Why is religious education so difficult to teach? : A textual study of the researchers and the Swedish schools inspectorates’ perspectives on religious education in Sweden

Abstract: The purpose of the essay is to examine and discuss the attitudes presented from different players involved in the development of religious education (RE) for upper secondary school in Sweden, and see if and what solutions are presented for solving these problems. A qualitative content analysis was used in order to investigate the different players, the Swedish schools inspectorate and the different researchers involved in the development of RE,attitudes and criticism towards religious education in Sweden.This study has shown that there are many fundamental issues with religious education in Sweden in such areas as different attitudes from both teachers and students towards RE, teachers competence in RE and towards the goal and criteria in the curriculum “outlooks onlife” (Swedish: Livsåskådningar). However, this essay has also proven that there have been no clear solutions presented by any of the players as to solving the issues of RE in Sweden, leaving a gap between schools, teachers and the other players involved in the development of religious education in Sweden.