I am teaching in the subject of religious education and am responsible for supervising students preparing essays on IÄD at basic and advanced level.

I completed my PhD at Stockholm University in 2013, entitled: Existential Configurations. On how an Understanding of Life Is Constituted in a Social Context. In the study, I investigated how young adults between 19-29 years of age describe and understand their lives, which existential issues are central to young adults, and the importance of the social and cultural context for their meaning-making (Gustavsson 2013).

In recent years, I have been interested in, and have written about, how younger people today talk about belief and religion, and what significance it may have for the subject of religious education in the Swedish school.

My interest in the subject of religious education in Swedish schools concerns, among other things, the question of whether the subject can be perceived as contributing to or hindering the growing generations' understanding of faith and religion. In this context, I have, investigated the concept of worldview.

My post.doc study is presented in the book "Delaktighetens kris. Gudstjänstens pedagogiska utmaning" (2016). Within the framework of the study, choir singers aged between 19-40 years, as well as priests and church musicians in four different types of parishes in Sweden have been interviewed. The study revolves around questions about the meaning of the concept of participation and shows that it is not possible to see an obvious connection between participating and being involved. A short presentation of the study is presented in the article "Ett pedagogiskt perspektiv på Svenska kyrkans gudstjänst", in Svensk kyrkotidning nr 2, 2016.

Between 2017-2019, I have had funding as a researcher to follow the prioritization of worship that has been implemented in Asarum's pastorate in Blekinge. The overall purpose of the research project has been to contribute to an analysis of the worship prioritization and also to investigate how different aspects of participation are challenged, shaped and changed in the worship practice, during the ongoing worship prioritization. The project is reported in the book "Distance, participation, longing. Worship in a time of religious change" (2021).

During 2018-2019 I have as a researcher been responsible for two projects on learning and teaching in Västerås pastorate and Västerås diocese. The projects are presented in the report "En process på riktigt" (2019) and the book "Vägen är allt" (2021).

Together with the sociologist of religion Anneli Winell, I have been responsible for a project on "the validity of the concept of vocation" and ordination service in a time of religious change. The overall purpose of the study is to examine and deepen the understanding of how prospective priests and pastors today describe their vocation, identity and future task within the Church of Sweden and the Equmenia Church, and how we can understand these descriptions in a time of religious change. The project is reported in the book "Kallad till präst och pastor i en tid av religiös förändring" (2023).

In 2022, I have been responsible for a project that focused on confirmed young people. The purpose of the project has been to deepen the understanding of the knowledge that young people perceive themselves to have received during their time as confirmands by interpreting their descriptions of the same. The project is reported in the book "Where is Jesus? Ungas röster om konfirmandundervisning" (2023).

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Vulnerability as a Quality in the Classroom and Research in Religious Education

  2020. Caroline Gustavsson. Facing the Unknown Future, 183-193

  Chapter

  This article discusses vulnerability in relation to experiences of religion and religious education and explores how vulnerability can be understood in two different but related areas: being a teacher and being researcher in religious education. The theoretical point of departure is taken from Brene Brown’s theory of vulnerability. Brown defines vulnerability as uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. The exploration of the three examples provided lead to the conclusion that there are different kinds of vulnerability, depending on the content of the narrative being shared, the context where it is shared, and the time between the actual event and its narration. The article suggests a distinction should be made between ‘experienced vulnerability’, ‘processed vulnerability’ and ‘caused vulnerability’. When reflecting on the notion of time the article shows that one needs some ‘chronos’ to find the right ‘kairos’ and moment to share one’s vulnerability.… 

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• Will there be space for young people’s own meaning-making processes in the RE classroom? Existential configurations as a concept and an educational tool

  2020. Caroline Gustavsson. Opening up spaces for meaningful engagement in educational praxis, 73-88

  Chapter

  The aim of this chapter is to introduce the concept of existential configurations as an alternative to the concept of ‘livsåskådning’ in a Swedish context. The chapter argues that the ability of students to be active partners in creating the new multicultural or intercultural European reality will grow if we give them access to a language and to concepts that enable them to relate their own meaning-making to other people’s understanding of life. Speaking in terms of existential configurations creates the opportunity for teachers’ professional capacity to grow and gives all students the space “to develop a personal attitude to life and an understanding of how they and others are thinking and living” as stated by the curriculum (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2018).

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• Religionspedagogik - ett forskningsfält i tiden

  2020. Caroline Gustavsson. Tidsskrift for praktisk teologi 37 (1), 78-89

  Article

  The aim with the article is twofold: first to present religious education in a Nordic but foremost Swedish context, second to argue for a broad understanding of the research field. Through the examples given in the article the author argue that religious education give space for reflections about teaching and learning about/of/in religious phenomena, themes and other expressions of meaning-making and the conditions for them all in religious but also non-religious settings.

  The article presents a historic background to the emergence of religious education in a Nordic context. Thereafter research will be presented as representing four different but relating themes: content, performer, aim and method.

  It is argued that religious education is a research field that contributes to a deeper reflection on the opportunities and challenges that can be seen in relation to learning in religious environments and in relation to religious, and existential themes. Religious education contributes to a deeper understanding of the meaning-making that all people share and it is therefore a topic that finds great relevance and a clear justification in our time and in a globalized world.

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• Delaktighet i praktiken

  2020. Caroline Gustavsson.

  Report

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• En process på riktigt.

