Mean, range 1–5.

Existential issues dimensions Mean rel. Mean non-rel. t df p<

Political dimension 4.04 3.81 �4.08 1757 .001Existential dimension 3.97 2.54 �25.22 1734 .001Responsibility dimension 3.73 3.45 �5.09 1739 .001Relational dimension 4.39 4.39 .130 1753 NS

Notes: NS = not significant.Questions: How important are the following issues to you? (scale Not at all important 1–5Very important): Gender equality, racism and xenophobia, meaning of life, friendship andrelations, love and sex, life after death, God, if there is anything after death, bullying, evil,environmental issues, religions other than Christianity, guilt and responsibility.

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(Sjödin 1995, 2002). Table 2 shows that, in many cases, religious studentshave the same priorities as the non-religious students but more striking is theresult concerning the differences in the level of interest between religious andnon-religious students. It looks as if there is a gap between religious and inter-ested students on the one hand and non-religious and less interested studentson the other. It should however also be noted that critique of religions, newreligious movements and astrology were found to be important issues toinclude for a larger share of the non-religious students than the religious.

This item was also reduced by means of principal component analysis.4

Four dimensions were identified. The dimensions are (1) an ethical dimen-sion, (2) a dimension of comparative religion, (3) a paranormal dimensionand (4) a dimension of secular alternatives. It is clear from Table 3 that for

Table 2. Attitudes towards which topics to study in RE, two-group comparison.

Issues to be studied in RE? Religious (%) Non-religious (%)

Human responsibility 70.7 53.8All human beings are equal 70.0 53.9All human beings have a free will 67.5 55.9War and peace 64.7 52.1Meaning of life 63.8 31.4Right and wrong. Good and evil 63.1 38.2Christianity 61.3 29.4Other world religions 60.2 34.8New religious movements 38.4 21.4Critique of religion (atheism) 35.4 41.1Near death experiences 31.3 17.5Occultism 26.3 20.7Non-rel. worldviews 25.2 29.0Astrology 17.5 19.1

Notes: Per cent who answered steps 4 and 5. ‘What do you think is important to study inRE?’ (scale Not at all important 1–5 very important) per cent.

Table 3. Priority for dimensions of topics to study in RE, by categories religious/non-religious. Mean, range 1 (totally disagree)–5 (totally agree).

RE dimension Mean rel. Mean non-rel. t df p<

Ethics 3.90 3.40 �7.79 1668 .001Comparative religion 3.58 2.77 �13.52 1677 .001Paranormal 2.78 2.46 �5.57 1672 .001Secular alternatives 2.93 2.93 .04 1670 NS

Notes: NS = not significant.Question: What would you say is important to study in RE? (scale Not at all important 1–5Very important): near death experiences, What is right/wrong – good/evil, New religiousmovements, the meaning of life, Christianity, other world religions (i.e. Hinduism, Islam,Buddhism), astrology, occultism (precognition, notice, true dreams), non-religious world-views, critique of religions (Atheism), if all humans are equal, if humans have a free willand if humans are responsible for their life.

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the first three of these dimensions, the religious group scores higher. Thismeans that the religious students find these dimensions more important thando the non-religious. For one dimension, secular alternatives, there was nodifference between the groups.

Attitudes towards RE: incentives to study RE

The third aspect in this study of the pupils’ attitudes towards RE concernedtheir incentives to study RE. The questionnaire included a question that gavea number of statements on possible motives and incentives for studying thesubject and Table 4 reports the relative share of students that agree (largelyagree, fully agree; steps 4 and 5 on a five-step scale). There are significantdifferences between religious and non-religious students for all statements,except for ‘RE has little to do with reality’ and ‘RE is not very engaging’.It is quite clear that the religious students state that they find the topicimportant both for themselves and for their life in society. The religious stu-dents also answer to a greater extent that the subject increases understandingfor other people, although it is not clear from this answer if it is their ownunderstanding of others that increases or if they feel that other students’understanding of them may increase.

For all the three ways of examining the attitudes of the pupils towardsRE, the comparisons thus far have shown a difference among the pupilsregarding their religious identification and their attitudes towards RE. In thefollowing, other relevant factors will be introduced along with the religiosityof the pupils. The purpose is to investigate the second hypothesis and exam-

Table 4. Incentives for religious education (RE) by categories religious/non-religious (%).

