A lot is at stake. On the possibilities for religion-related dialog in a school, in Sweden

This article reports the experiences of religion-related dialog among 24 Swedish students and their teacher in religion education. All students had immigrant backgrounds from the Middle East and all of them had strong religious convictions. By using qualitative analysis to reveal their experiences with dialog in school, the concept of “safe space” is critically discussed. The students’ educational environment was not a “safe space” when it came to religion-related dialog, in part because historical and political conflicts in the Middle East have an impact on students’ willingness to open up. The case study provides an example of the effects of the wider political and societal context on the micro-structure of classroom-interaction