The Balancing Pedagogical Tools in Promoting Cohesion – An Article on Religious Education Teachers’ Perceptions of the Diversity of Islam in Islamic Religious Education

Islamic religious education in basic education is intended for all children and young people from families who identify themselves as Muslims. Islamic classes are attended by children and young people of Muslim background from a wide range of language, cultural and worldview backgrounds as well as traditions of interpretation of Islam, for example from Sunni and Shia communities. Guided by the curriculum, the lessons also introduce the diversity of Islam.

My dissertation article (Putkonen & Poulter 2023) shows that teachers of Islam deal with contents related to the diversity of Islam in a way that takes into account the diversity of Muslims in the classroom. On the other hand, the teachers defuse tensions related to diversity and use balancing pedagogical tools in their teaching. They strive to strengthen cohesion by emphasizing the Ummah and what is common to all Muslims. Dealing with contents related to the diversity of Islam requires sensitivity and dialogicity.

Read the whole article (open access):

Putkonen, Niina & Saila Poulter. 2023. Balancing Differences through Highlighting the Common: Religious Education Teachers’ Perceptions of the Diversity of Islam in Islamic Religious Education in Finnish State Schools. Religions 14: 1069. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081069

Islamic education in the mosque as a substitute for school’s religious education

All students in Finnish basic education do not participate in the school’s worldview education, i.e. religious education or subject of ethics, but replace it in the teaching organized by their own religious community.

I write about the phenomenon in the recent Katsomukset.fi blog together with doctoral researcher Jussi Ikkala. We approach the topic from the point of view of Islamic religious education. Our article on the replacing and supplementary religious education provided in the mosques has been published in book Suomalaiset muslimit, published in the spring of 2022.

Read more in Katsomukset.fi blog! (in Finnish)

Fulbright Finland Foundation grantee’s summer in Seattle

When winter started to turn to spring, I received happy news: I had been selected as a grantee of Fulbright Finland Foundation and the U.S. Department of State for next summer’s SUSI program (The Study of the United States Institutes for Scholars and Professionals).

The Institute on the Religious Pluralism in the United States, brought together in Seattle scholars of religion from seventeen different countries in June-August 2022. The Institute was hosted by Seattle University.

Thank you Fulbright Finland Foundation, U.S. Embassy of Finland and U.S. Department of State for making this program possible. Thank you Seattle University, professor Beatrice Lawrence, professor Lynn Hofstad and Jared Fontenette for the excellent, thought-provoking program and taking so good care of us. My warmest thanks also to all SUSI colleagues as well as all the lecturers and speakers of the Institute for your wise thoughts, dialogue and inspiring collaboration!

Experiences conducting a multilingual survey on the REDCap platform

Research reaches for new knowledge. There are many stages in the journey to the knowledge based on research data. One of the current work steps for me has been data collection, where I have explored parents’ experiences of Islamic religious education at school. Read about the experiences of conducting a multilingual survey on the REDCap platform in this recent blog post. I have written the text together with the REDCap team of the University of Helsinki, and it has been published in the university’s Think Open blog. The text is in Finnish.

The research examining the parents’ experiences of Islamic religious education at school, is open to responses until March 15, 2022. You can participate in the study in Finnish, Arabic, Persian, Somali and English.