Call for papers - temanummer
Open Calls:
Navigating Polycrisis: Existential Perspectives in religious Education
This special issue examines how contemporary educational contexts—shaped by superdiversity, global uncertainty, ecological collapse, and the declining mental wellbeing of young people—call for renewed attention to the existential dimensions of religious education. The current polycrisis (Rakowski et al., 2025) extends far beyond ecological concerns, confronting societies with uncomfortable truths about vulnerability and mortality and reaching into the core beliefs, values, and worldviews that structure human existence.
Children’s existential questions have long been recognised as a central concern within religious education, and they continue to hold a prominent place in many national contexts (Sporre et al., 2025). Yet, they are increasingly pressured by performance-oriented school cultures. The existential aspect of religious education concerns how pupils are supported in exploring fundamental questions about life, purpose, freedom, and human existence (Biesta & Hannam, 2020). Central to this inquiry is the role of religious and worldview education as a collective space in which pupils’ life questions—concerning life and death, belonging, meaning, love, and hope—can be addressed with pedagogical sensitivity and scholarly depth.
For this special issue, we invite researchers in the field of religious education to contribute work that engages specifically with the existential dimensions of religious and worldview education. Contributions may investigate how integrating children’s worldviews and spiritual meaning-making amid social fragmentation, cultural plurality, and experiences of loss is essential for contemporary education. We also encourage papers that explore how children’s emotions and their questions about life and death can function as pedagogical and existential interruptions in the classroom (Hannam, 2024; Poulter et al., 2025). We particularly welcome submissions that examine how classroom practices, teaching, materials, policy guidelines, and educational discourses can either hinder or foster shared existential meaning-making.
References
Biesta, G., & Hannam, P. (Eds.). (2020). Religion and education: The forgotten dimensions of religious education? Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004446397
Hannam, P. (2024). Religious education as a place of disruption. Journal of Religious Education, 72, 267–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-024-00246-z
Poulter, S., Lipponen, L., & Pursi, A. (2025). Grief as an Existential Interruption: Adults Narrating Their
Childhood Grief. Culture & Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X251372483
Rakowski, J. J., Schaan, L. N., van Klink, R., Herzon, I., Arth, A., Hagedorn, G., Rode, J., Creutzig, F., & Pe’er, G.
(2025). Characterizing the global polycrisis: A systematic review of recent literature. Annual Review of
Environment and Resources, 50(1), 159-183. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-111523-102238
Sporre, K., Kärnebro, K., Lilja, A., & Osbeck, C. (2025). ‘Livsfrågor’ – a Swedish narrative from the 1960s: What about its status in the 2020s? In K. S. Fuglseth, I. ter Avest, & G. Skeie (Eds.), A pluralist we in religious education: Old narratives in new contexts (pp. 177–199). Waxmann.
This special issue is announced in relation to the 18th Nordic Conference of Religious Education (NCRE 2026), arranged at Helsinki University in June 2026. Presenters at the conference and others are invited to submit proposals for the special issue.
The contributions may be either conceptual/philosophical or empirical. All manuscripts for this special issue should be submitted in English.
Publication Timeline
• October 2026: Abstract submission deadline
• November 2026: Notification of acceptance to the special issue
• April 2027: Submission of full manuscripts
• May–October 2027: Peer review and revisions
• Late 2027/ early 2028: Final editing, layout, and publication
Abstracts of up to 250 words should be submitted to: saila.poulter@helsinki.fi
Guest editors of the special issue:
Saila Poulter, Arniika Kuusisto and Marjaana Kavonius
Educating democratic citizens in challenging times - Exploring the past, present and future of social studies and citizenship education in the Nordic countries
This is an invitation to researchers addressing social studies education to contribute with an article to a special issue. The call has its background in a series of workshops in 2022–2023, funded by The Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Science (NOS-HS). The network, “Educating active and democratic citizens in challenging times”, was led by NTNU. In three exploratory workshops we discussed the social studies subjects current status and historical trajectories in the Nordic countries. Examples of themes that were addressed are: content and skills in social studies; cognitive and affective dimensions; patriotism and identity; competences and 21 Century skills; citizenship education and democracy; controversial issues; uses and misuses of history; fake news; and many more.
