Hur förmedlas kristendomen i läromedelstexter för gymnasieskolan? En ideologikritisk analys

Abstract

This study aims at investigating how the image of the religion of Christianity is constructed in Swedish textbooks for the Upper Secondary School (gymnasieskolan), with a specific focus on the perspective from which the text considers the religion and how this perspective creates possibilities for and limitations of pupils’ identification. Introductions of Christianity through text and images were selected from six current textbooks; five printed and one digital. The method used for analysis was ideological text criticism with a combination of Linguistic and Theological perspectives. Three aspects were highlighted in the analysis: interest making strategies, demands of previous knowledge, and subject perspectives. The study showed that the examined texts did not express Christianity as the cultural norm as considered in previous research. Instead there seemed to be an ambivalence in the perspective from which the textbooks considered the religion. Demands of previous knowledge as well as subject positions varied highly both within and between textbooks.