Developing religious identities of Muslim students in the classroom: a case study from Finland

Abstract

In the Finnish National core curricula for religions, the aims of religious socialisation have been replaced with aims of personal identity development. This shift of aims is also prevalent in many other countries, but the practical implications of it are not clear. This paper presents the results of a case study examining different ways of supporting the development of Muslim students’ religious identities in the classroom, and discusses these observations in the light of different interpretations concerning the possibilities and practices of religious identity development in liberal religious education.