  2019. Caroline Gustavsson.

  Report

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• Svenska kyrkans huvudgudstjänst mellan tradition och förnyelse

  2019. Caroline Gustavsson. Svensk kyrkotidning (5), 144-147

  Article

  Syftet med artikeln är att lyfta frågan om gudstjänstutveckling i Svenska kyrkan kan uppfattas kräva dispens från kravet att inbjuda till huvudgudstjänst. Mot bakgrund av exempel från två församlingar: Helgeand och Katarina, undersöker jag hur de båda kan uppfattas ha förhållit sig till en önskan om att öka människors delaktighet, hur man, om alls, valt att förhålla sig till huvudgudstjänsten, hur man arbetat med barnens plats och hur kyrkoherdens roll och ansvar beskrivits. Resultatet av min analys gör det svårt att finna argument för att också i framtiden ge församlingar som vill arbeta för en ökad delaktighet, dispens från den ordning som annars förväntas gälla för den så kallade huvudgudstjänsten. Istället ser jag en stor poäng och ett värde i att åter och på nytt fundera över formen för den gudstjänst som alla församlingar, oberoende av geografiska och personella resurser och oberoende av den kontext där man arbetar, idag förväntas inbjuda till.

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• Existential configurations

  2018. Caroline Gustavsson. British Journal of Religious Education

  Article

  This paper introduces existential configuration as a concept possibly used to describe, talk about and discuss peoples’ meaning-making, not least in religious education classrooms. The article builds on an interview study of 21 Swedish young adults from 19 to 29 years of age. Many of these young adults displayed complex methods of meaning-making that challenge some established ways of conceptualising it. Findings showed that the young adults did not all share a single political, philosophical or religious outlook on life. Some had religious beliefs and some did not, but this does not mean that the latter group did not interpret and/or desire to understand their existence. The article argues that a person having any specific outlook on life cannot be assumed if the concept is understood as a cognitive decision in relation to life questions. Based on analysis of empirical material, the article suggests the concept of existential configuration as an alternative way to conceptualise people’s meaning-making. Concepts suggested here are potentially of value for religious educators in helping open classroom dialogue on issues of existential meaning and for enabling deeper understanding of how individuals interpret and understand life in relation to others.

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• Språkliga redskap för en gränsöverskridande interkulturell religionsundervisning

  2018. Caroline Gustavsson. Interkulturell religionsdidaktik, 252-253

  Chapter

  I det här kapitlet presenteras ett antal språkliga redskap för en gränsöverskridandeinterkulturell religionsundervisning. Lärare vid Stockholms universitet bidrar därtill med konkreta exempel på hur begreppet existentiella konfigurationer och tillhörande begrepp, kan användas som redskap för blivande lärare i religionskunskap. Begreppen kan möjliggöra för gränsöverskridande, interaktion och ömsesidighet i klassrummets interkulturella miljö.

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• Inclusion in the Sunday worship - a matter of knowledge?

  2017. Caroline Gustavsson. Mending the world? Possibilities and Obstacles for Religion, Church, and Theology, 455-468

  Chapter

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• Delaktighetens kris

  2016. Caroline Gustavsson.

  Book

  Den religiösa socialisationen har förändrats och allt färre deltar regelbundet i Svenska kyrkans gudstjänster. I det perspektivet utgör gudstjänstmedverkande körsångare en intressant grupp som i motsats till många andra möter kyrkans budskap med viss regelbundenhet. Körsångarna är i det perspektivet en betydelsefull grupp för att fördjupa förståelsen för hur kristen tro och gudstjänst idag upplevs. Vilken betydelse har gudstjänstdeltagandet för körsångarna själva och betraktar de överhuvudtaget gudstjänsten som ett sammanhang av betydelse för deras personliga meningsskapande?

  Inom ramen för föreliggande studie har körsångare i en ålder mellan 19–40 år intervjuats för att på olika sätt belysa frågor av detta slag. I studien har också präster och kyrkomusiker i de aktuella församlingarna intervjuats.

  Samtalen med körsångarna har givit rum för reflektioner kring bland annat vad som sägs och hörs under en gudstjänst, hur körsångarna upplever utrymmet för erfarenheter och livsfrågor samt reflektioner kring meningsfullhet och närvaro. Frågan om förhållandet mellan att delta och vara delaktig har framträtt som en avgörande faktor.

  I kyrkliga sammanhang är delaktighet ett ofta använt begrepp och betraktas då vanligtvis som något a priori gott. Men vad betyder delaktighet och blir man delaktig genom att delta?

  Studien visar att det inte finns något självklart samband mellan att delta och vara delaktig i en gudstjänst. Resultaten pekar mot vad som i ett pedagogiskt perspektiv kan beskrivas som delaktighetens kris.

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• Mellan verklighet och vision – en diskursanalys av Riktlinjer för Svenska kyrkans konfirmandarbete

  2016. Caroline Gustavsson. Prismet 67 (3), 201-214

  Article

  In the Lutheran Church of Sweden, Guidelines for the Confirmation Work serves as a framework for the confirmation process and presents the conditions within which Swedish church congregations can conduct high-quality confirmation work. The latest version of the document was presented in 2008; the previous version was released in 2000 and the version before that was published in the late 1990s. The present article aims to contribute to a perspective on the 2008 edition by exploring the discourses that are reflected in the document. The analysis reveals three dominant Orders of discourse: the target group, the context, and the content. The results raise the question of how guidelines can be expected to balance the expectations and visions from the national church, the dioceses, and the congregations.

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Show all publications by Caroline Klintborg at Stockholm University