The school subjects included in the concept of social studies vary in the Nordic countries but in this call the concept refers to geography, history, religious education, and civics (e.g. samhällskunskap).
To further explore the themes of the workshops we invite contributions to a Special Issue of comparative scholarly articles on the social studies school subjects in the Nordic countries. The issue aims to cover the social studies school subjects’ relation to citizenship education and/or democratic participation.
The Nordic countries have repeatedly scored high in international comparisons focusing on stability in society and political life. However, there are several challenges facing the populations of Nordic countries today, related to e.g. climate change, the pressure on liberal democracy, issues of public health and migration. The social studies school subjects reflect the national responses to such challenges today, as they have done also in the past. The intriguing question is: Is there beyond national differences a Nordic Model of social studies and citizenship education, and what is the subjects' potential to build active democratic citizens?
We invite you to submit an abstract describing your article. The article should address at least one of the social studies subjects and include a comparative aspect where at least two Nordic countries are addressed. The abstract should also include a description how the contribution, empirically or theoretically, relates to the theme citizenship education and/or democratic participation.
The special issue is planned to be published early in 2028. Editors are David Rosenlund, Heidi Eskelund Knudsen, Jan Löfström and Brit Marie Hovland.
CFA Details: Abstract with 400–500 words, describing research question, method, empirical material and theoretical approach. Abstract and manuscripts should be written in English or Nordic languages. Abstracts are sent to david.rosenlund@mau.se
Extended abstract: May 15 2026
Editors respons: June 30 2026
Manuscript submission: Dec 15 2026
Reviewers response: April 15 2027
Final manuscript submission: Late 2027
Publication: Early 2028
Nationalism as a didactic challenge in the Nordic countries
Call for papers for special issue of Nordidactica
Deadline for abstracts: April 15th 2026.
Announcement of accept/reject: May 1st 2026.
Deadline for full draft of article: November 30th 2026.
(Peer review, proof-reading, submission of final version.)
Publication of special issue is planned for: late spring 2027.
Articles in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and English are considered.
Abstracts are sent to yngve.skjaeveland@ntnu.no
Nationalism is one of the most salient topics of our time. In contemporary social science research and in public debates, the focus is often on the relative success of national movements, sometimes understood as a reaction to the ongoing globalization and the growth of ethnic or religious minority groups. In primary and secondary education, the nation also occupies a prominent position within subjects such as social science, history, and religious studies. Here it is often approached as a critical object of study or serves as a central element in narratives of identity formation. Today, the discussions about nationalism often revolve around the future of liberal democracy and the question of social cohesion. These debates take place in societies where diversity, immigration and individualization are increasingly questioned, as a growing sense of uncertainty – both perceived and real – highlight the need for community. But the question has both a longer historical context and a broader significance. In a longer historical perspective, nation and nationalism have been both a framework for community and democracy – and a source of oppression and exclusion e.g of indigenous or colonized peoples
Yet, how nationalism – both as a concept and phenomenon – is dealt with in teaching and learning at different levels in the education systems is less well known, and as a didactic challenge for our own time, it has been little investigated. For our upcoming special issue, we therefore invite contributions that explore nationalism from subject-specific or interdisciplinary perspectives. Contributions may focus on theoretical approaches as well as document analysis, social science analysis, classroom studies and research reviews. We are particularly interested in comparative perspectives on the Nordic countries.
Topics include but are not limited to:
- The relationship between the individual and the community
- The nation and minority groups
- Subject-specific understandings of the nation and nationalism
- Imagined communities in schools and teacher education
- Curriculum and textbook analysis in a historical perspective
- The role of social media in identity formation
- The relationship between nationalism, democracy and religion
IGuest editors for this SI
Professor Yngve Skjæveland, NTNU, Trondheim, yngve.skjaeveland@ntnu.no
Senior Lecturer Maren Lytje, Aalborg University, maly@ucn.dk
Post-doc Julia Håkansson, Lund University, julia.hakansson@kultur.lu.se
Affiliated Researcher Hans Olofsson, Karlstad University hans.olofsson@kau.se
Closed Calls:
Call for papers for special issue of Nordidactica: “The Other” in RE
Deadline for abstracts: March 15th 2024.
Announcement of accept/reject: May 15th 2024.
