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Some students in Norway learn about the same sacred text in school as in religious education.
– This thesis has investigated what teachers in the two arenas consider as important as well as how teacher education textbooks on religious didactics describe the didactic work with religious texts, Synnøve Markeng writes to inn.no.
The title of Markeng's thesis is 'Religious scripture in formal and non-formal religious education.'
She has conducted her doctoral work in the PhD in Teaching and Teacher Education (PROFF) programme.
One main finding is that the interviewed Religious Education (KRLE) and Quran teachers emphasise different dimensions of the Quran.
– While the KRLE teachers are most concerned with what content the Quran conveys, Quran teachers are focused on providing students with skills and knowledge to make use of Quran recitation when relevant, Synnøve Markeng explains.
KRLE is an abbreviation in Norwegian for the subject 'Christianity, Religion, Life philosophy, and Ethics'.
Markeng also finds the emphasis on the content of religious scriptures in introductory textbooks on religious didactics. These are books that convey what is considered the most important in the field, and that KRLE teachers encounter in their teacher education.
The study shows how knowledge conveyed in the school subject is shaped by academic traditions and the context in which the subject operates.
– If teacher education and KRLE teachers assume that the content of the text is most important, we risk overlooking other practices related to religious scriptures that are also meaningful in the everyday lives of religious people, including our students, Synnøve Markeng says.
Here you can find more information about Synnøve Markeng's public defence on May 31, 2024.
Main findings in the doctoral work:
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Religious scriptures have different functions in the life of religious people. However, the KRLE teachers and teacher education textbooks in this study emphasises the content and meaning of religious scripture when describing what is important in the KRLE subject.
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These teachers have not included Qur'an recitation in the lessons about the Qur'an, although they know this to be an important practice among many Muslims.
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Qur'an recitation is a part of Islamic supplementary education, but the Qur'an teachers interviewed in this study have different pedagogical approaches.
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In the KRLE subject, religious scriptures are approached with a “notion of similarity”, which implies that equality is achieved by applying the same methods and approaches to all religious scriptures. When teachers encounter Qur’an recitation as an expression of the Qur'an, the “notion of similarity” becomes problematic, as the teachers are uncertain about what expressions are comparable and which pedagogical approaches would be relevant.
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The tensions between approaches with which teachers are familiar and what they assume to be relevant when teaching about Qur’an recitation, illuminates how the KRLE subject is developed within a specific academic, didactic, and religious context.
Contact information:
- synnove.markeng@inn.no