RE…Per cent base (n=)

Rel.(350–355)

Non-rel.(1327–1341) p<

… Is not about everyday problems 17.6 15.6 .05… Has little to do with reality 27.3 21.0 NS… Is not very engaging 17.6 22.0 NS… Gives orientation about how different peopleview their lives

49.3 34.9 .001

… Deals with issues relevant to everyone 53.0 24.5 .001… Takes my worldview seriously 44.8 13.4 .001… Increases understanding between people 64.6 39.3 .001… Helps me make up my own mind 56.4 37.3 .001… Gives me knowledge to better understandsociety

60.6 37.2 .001

Notes: NS = not significant.Question six first items: How well do these statements fit your own views on RE? (scale.Not at all 1–5 very well).Question three last items: What do you say to the following statements? (scale Totally dis-agree 1– Totally agree 5).

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ine whether religiosity, when controlled for socio-economic variables, con-tributes to different attitudes towards RE.

Regression analysis: what factors affect the attitude towards RE?

Table 5 shows that for the dimensions on existential issues, the model usedexplained between 5 and 39% of the variance.5 For the relational dimension,the R² was the lowest, only .05, but for the other dimensions R² wasbetween .11 and .39. Religiosity had no significant effect on the politicaldimension, but did have an effect on the existential-philosophical and theresponsibility dimensions. Foreign background had an effect on the politicaland the existential-philosophical dimensions. Female gender had an effecton all dimensions while parents’ educational level only had a minor effectfor the political dimension. This shows that religiosity adds to the explana-tion of a considerable portion of the variance for two of the four dimensionson existential issues. Religiosity has the largest effect on the existential-philosophical and responsibility dimensions.

Table 6 shows that for the dimensions on which topics to include in the REcourse, the adjusted R²s for the model were between .09 and .24. This meansthat between 9 and 24% of the variance in the dimensions of what topics tostudy in RE is explained by the variables in the model. For three of the fourdimensions, entering the religiosity index dissolved the effect of foreign back-ground. Religiosity had an effect for the ethics, comparative religion and para-normal dimensions, but not for the secular alternatives dimension. Femalegender had an effect for all dimensions. Both parents’ educational level andacademic study programme had an effect in three of four dimensions (all butthe paranormal dimension). This analysis showed that including religiosity inthe model used to explain the variance in attitudes towards what to study inRE, made the effect of foreign background insignificant, while the effects ofthe other socio-economic variables remained.

Table 7 shows that where the motives for studying RE are concerned,the R²s for the model used were between .09 and .17. This means that themodel explains between 9 and 17% of the variance in the motives for study-ing RE. The religiosity index had an effect on all items. Foreign backgroundhad no effect for any of the items. Gender and academic study programmehad effect on all of the items, while parent’s educational level only had aneffect in four out of six items: ‘RE gives orientation about how differentpeople view their lives’, ‘RE takes my faith/worldview seriously’, ‘REincreases understanding between people’ and ‘RE gives me knowledge tobetter understand society’. Even if the items are not fully identical those inother surveys, the result that the effect of foreign background was dissolvedwhen the religiosity index was added, controlling for other socio-economicvariables, is a new finding which may shed some light on how to under-stand variations in students’ attitudes towards RE.

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Table

5.Results

from

four

multip

leregression

analyses

with

dimensionsof

existentialissues

asdependentvariablesandrelig

iosity

andfour

SESvariablesas

independent.

Dependent

variables

Existentialissues:

exist-phil.

Existentialissues:

politics

Existentialissues:

responsibility

Existentialissues:

relatio

nal

BSE

βB

SE

βB

SE

βB

SE

β

(Constant)

1.12

3.10

.07

2.87

4.32

Gender(F)

.41

.05

.18⁄

⁄⁄.73

.01

.38⁄

⁄⁄.54

.05

.29⁄

⁄⁄.30

.04

.21⁄

⁄⁄Parents’educationlevel

.01

.01

.01N

S.05

.06

.08⁄

⁄.02

.02

.03N

S.00

.01

.01N

S

Foreign

background

.23

.07

.08⁄

⁄.19

.05

.08⁄

.03

.07

.01N

S�.

02.05

�.01

NS

Academic

studyprogramme

.01

.05

.00N

S.30

.04

.16⁄

⁄⁄.10

.05

.05⁄

�.06

.04

�.04

NS

Religiosity

index

.87

.04

.55⁄

⁄⁄.01

.04

.38N

S.15

.04

.11⁄

⁄⁄�.

04.03

�.04

NS

.39

.21

.11

.05

Notes:B,standard

errorforB,βandR²foreach

dependentvariable

arereported.NS=notsignificant.

Questions:how

importantarethefollo

wingissues

toyou?