Deadline for full draft of article: January 15th 2025.
(Peer review, proof-reading, submission of final version.)
Publication of special issue is planned for: late fall 2025/early spring 2026.
Articles in English and Nordic languages are considered.
Abstracts are sent to kristian.niemi@kau.se
The relation between possibly fostering an ‘us’ which necessarily creates a ‘them’ has been a question debated in religious education since the inception of the subject. Moreover, as societies have changed, so has the rationale for ‘religion’ as a school subject (in some shape or form; under some heading or another). Both the construction of the familiar ‘we’ and the unfamiliar ‘other’ has changed accordingly.
For this special issue, we invite researches in the field of religious education to explore ‘the other’ in RE. The theme includes, but is not limited to, discussing the multicultural state, minority voices, otherification and exotification, using the perspective of the majority to describe a minority, how culturation into an ‘us’ by implication necessarily creates a ‘them’, as well as good examples (practical or theoretical) on how to avoid all or some of the pitfalls mentioned above.
This special issue is announced in relation to the 17th Nordic Conference of Religious Education (NCRE 2024), arranged at Karlstad university on June 17 to 19 2024. Presenters at the conference and others are invited to submit proposals for the special issue.
Guest editors of the special issue:
Kristian Niemi (kristian.niemi@kau.se) and Daniel Strömner (daniel.stromner@kau.se)
Call for papers for special issue of Nordidactica: Observations of quality and qualities in Nordic social science teaching.
Deadline for abstracts: The 1st of February 2024
Deadline for final articles: The 1st of September 2024
All articles will be in English
Send abstracts and articles to the torben.christensen@sdu.dk
The editor group consist of researchers who are members of QUISST, a social science teaching research project under the auspices of QUINT Centre (Quality in Nordic Teaching).
Observations of quality and qualities in Nordic social science teaching.
Background: while everybody involved in social science education is pursuing high quality teaching, there is little consensus on what quality is and how to observe it in the classroom. Stakeholders involved in social science education disagree about the appropriateness of specific contents, forms, and purposes and about the relative weight one should accord to each of these elements.
The discussion of what constitutes ‘good’ social science teaching, will always include discussions on the aims and purpose as well as content and form of teaching. Dilemmas such as whether the aim is continuity or critique of the existing society, social science content or the life-world of the students, and whether democratic participation in school leads to democratic competence are part of the ongoing debate on the social science subjects (Christensen A. S., 2021). Disagreements even exists as to whether teachers are really faced with a trade-off between content, method, and form (e.g., Solhaug, 2013) or should rather see them as inseparable aspects of teaching in need of continuous integration (e.g., Christensen T. S., 2022).
For this special issue, we invite researchers in the field of social science didactics, especially those working with observations of teaching, to contribute to the ongoing discussion and development of conceptualizations and observations of quality in social science teaching. We acknowledge that different views of quality exist and that even the most basic question about whether to talk about quality in the singular or in the plural remains unsettled. In the QUISST project (Quality in Social Science Teaching), which is a project within the larger QUINT Centre (Quality in Nordic Teaching), researchers from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland have been investigating quality in social science teaching with various approaches. Systematic video observations of teaching in the participant countries have been coded using the PLATO (Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observation) manual, and the results as well as the usefulness of this approach have been discussed. Furthermore, other observation manuals have been applied as well as qualitative analysis from different perspectives. While articles in the special issue will include observational approaches, findings, and discussions of methodological issues from within the QUISST project, this call is an open invitation to researchers, who are not affiliated with QUISST, to contribute with their own perspectives on quality in social science education.
Literature
Harald Borgebund, Kjetil Børhaug (2023) Demokratiopplæring gjennom demokratisk erfaring Nordidactica 2023 (3)
Christensen, A. S. (2021) Samfundsfagsdidaktik – livsverden fag og politisk dannelse Hans Reitzel
Christensen. T S. (2022). Observing and interpreting quality in social science teaching. In: Journal of Social Science Education 21(2). https://doi.org/10.11576/jsse-4147
Solhaug, T. (2013). Trends and dilemmas in citizenship education. Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education, 2013(1), 180–200. Retrieved from: https://journals.lub.lu.se/nordidactica/article/view/18949/17146
