From citizenship of God’s Kingdom to liberal individualism? A critical historical analysis of Finnish religious education

Poulter, Saila

doi:10.1080/01416200.2015.1110113

Cited by 5 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…She observed that citizenship in Finnish RE has shifted from an institutional religious orientation to that of individual religious conviction: a shift from the traditional communal image of obedient Lutheran Finns to personal religious convictions. (Note that this kind of thought relating to individual religious conviction, unreservedly upheld in Poulter (2013Poulter ( , 2017, has been the subject of criticism by some scholars (e.g., Sakaranaho 2013).) (See more about this in the latter part of this paper.…”

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Another major concern in this paper is that Poulter (2013Poulter ( , 2017 viewpoint on citizenship in Finnish RE seems to lack a critical perspective. Although her studies were based on educational policy documents, she did not concentrate on the specific thematic content of the selected educational policy documents relating to citizenship in RE in Finland.…”

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Citizenship and religious education (RE) remain inseparable because religion has impacted, is impacting and will continue to influence the behaviour of private citizens and the policies and laws of many non-Western and Western countries, including Finland (Adebayo and Mansikka 2018;Fouts and Lee 2005). The impact of religion on private citizens and the State could be seen in their behaviour and attitudes towards non-secularization, secularization and post-secularization in the spheres of private and institutional religion (Poulter 2017). 1 The need to give relevant citizenship education to young people seems to have prompted the Council of Europe (CoE) and the EC to sponsor research projects on citizenship: Education for Democratic Citizenship (CoE project-EDC) and the Eurydice project on citizenship (EC project) (Jackson 2007).…”

Section: The Topic: Maximal Citizenship and Religious Education (Re)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although citizenship education has been treated in many studies in Finland (e.g., Piattoeva 2009, 2010aTorney-Purta 2002), little concern is being given to the relationship between citizenship and Finnish RE. Besides Poulter (2013Poulter ( , 2017 and Adebayo and Mansikka (2018), one hardly finds any studies that specifically deal with citizenship in Finnish RE, let alone maximal citizenship in Finnish RE; hence, this inquiry.…”

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Poulter claimed that being a good Lutheran is no longer a precondition for being a good Finn. The previous idea of commitment to the national (Lutheran) church is being replaced with ideas of self-realization, personal aspiration and individually conceived ethical responsibility (Poulter 2017). According to her, this curricular development is underpinned by and/or can be analysed in terms of governmentality, liberal individualism, secularization and post-secularization (Poulter 2017, pp.…”

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

In Search of Maximal Citizenship in Educational Policy for Young People: Analysing Citizenship in Finnish Religious Education in View of the “Maximal” Conception

Adebayo

2019

Social Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The place of religion and how it should be employed in education for citizenship is currently an issue in Europe. The challenges of increasing diversity are the underlying factors. The conception of maximal citizenship (a critical model of citizenship) gives a significant framework for analysis and scholarly perspectives about several European contexts on this matter. However, there is hardly maximal citizenship in Finnish contexts in scholarship. Hence, this work searches for the elements of maximal citizenship in educational policy for young people by employing the policy relating to citizenship in Finnish religious education (RE). Focusing on grades 7–9 of basic education, its primary data is based on selected national policy documents. The data were analysed using critical discourse analysis. The main findings suggest that citizenship in Finnish RE is only somewhat compatible with the characteristics of maximal citizenship. This reveals some policy shortcomings that could negatively affect the potential of critical-mindedness of young people and equal opportunities in a democracy. Hence, some suggestions that could improve the situation are embedded in the paper. Nevertheless, a linguistic conception of citizenship in Finland vis-à-vis a recent development in national educational policy seems to push the conception of maximal citizenship in a relatively new direction. Furthermore, an explicit use of the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” in Finnish curriculum broadens our conception of maximal citizenship in general. Moreover, while scholars agree that maximal citizenship is essentially “critical”, this piece suggests that every “critical” approach to citizenship education is not necessarily “maximal”.

show abstract

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Topic: Maximal Citizenship and Religious Education (Re)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Citizenship In Finnish Re and Maximal Deficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

In Search of Maximal Citizenship in Educational Policy for Young People: Analysing Citizenship in Finnish Religious Education in View of the “Maximal” Conception

Adebayo

2019

Social Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Human Security and Citizenship in Finnish Religious Education: Rethinking Security Within the Human Rights Horizon

Adebayo

Mansikka

2018

Hum Rights Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper discusses citizenship in Finnish religious education (RE) in relation to human security. It traces the characteristics of human security that connect citizenship, religion, and education in Finnish policy documents. The article focuses on basic education (grades 7-9). Its data were analyzed employing qualitative content analysis (QCA). The findings indicate that citizenship in Finnish RE entails personal security concerns dealing with psychological and human rights issues. These are found to be essentially human security as conceptualized by the United Nations (UN). However, Finnish policy documents sparingly utilize human security in explicit terms. Finland rather emphasizes the practical applications of human security. Incorporation of explicit global citizen and human rights issues into RE in the new Finnish curriculum seems to project critical global citizenship. This is found to promote human security. Following Finland's bid for practical application of human security, we recommend (but cautiously) that human security be explicitly integrated into the Finnish RE curriculum.

show abstract

Characteristics of human agency in liberal and Islamic religious education based on the national core curricula of Finland and Iran

Khalili

Kallioniemi

Noaparast

2021

British Journal of Religious Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article aims to identify and compare the characteristics of human agency in liberal and Islamic religious education, comparing Iran as a religious context influenced by Islamic state ideology with Finland as a liberal context and a secular state ideology. This comparison will be accomplished by document analysis of the national curricula for education in Iran and Finland. Methodologically, a comparative study and a deductive content-analysis approach will be employed. The paper will provide an analytical framework for human agency mainly based on Biesta's and Halstead's views as interpreters of liberal perspectives and Bagheri's view as an Islamic scholar. The comparison will be considered in the light of three categories: the foundation of agency, the requirements of agency and the educational consequences of agency. The results show that in all curriculum documents human agency is always considered but with distinct concepts and emphasis. In Iran, the focus is on spiritual aspects based on wisdom whereas in Finland the focus is on social aspects based on pure reasoning. The study suggests some points about the compatibility of Islam and liberal thought through the concept of human agency.

show abstract

From citizenship of God’s Kingdom to liberal individualism? A critical historical analysis of Finnish religious education

Cited by 5 publications

References 22 publications

In Search of Maximal Citizenship in Educational Policy for Young People: Analysing Citizenship in Finnish Religious Education in View of the “Maximal” Conception

In Search of Maximal Citizenship in Educational Policy for Young People: Analysing Citizenship in Finnish Religious Education in View of the “Maximal” Conception

Human Security and Citizenship in Finnish Religious Education: Rethinking Security Within the Human Rights Horizon

Characteristics of human agency in liberal and Islamic religious education based on the national core curricula of Finland and Iran

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About