Varying curricular responses to children’s existential questions in RE syllabi from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Bavaria and Berlin-Brandenburg

In which ways do curricula recognize existential questions of compulsory school students, and what direction is given regarding how to address them? By asking these two questions,this study analyses syllabi for the school subject of religion education and its equivalentsin Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and in the two German regions of Bavaria andBerlin-Brandenburg. The study forms part of a research project based in Sweden where, in1969, the theme of ‘livsfrågor’—translated here as ‘existential questions’—was introducedinto the curriculum. A qualitative content analysis of the use of the word ‘question’ in therespective languages is the basis for the comparative study of the current syllabi. The Berlin-Brandenburg and Danish syllabi recognize and, in integrated ways, address students’questions, while the other syllabi do so considerably less. Significant variations in the relationshipbetween the child and the curriculum are exemplified. The results of the studyraise both religion educational and general didactic questions of how existential dimensionsand subjectification (cf. Biesta in World-centred education, Routledge, 2022) can findtheir expression in curricula. Additionally, the question is addressed of whether students’questions can be understood as crucial in their orientation in the world and responded toresponsibly, for example in a Bildung context