Treading carefully on the threshold : A qualitative study about drawing a line between the religious and non-religious in religion education

This paper clarifies where the distinction of what is viewed as religious and non-religious by teachers within religious education. More specifically, the study explores teachers’ affection and tendency to employ objects and practical activities throughout the education in this discipline. By employing experiential learning, teachers can include lived religion in their teaching. While experiences can increase the comprehension for the students, educations must be non-confessional, a line that is blurry. The method used in this study is of qualitative nature, based on semi-structured interviews with teachers teaching religion the study utilizes a thematic analysis upon how these respondents have used objects and practical activities in class. This study suggests that teachers equip and utilize objects in different ways. On the one hand, it was discovered that objects were used to educate in lived religion, on some occasions it further served as a didactic tool. On the other hand, some interviewees choose to exclude objects, entirely, from their teaching. Numerous teachers also include mediation in their teaching sessions, to either serve as a pause or to create a religious experience. Some interviewees choose to exclude meditation because of its risk of becoming confessional teaching. According to the findings in this study, to stage a religious ritual is often depicted as a confessional event, the definition is however unclear. This unclear distinction and the fact that teachers’ interpretations differ from the applicable guidelines, results in a wide variance and differences in the religious education, in the Swedish public schools