Geir Skeie lägger fram texten:

Impartial teachers – do they exist in Norway?

The debate about Norwegian religious education, since the change towards a more multi-faith and descriptive school subject in 1997, has often raised issues of impartiality, using concepts like neutral, objective, descriptive, critical and pluralistic. Several international Human Rights bodies have criticized Norwegian regulations of religious education during later years, which makes the Norwegian example interesting from an international perspective. The national debates are however complex and even confusing. While the influence of legal perspectives have been noticeable, these sometimes seem to be incommensurable with educational perspectives. In addition, different pedagogical and even epistemological traditions may feed into debates of seemingly practical teaching issues. The article is analysing and discussing Norwegian public debate as well as RE research in order to approach more general issues of impartiality in religious education. It argues that these issues should be contextualised by asking what it means for teachers to be impartial in a classroom where religion and worldview is only one of several aspects of diversity that intersect with each other. The legal provisions, inspection authorities and public debate is helpful in contributing to the deliberation about aims of religious education and human rights, but does not always help to find solutions in the classroom. Research suggests that teachers struggle with complex issues related to partiality and impartiality in their teaching; but that they have little opportunity to discuss their experiences. The debate about principles therefore needs to be accompanied by more cooperation between researchers and teachers in developing good teaching and learning.

Läsare är Susanne Olsson, docent i religionshistoria, Institutionen för etnologi, religionshistoria och genusvetenskap

För information och textdistribution kontakta Geir Skeie (geir.skeie@cehum.su.se).