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This chapter originates from the educational reform of Swedish upper secondary school in 2011, where the focus for religious studies education changed from being based on different religious perspectives, various existential questions, and pupil-initiated questions to an emphasis based on a scientific-rational content, with an exceptional position for Christianity in relation to other world religions. The aim of the chapter is twofold. The first purpose is to clarify the subject scientific approach and its exceptional position for Christianity in relation to other world religions mean for the socializing dimension in upper secondary education. The second purpose is to illuminate how teachers in religion education studies respond to and handle existential and pupil-related questions that emerge during the lessons. Given both the historical study on the purpose of religious study education and the interview study focusing on a common educational dilemma, the objective perspective, based only on facts, risks losing its relevance for the pupils if the teacher does not nuance the images of different beliefs and their forms of expression and considers a student-oriented perspective. Hence the teacher must keep the balance between what they must do and what they want to do to fulfill their assignment in situ. 

Christian plurality is challenging for a religious education teacher in a classroom of students with different orientations of Christianity, not least due to immigration. As Christianity represents an essential component of the majority culture in many European countries, in this study we examine how it is represented in religious education textbooks used in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The purpose is to examine how liberal Christianity is shaped in the textbooks and the possible implications for educating citizens in a plural society. The selection of books is based on those used by religious education teachers in Sweden. The results show a tendency towards a modernised liberal Christianity, the implications of which are discussed in relation to the significance of religions and worldviews in education for social cohesion.

This article departs from the educational reform of upper secondary school 2011, and the changing in the curricula for religion studies education. Our theoretical point of departure is inspired by Ivor Godson's and Thomas Popkewitz's understanding of a school subject and its relation to socialisation. In relation to their understanding of a school subject and its socializing role, we see a didactical implication that the subject of religious study education will fall back to transferring knowledge that is easy to teach, control, assess, and grade. We wonder how teachers in religion education studies respond to, and handle existential and pupil related questions in the classroom when they, for example, are addressed with questions about life and death, the environmental crisis or global poverty, even if there is no scheduled time for such matters. To answer this question, we have interviewed eleven religion education teachers from different programs in upper secondary school about how they consider the subject, its content and purpose and how this materialises in their teaching. The conclusions we could draw from our interviews are that most of the teachers try to be open and respond to existential and pupil-initiated questions, even if there is no scheduled time for this, while others focuses on facts about the Abrahamitic religions. 

Att undervisa är en flerdimensionell verksamhet. I denna verksamhet är läraren beroende av ämneskunskap och förmåga att didaktiskt planera och genomföra undervisning på ett sätt som gör innehållet intressant och möjligt att förstå. Därtill inbegriper undervisning att kunna bedöma och utvärdera elevens kunskapsutveckling - men även själva undervisningen i sig. Med utgångspunkt i begreppet pedagogisk takt lyfter boken fram betydelsen av att lärare över tid utvecklar en pedagogisk taktkänsla i det möte som undervisning innebär. Denna taktkänsla relateras såväl till didaktiska som relationella kompetens. 

In this article we take a closer look at the relation between general didactics and civic studies education through a critical analysis of civic studies syllabuses in primary education, in order to illuminate some general motives that legitimizes the role and content of general didactics. It seems to us that the idea of general didactics in Sweden either is about learning theories for instruction, regardless the subject, or to emancipate the democratic potentiality of the subject. In his article, we focus on the latter: First we present our theoretical perspective. With the help from Klafki’s understandings of school as an engaging part of democratic society we discern two aspects of general didactics. In relation to education, one emanates from democracy and learning, and the other springs from democratic virtues and political action. Secondly, and with these two understandings in mind, we engage in a critical reading of the Curriculum for compulsory school (LGR 11) and the syllabuses for civic studies in primary education in order to trace some similarities that might give civic studies a central position for democratic socialization in general. Thirdly, and through our analysis, we reach the conclusion that, due to the similarities between the curricula and syllabus when it comes to foster the democratic subject, the pupil risks not only to be evaluated and graded subject wise, but also for his or her democratic disposition.