The purpose of the study is to examine how Swedish upper secondary school students form their religious beliefs or non-beliefs. The study focusses on how they form their beliefs or non-beliefs from social media and the upper secondary course religion 1. The method used in this is phenomenological interviews with eight students. The findings from this study is that Swedish upper secondary students form their beliefs from their living network (family, friends and institutions) and the culture heritage. Social media are often used as a confirmation of those belief. None of the students think that the course religion 1 has any part in their formations of beliefs but are considered to give them insight in other people’s beliefs.

In 2015 Skolverket presented a study which said that new editions of textbooks are too alike the old editions, and therefore have difficulties to meet the educational requirements set by Lgy11. The aim of this study is therefore to analyze how the textbooks Under samma himmel and Religion: för gymnasiet 1 portrays Judaism, Christianity and Islam to see if they reach a specific goal of Lgy11. The method that is used in this study to analyze these textbooks is a content analysis. The result of the study showed that both textbooks did not reach the goals of Lgy11. Christianity got the most space in the textbook and was portrayed as a heterogeneous religion, which may have its explanation in the exceptional position the religion has in Lgy11. Judaism although was portrayed as a Swedish religion due to lack of information about Judaism abroad, and Islam was portrayed as a homogenous religion due to lack of extended information about its different groups and ways to interpreted the religion. Therefore, the textbooks do not meet the requirements of Lgy11 and needs to be supplemented to meet the educational goals.

Examensarbetet ser över hur väl läromedel för årskurs 7–9 samt gymnasiet håller sig till de centrala målen i religionskunskap och skolans värdegrund. Den analyserar även progressionen mellan läroböckerna som används på grundskolan kontra gymnasiet, samt undersöker vilka likheter och skillnader dessa har gentemot varandra. Utifrån hermeneutisk textanalys samt bildkritik studeras de valda läromedlen och analyseras därefter utifrån ett interkulturellt pedagogiskt och religionsdidaktiskt perspektiv. Analysen visar på att läromedlen håller sig till de centrala läromålen, förankras i skolans värdegrund, samt struktureras på ett religionsdidaktiskt och interkulturellt pedagogiskt tillfredsställande sätt. Läromedlen har mycket gemensamt innehållsmässigt. Progressionen syns främst i hur djupgående och detaljerad informationen är samt att grundskolan ger eleverna mer stöd i texten än läromedlen för gymnasiet. Det fanns ingen märkbar progression mellan grundskolan och gymnasiet angående världsreligionerna. / The thesis reviews how textbooks for year 7-9 and high school adheres to the main goals for religious studies and the fundamental values for Swedish schools. It also analyzes the progression between the textbooks used in middle school versus in high school and the similarities and differences they have respectively. This is done through hermeneutic text analysis and by reviewing the images used in the textbooks, the basis of analysis is intercultural pedagogy and religious didactics. The thesis’ conclusion is that the textbooks adhere to the main goals, are rooted in the fundamental values, and are structured in accordance with religious didactics and intercultural pedagogy in a satisfying way. The textbooks have great similarities in their information. The progression is seen in how detailed and extensive the material is in the high school books and that the year 7-9 have more support in their texts and assignments. There was no noticeable progression between year 7-9 and high school in regard to the world religions.