Abstract Title: Is it in line? – Textbook analysis in religious studies liked to a specific core content   The purpose of this study is to find out how the core content "How different life issues, such as the meaning of life, relationships, love, and sexuality is portrayed in popular culture” (Skolverket, 2011) is handled in three different textbooks within the subject of religion. The textbooks examined are PRIO Religion Stadiebok, Religion och liv 7-9 and Utkik Religion 7-9. These textbooks are published by distinguished publishers and they are common in the Swedish school teaching of religion. The selected textbooks are published after 2011, when the new curriculum in Lgr11 was introduced. The study uses a content analysis as a method. In this case, textbooks linked to the core content of the school subject religion are analyzed. The research questions for this study are: How is the central content "How different life issues, such as the meaning of life, relationships, love, and sexuality is portrayed in popular culture" in the school's religious topic, handled in the textbooks PRIO Religion Stadiebok, Religion och liv 7-9 and Utkik Religion 7-9? How do these three textbooks differ. What consequences may the usage of different textbooks have for different schools? What values ​​are conveyed in the parts that deal with the specified key content? Do the values of the books agree with the school values? The conclusion of this study is that textbooks focus more on some parts then others and they also differ in how they treat the central content.

This study looks at previous research that studies aspects of religious pedagogy. It also looks at research regarding how film can be used as pedagogical material. One of the theoretical concepts of this paper is therefore the term religious pedagogy. The second concept concept that constitutes the theory is the term world religions, which is present bboth in the m<terial for the study as well as in Skolverkets policy documents for the course Religionskunskap 1. These two theoretical terms are present throughout the whole study. The method consists of a content analysis with both qualitive and quantitative aspects as the study try to examine and review five films in the series Religionskunskap förklarad published by Sveriges utbildingsradio in 2021. The study strives to shed light on which aspects of the basic requirements for the course are represented, which are not and how they are presented. The result of the study shows that there is a dominating occurrence of the first four goals in the central content and then especially goal 1 that handles religious attributes etc, and goal 4 that handels how religion shapes both groups and individuals. In parallel,, goals 5 to 7 will have an extremely limited representation were goal 7 is not present at all.