(scale

Not

atallim

portant1–5very

important):Genderequality,

racism

andxenopho-

bia,

meaning

oflife,

friendship

andrelatio

ns,love

andsex,

lifeafterdeath,

God,if

thereis

anything

afterdeath,

bully

ing,

evil,

environm

ental

issues,relig

ions

otherthan

Christianity,guilt

andresponsibility.

⁄⁄⁄ p

<.001;⁄⁄p<.01;

⁄ p<.05.

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Table

6.Results

from

four

multip

leregression

analyses

with

dimensionsof

preferencesfortopics

inRE

asdependentvariables

andrelig

iosity

andfour

SESvariablesas

independent.

Dependent

variables

REethics

REcomparativ

erelig

ion

REparanorm

alREsecularalternatives

BSE

βB

SE

βB

SE

βB

SE

β

(Constant)

2.46

1.50

1.82

2.22

Gender(F)

.63

.05

.29⁄

⁄⁄.59

.05

.28⁄

⁄⁄.51

.05

.26⁄

⁄⁄.35

.06

.15⁄

⁄⁄Parents’educationlevel

.05

.02

.08⁄

⁄.05

.02

.08⁄

⁄.02

.02

.03N

S.08

.02

.11⁄

⁄⁄Foreign

background

.12

.08

.04N

S�.

11.07

�.04

NS

�.07

.07

�.03

NS

�.17

.09

�.06

⁄Academic

studyprogramme

.24

.05

.11⁄

⁄⁄.42

.05

.20⁄

⁄⁄.01

.05

.01N

S.45

.06

.19⁄

⁄⁄Religiosity

index

.25

.04

.16⁄

⁄⁄.45

.04

.29⁄

⁄⁄.22

.04

.16⁄

⁄⁄.02

.05

.01N

S

.16

.24

.10

.09

Notes:B,standard

errorof

B,βvalues

andR²foreach

dependentvariable

arereported.NS=notsignificant.

Whatwould

yousayis

importantto

studyin

RE?(scale

Not

atallim

portant1–5Veryim

portant):near

deathexperiences,

whatis

right/w

rong

–good/evil,new

relig

ious

movem

ents,themeaning

oflife,

Christianity,otherworld

relig

ions

(i.e.Hinduism,Islam,Buddhism),astrology,

occultism

(precognition,notice,

true

dreams),non-relig

ious

worldview

s,critiqueof

relig

ions

(atheism

),ifallhumansareequal,ifhumanshave

afree

will

andifhumansareresponsiblefortheirlife.

⁄⁄⁄ p

<.001;⁄⁄p<.01;

⁄ p<.05.

British Journal of Religious Education 47

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Table

7.Results

from

sixmultip

leregression

analyses

with

view

son

RE

asdependentvariablesandrelig

iosity

andfour

SES

variablesas

independent.

Dependent

variables

REgives

orientation

abouthow

differentpeople

view

theirliv

es

REdealswith

issues

relevant

toeveryone

REtakesmy

faith

/worldview

seriously

REincreases

understanding

betweenpeople

REhelpsme

makeup

my

ownmind

REgivesme

know

ledgeto

betterunderstand

society

BSE

βB

SE

βB

SE

βB

SE

βB

SE

βB

SE

β

(Constant)

2.24

1.70

1.21

1.85

1.97

1.82

Gender(F)

.36

.06

.16⁄

⁄⁄.42

.06

.18⁄

⁄⁄.20

.06

.08⁄

⁄⁄.50⁄

⁄⁄.06

.19

.53⁄

⁄⁄.06

.21

.47⁄

⁄⁄.06

.19

Parents’education

level

.04

.02

.06⁄

.03

.02

.04N

S.04

.02

.06⁄

.05⁄

.02

.06

.03

NS.02

.04

.05⁄

.02

.06

Foreign

background

.02

.08

.01N

S.06

.08

.02N

S.14

.09

.04N

S�.

06NS

.10

�.02

.03N

S.09

.01

�.11

NS

.09

�.03

Acad.

study

programme

.35

.06

.15⁄

⁄⁄.27

.06

.11⁄

⁄⁄.21

.06

.08⁄

⁄⁄.49⁄

⁄⁄.07

.19

.42⁄

⁄⁄.07

.16

.45⁄

⁄⁄.06

.18

Religiosity

index

.25

.05

.15⁄

⁄⁄.48

.05

.28⁄

⁄⁄.61

.05

.35⁄

⁄⁄.39⁄

⁄⁄.05

.20

.30⁄

⁄⁄.05

.16

.43⁄

⁄⁄.05

.24

.09

.16

.17

.14

.12

.15

Notes:B,standard

errorof

B,βandR²foreach

dependentvariable

arereported.NS=notsignificant.

