Den kristna smaken i den svenska skolan och de religioner som inte syns

Sammanfattning: Many consider Sweden as one of the most secularised countries in the world. While the country is rapidly growing more religiously and culturally diverse there still remains a Lutheran touch in the school curriculum. Skolverket depicts itself as being nondenominational and objective, but many have argued against this statement. The educational system’s roots of both being organised and run using Christian religious materials clearly presents the complex situation that can be recognized even today.  Researchers and students alike agree that there is an issue regarding the representation of all cultural and religious groups in the Swedish educational system. The students in the work of Carina Holmqvist Lidh testify of the lack of representation or frequent misrepresentation in their formal education. Many feel the religion they meet in schools cannot be recognized as their own. This is a problem both in the condensed teaching materials which are used and the very limited lesson time a teacher has at hand. An active didactical choice, deeming what’s important knowledge or not, falls in the lap of educators and the consequences that I want to present in this essay is that many religious orientations risk going unnoticed.  That’s why in this essay my goal is to create a discussion about the ways the Lutheran Christian faith has historically, and continues to affect religion education, all while deeming itself as non-confessional and neutral. Furthermore, owing to fellow students’ essays and professors' analysis of textbooks depiction of non-Lutheran religious groups I hope to present the problem with this Lutheran-touch, which leaves many students from other religious orientations feeling their faith is misrepresented or left out in traditional teaching.