In Finnish tradition religious education is taught according to pupils’ own religion in comprehensive schools. Evangelical-Lutheran religious education is the form of majority religious education in all the schools In addition to evangelical-Lutheran RE in Finland there are many other forms of RE. The new curriculum for minority religious education groups was accepted in 2006.

The aim of this research is to study the minority religious education curricula. In spring 2006 the Board of Education in Finland accepted the curricula for minority religious groups (Adventist, Catholic, Bahai, Buddhism, Good’s people (Protestant Society) Islam, Judaism, Krisna-Society (ISCON), Kristi-Society (Steiner Society), Free Protestant Church). The Greek Orthodox religious education curriculum is also including in the minority groups curricula. The purpose of investigation is to look at how the three perspectives of religious education (learning religion, learning about religion and learning from religion) are profiled in these curricula’s. Another aim of investigation is to look at how these curricula emphasized the development of an individual’s religious identity and on the other hand how the idea of religious literacy is portrayed these curricula.

The research method is content analysis. Some curricula are based mainly on the learning religion approach and on learning about religion. In many minority groups religious education curricula the central idea is to confirm the religion’s own religious identity. The interpretation of religious all round literacy is very diverse in the minority groups’ religious education curricula.  The curricula of minority groups’ religious education describe the diversity of religious education in Finnish society in the beginning of the 2000’s.

1. Background

The Finnish model of religious education can be characterized as a religion based model to organize religious education in society owned schools.. This paper will focus on religious education for pupils in comprehensive schools (pupils are from 7 to 16). Religious education in Finnish school became many-sided in the 1990’s with need to provide for minority groups. This led to the establishing of curricula frameworks for the religious education for pupils belonging to the Adventist, Catholic, Islam, Kristi society (Steiner Society) and Bahai-religions. This year the new curricula for minority groups were confirmed by the Board of Education. The situation of religious education in Finland with its many different types of religious education is very many-sided. Expansion of minority religious education in Finland has gone hand in hand with changes in Finnish society. In the last ten years the character of Finnish society has become more multicultural, as the number of foreigners and refugees in Finland has increased rapidly.  

Religious education can be looked at from various different viewpoints. In international research into religious education the subject has commonly looked at from three different viewpoints. These are learning religion, learning about religion and learning from religion. The approach”learning religion” describes the situation where religious education in school is based on one specific faith. The teacher is a representative of this specific faith. The aim of education is to confirm the pupils’ commitment into their own religious tradition or make them as believers of this specific tradition. In the approach “learning about religion” religious education is taught from an outsider’s perspective: the perspective of teaching is non-religious. The approach “learning from religion” is based on the idea that the pupils take examine religion’s beliefs. The focus of teaching is pupils’ life world and experiences.  

2. The purpose and method of the study

The aim of this research is to study the minority religious education curricula. In spring 2006 the Board of Education in Finland accepted the curricula for minority religious groups (Adventist, Catholic, Bahai, Buddhism, Good’s people (Protestant Society) Islam, Judaism, Krisna-Society (ISCON), Kristi-Society (Steiner Society), Free Protestant Church). The Greek Orthodox religious education curriculum is also including in the minority groups curricula. The purpose of investigation is to look at how the three perspectives of religious education (learning religion, learning about religion and learning from religion) are profiled in these curricula’s. Another aim of investigation is to look at how these curricula emphasized the development of an individual’s religious identity and on the other hand how the idea of religious literacy is portrayed these curricula.

The research method is content analysis. The content of research material describes the investigated phenomenon and the basic idea of the analysis is to build up a verbal and clear description of the phenomenon.

3. Results

The approaches used in the minority religious education curricula are vary. Some curricula are based mainly on the learning religion approach and on learning about religion. The idea of learning from religion is not the focus of other religious education curricula. The people who have written these curricula consist of religious leaders, layman and also in some religious teachers. They have different degrees of experience of writing a curriculum: some have the writers had no experience of writing a curriculum of teaching. Also the different religions have different characteristics and emphases, the concept of human being and concept of religious education might also be very different for different religions. In sum, the curricula are examples of religious education in the world of religious diversity. They also highlight the fact that the Finnish law concentrating freedom of religion takes the religious rights of different religious communities very seriously.  

In many minority groups religious education curricula the central idea is to confirm the religion’s own religious identity. Religious education is one way for minority groups to pass their unique religious identity. This, it is not surprising that the idea of identity and its conferment is emphasized in these curricula. The curricula of minority groups’ emphasis the groups’ religion and perspectives connected with it much more than the Lutheran religious education curriculum, which has since the 1970’s been a general religious education. The minority groups’ religious educations from the viewpoint of religious identity continue the tradition with Greek Orthodox religious education has previously had.  

The interpretation of religious all round literacy is very diverse in the minority groups’ religious education curricula. In some of these curricula there are some approaches that can be linked to religious literacy, but their interpretation is very narrow. In some minority groups religious education curricula the idea of religious education as cultural heritage education is strong (e.g. in Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Islam curricula). They emphasized religious education very strongly from the viewpoint of culture as one part of Finnish society and its culture.

4. Conclusions

The curricula of minority groups’ religious education describe the diversity of religious education in Finnish society in the beginning of the 2000’s. In each groups curriculum their religion and its contents and principles are in a very central position. Although all minority groups’ religious education curricula should follow the general aims of religious education, in some curriculum learning from religion approach is very narrow.

Some minority groups’ curricula do not include the idea of religious literacy. In sum, the studied curricula are very many-sided as they were written by people whose educational backgrounds and central concepts of religious education were different. Obviously all the groups have not wanted to write their curriculum according to these general ideals. Also, it may be that they have not been very suitable for each religion. Religions are such different phenomena and their doctrines and contents vary a lot. In addition interpretations of what should be taught in any particular religious education are very many-sided..