Questionthreefirstitems:How

welldo

thesestatem

entsfityour

ownview

son

RE?(scale

Not

atall1–

5very

well).

Questionthreelastitems:Whatdo

yousayto

thefollo

wingstatem

ents?(scale

Totally

disagree

1–To

tally

agree5).⁄⁄

⁄ p<001;

⁄⁄p<.01;

⁄ p<.05

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Discussion

The results of this study first by comparisons between religious students/believers and the rest of the respondents and second by the regression analy-ses of the effect of religiosity, controlling for socio-economic variables, con-cerning students’ attitudes towards RE, show that in order to understandhow RE is perceived by students it is essential to be aware of several fac-tors. While earlier studies pointed to the significance of socio-economic vari-ables such as gender, parents’ educational level, foreign background andstudy programme, this study adds to these by showing how religiosity alsomatters. This study showed that in 11 of 14 analyses, religion made theeffect of foreign background insignificant.

This finding can be related to earlier Swedish studies as well as recentEuropean research. The present study corroborates Swedish results regardingthe effect of gender, study programme and parents’ education level for theattitudes towards RE (Sjödin 1995, 2001). Even though the present findingsconfirm previous results in these respects, there is reason to iterate that thismeans there still is a significant difference in the attitudes towards RE withregards to gender – where the male pupils are clearly less positive on almostall used items; study programme – where pupils on vocational programme-mes are less positive on several items and finally parents’ education level –where higher education level correlates with more positive attitude towardsRE for several items. The present study also confirms previous researchfrom Germany (Jozsa, Knauth, and Weisse 2009) and Norway (Skeie andvon der Lippe 2009) which showed that the religiosity of the pupils contrib-uted to different attitudes towards RE. As for the factor of foreign back-ground, the present study also qualifies results from a qualitative case studywith 14–15-year-old pupils in one school in a multicultural setting (vonBrömssen 2003, 2009). The present study contributes by showing thatincluding religiosity suspended the effect of foreign background for thepupils’ attitudes towards RE. In contrast to Sjödin, this study managed toincorporate the significance of foreign background and religiosity. Comparedto von Brömssen, the present study also adds new knowledge by demon-strating the situation among older pupils on a national level.

The finding, that religious students seem to have more positive attitudestowards RE and that there can be said to be a gap between the religious andthe non-religious students, may of course be interpreted in different ways. Oneinterpretation would be that such an outcome is self-evident. In this line ofthinking, it is likely that pupils with a higher level of religious socialisationfrom home will find the topics and themes addressed in RE relevant. Their pri-mary or secondary socialisation, prior to upper secondary school, such as reli-gious instruction in the form of confirmation instruction, supplies them withresources which enable them to engage more in RE. They are more likely tothink the subject is about them and their experiences and they recognise the

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language. This interpretation could perhaps be transferred to other fields ofstudy. For the sake of illustration, it could be the case that students who areinvolved in politics, for example, would find teaching on civic society andgovernment more engaging. Because their socialisation into the language ofpolitics enables these students to participate actively and encourages theirinvolvement in class, they are more likely to find the subject of interest, thantheir fellow students who lack such background. But even if this interpretationof socialisation is appropriate, the results demonstrated may still not necessar-ily be self-evident. If this result is considered in connection with the goals andaims of the RE subject, which were noted above, there are relevant points tobe made. This is clear in relation to the current as well as previous and the newsyllabuses of the subject (Swedish National School Agency 2011). Accordingto this, RE ‘provides advanced knowledge, as well as greater understanding ofpeople with different religions and views of life’. The gap in attitudes towardsRE between religious and non-religious pupils suggest that this goal has notbeen realised. It remains to be seen whether this ambitious objective can beaccomplished by RE teaching. Von Brömssen (2003, 2009) problematised thedimension of intercultural understanding in RE in her study among 14–15-year-olds. Along with her, I claim that my results also indicate that in this respectintercultural understanding remains to be attained. This is salient in thesenational data, among upper secondary pupils.

