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Transition in RE in Finland

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Religious Education in a Post-Secular Age

Abstract

In this chapter, we will discuss key questions regarding religious education in Finnish state schools today. Recent years have shown that issues related to dialogue, citizenship skills, social integration have moved into the forefront when discussing religious education (Jackson 2014a). Similarly, several researchers have analysed the challenges that diversification, secularisation and post-secularity create for education in religions and non-religious worldviews in Finnish state schools (Ubani et al. 2019a). When we refer to Finnish society in a post-secular context, we do not wish to overstate the rising impact of religion in Europe, but acknowledge the resurgence of public religion and the emergence of an increasingly pluralistic public sphere in Finland too. We convey criticism of the secular normativity of schools and of the liberal-secular foundation of the mainstream approaches of multicultural education, which have emerged against a backdrop of the notion of post-secularity (Coulby and Zambeta 2008; Ubani 2013a). In the Nordic context too, scholars have criticised the othering of non-secular and non-Western worldviews in educational thinking and practices (see e.g. Berglund 2017; Poulter et al. 2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Martin Ubani

  2. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Saila Poulter

  3. Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Inkeri Rissanen

Authors
  1. Martin Ubani
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  2. Saila Poulter
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  3. Inkeri Rissanen
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Correspondence to Martin Ubani .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Olof Franck

  2. University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden

    Peder Thalén

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Ubani, M., Poulter, S., Rissanen, I. (2021). Transition in RE in Finland. In: Franck, O., Thalén, P. (eds) Religious Education in a Post-Secular Age. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47503-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47503-1_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-47502-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-47503-1

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