Citizenship and RE: Different Interpretations in Discourse and Practice: A Case from Denmark

Abstract

The fact that the public school is seen and/or used as an important tool for the nation state in its efforts to form good citizens, strengthen a national identity and promote particular values is not new. Religion education (RE) is in many countries linked closely to such efforts and is thus frequently subject to political, public and professional discussions. Supra-national processes such as globalization, pluralization and migration are now challenging individual European nation states and Europe as a whole, not least when it comes to ideas about social cohesion and coexistence, cultural identity and the function of the public school. Projects and discourses about “citizenship education,” “intercultural education” and RE’s potential contribution to this area can be seen as political educational responses to these challenges. However, there is far from any consensus as to what citizenship and RE are and should be, and the combination of citizenship education and RE is therefore not without problems when put into practice. In 2007 a new compulsory subject called Kristendomskundskab/livsoplysning/medborgerskab (KLM) (knowledge of Christianity/life philosophy/citizenship) was introduced into Danish teacher education for the elementary and lower secondary school, and was followed by many political, professional and public debates. This chapter outlines some of these debates as well as findings from my study of how KLM was profiled and planned according to national and local curricula and syllabi from the different university colleges.