The results of this study point to issues for further research as well asconsequences for RE development and teacher training. As suggestions forfurther research three main themes emerge. First, the present analysis wouldgain from being complemented with a multi-level analysis of attitudestowards RE considering not only religiosity and relevant background vari-ables on an individual level, but also variables on a group level, such as thedegree of cultural and religious pluralism at school or in the local commu-nity. Second, qualitative interview and observation studies would be usefulto complement the results of a study such as the present one. As a multidi-mensional phenomenon, religion needs to be studied from a number ofangles using different methodologies. Focus group interviews can forinstance be used to analyse how the students understand religion in relationto RE and whether patterns from the present and previous studies can beconfirmed or further nuanced. Third, further studies are also needed on theteaching of RE, and in this respect I would argue that the teaching profes-sional is of special interest. How do different teachers of RE handle the reli-gious diversity in their classroom pointed out in this article? How doprofessionals in the public school system handle a subject that has often inSwedish society been regarded as a strictly private matter, but is alsoincreasingly seen as a sensitive issue visible in the public sphere? Comparedwith other subjects in school, teaching RE in a diverse setting also engagesor potentially engages the teaching professional’s person. The results of thepresent study furthermore bring consequences for RE development and

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teacher training. The findings suggest that RE needs to be advanced if it isto realise the high goals from the national syllabus. Addressing the role ofintercultural and interreligious understanding in teacher training as well as incontinued education would seem appropriate. The gap between religious andother students indicate that the intercultural understanding which is so cen-tral to the aims and purposes of the RE subject in present and previous syl-labuses is difficult to achieve.

AcknowledgementsThis research was funded by a grant from the Swedish Research Council (VR)number 2007/8139. Additional funding for the data collection was provided byChurch of Sweden and the Kempe-Carlgrenska Trust. The entire empirical part ofthe study was approved by the Regional Ethics Review Board in Uppsala.

Notes1. Since it was possible to combine alternative identities, there is some overlap in

the sense that 174 respondents agreed quite a lot (4) or completely (5) with bothof these self-identifications, and another 79 respondents agreed moderately (3)with one of these labels and quite a lot or completely with the other. Due to thisoutcome, a new category was created from the self-definitions of ‘religious’ and/or ‘believers’ (steps 4 and 5) and named as the new category of ‘religious’ con-sisting of 377 pupils. Thus, henceforth ‘religious’ refers to this said new category.

2. The concept of existential issues became central to the Swedish discussion onRE in the 1960s. It can be seen as a way of creating motivation for keeping REas a subject in a secularised society undergoing rapid social change. Hartman’snotion and his empirical studies of childrens’ existential issues also linked clo-sely to central pedagogical discourses of the time (Hartman 1986).

3. A list of 13 existential issues was included in the questionnaire and these issueswere reduced by means of principal component analysis, to make further com-parison easier. Two items, ‘Religions other than Christianity’ and ‘Environmentissues’ were omitted since they occurred in more than one dimension. In otherwords, 11 items were retained. Further, the limit of four was set to select thecoefficients to retain in the principle component analysis. Varimax rotation wasused. The four dimensions identified explained 68% of the variance.

4. Principal component analysis with Varimax rotation and Kaiser normalisation.The four dimensions identified explained 63% of the variance.

5. The following tables present the results from 14 regression analyses. Also, itneeds to be mentioned that three regression analyses are left out for reasons ofspace, since the analyses showed R² of less than .05, meaning that the modelstested explained less than 5% of the variance in the dependent variable in ques-tion. The dependent variables that were left out for this reason are: (1) ‘RE isnot about everyday problems’, (2) ‘RE has little to do with reality’ and (3) ‘REis not very engaging’. The independent variables were examined for multicollin-earity using variance inflation factor (VIF) and tolerance statistic (Field 2010).

Notes on contributorAnders Sjöborg is a sociologist of religion working as director at the UppsalaReligion and Society Research Centre at Uppsala University, Sweden. He is

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currently active in the research programme, Impact of Religion – Challenges forSociety, Law and Democracy at Uppsala University. He is also a member of thecoordination group of the international research programme, Religion and HumanRights, initiated by Professor Johannes A. Van der Ven, Nijmegen. His recentpublications (2012) include: The impact of religion on freedom of religion andfreedom of speech among young Swedes. In: J.A. Van der Ven and H.-G. Ziebertz(eds.). Tensions within and between religions and human rights. Leiden: Brill andCentralt eller perifert? Ungas kontakter med religion i vardagen [Central orperipheral? Young people’s contacts with religion in everyday life] In: M. Lövheimand J. Bromander (eds.). Religion som resurs? Existentiella frågor och värderingari ungas svenskars liv. [Religion as a resource? Existential issues and values in thelives of young Swedes] Skellefteå: Artos. His research interests include religioussocialisation, religion and popular culture as well as religion and human rights.

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