Depictions and presentations of what “religion” comprises is an important part of religious education. In order to introduce religion as a subject matter in school, the teacher has to rely on some portrayal or distinction of the notion of religion for the students. However, the notion of religion is not only part of basic school knowledge. Different conceptions of the meaning and event of religion or the different ways of characterizing the basic functions of religion, also contribute to the ways in which we grasp the impact or non impact of religion in social life.
This paper addresses how teachers in comprehensive secondary education describe religion. Religious studies teachers can be seen as socialisation agents with the professional task to educate students for participation in society. Their depictions of “religion” does not only have an individual or cognitive signification, but also has implications for how students are approaching what counts as religion or religious and for what and who that become excluded and included in these depictions. Taking on the relationship between the teachers’ depictions and presentations of religion and the implications of them as regards the students’ notions of life in society the teachers’ voices on the notion and subject matter of religion become interesting to explore as an important part of the curricula, and further, for their assignment to see to the students’ democratic citizenship.
In this paper we approach the teachers’ descriptions not as abstract definitions but as social actions in an educational setting, which is intimately linked to the wider social and societal omission of seeing to this assignment. The purpose is more specifically to study religious studies teacher’s descriptions and presentations of “religion” and its possible consequences for democratic citizenship in our times. The paper is based on a recently carried out empirical study that involves nine semi-structured interviews (5 m + 4 f) in the Swedish comprehensive secondary school.