Det får inte bli för mycket Hollywood : En undersökning om spelfilmens roll i religionskunskapsundervisningen

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims to examine students and teachers’ attitudes towards the use of fiction film in religious studies in upper secondary schools in the province of Scania in Sweden. The thesis has a particular focus on the use of film in order to facilitate understanding of different religions and views of life and what students report gaining from viewing film in the classroom. For this purpose, two research questions were formulated: “How do teachers of religious studies in upper secondary school view the use of fiction film as a teaching resource for the purpose of facilitating understanding of different views of life and religions?” and “How do students view the use of fiction film as a learning resource in religious studies and what do they gain from watching fiction film during religious education?” In order to answer these research questions, ethnographic empirical material was collected from surveys of students as well as a survey of religious education teachers in upper secondary schools in Scania. These surveys were combined with three interviews with upper secondary religious education teachers from two different schools in Scania. This material was later analysed from a hermeneutical perspective with a grounding in previous research in the use of film as a teaching resource. The research found that teachers in upper secondary schools who responded to the survey and were interviewed had a generally positive view on the use of fiction film in religious studies and were positive towards the use of film to facilitate understanding of different views of life and religions. However, teachers showed a bit more trepidation towards the use of fiction films to show how people live their religions. Teachers also expressed that lack of time was a main factor in avoiding the use of fiction film in their teaching. Students were mostly favourable towards the use of film as an educational tool in religious education, however not as big of a majority as the teachers. They also showed a propensity towards wanting to watch fiction films in combination with discussions and group work.