Vad kan vi egentligen veta? : En analys av fem läroböckers framställning av new age

• Main Author: Rothén, Maja
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV) 2017
• Subjects: New age; nyandlighet; esoterism; läroböcker; livsåskådning; läroboksanalys; Humanities; Humaniora
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-61134

In this essay I have chosen to study the definition of new age in five different textbooks from the curriculum that was published in 2011. The textbooks that I have chosen for the analysis was Religion och sånt (2013), Religion och sammanhang (2013), Under samma himmel (2013), En människa, tusen världar (2015) and Söka svar (2013). The method I used to get an answer to my study was a qualitative content analyse and I analysed the result with help from David Thurfjell and his book Det gudlösa folket (2015) but Olav Hammer and På spaning efter helheten (2004) was also a big part of the result. The result showed that new age is forgotten when it comes to teaching in upper secondary school. Even if new age is well presented if you compare with Hammers definition the result shows that it is not really taken seriously. New age is often placed in the end of the books and the chapter that it contains doesn’t only focus on new age but also cults and other forms of alternative religion which can be a difficulty because students might be confused and think that these things are the same. In one of the books new age is not even mentioned. This shows that new age is not prioritised in the education of religion. Thurfjell presents secularization in a form that religion is not growing smaller in the society but rather changing form. People today are not looking for a religion as the traditional Christianity or Islam but for a more private religion where they can decide the contents themselves. This is something new age can provide. The author also claims that new age or spirituality is a big part of our ordinary day. We can see it in the newspaper, in the movies on television and in the advertising from big companies like IKEA. Then maybe it would be to prefer that the curriculum expand its contents and not only focuses on the big religions but also on the living religion, like new age. In that case the students can get the possibility to expand their vision when it comes to the definition of what religion really is.