This essay examines upper secondary school pupils as well as the Swedish National Agency for Educations views on the education in subject of religion. How they describe its purpose, what content the topic should address, how the education should be implemented and what influence the pupils should have over their own studies. This to examine how the views of pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education correlate and to analyze how it possibly can affect the pupil’s motivation. The survey is conducted by semi-forging tured interviews and text analysis in order to ascertain the pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Educations opinions on the issues. The results are then analyzed by various motivational theories that have played a vital role in the Swedish school and that have been found relevant to the study. The survey shows that the pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education are relatively unanimous about how they regard studies on the subject of religion but that there are differences. It appears that the education the pupils have receive, despite the unity of these pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education, not always seem to comply with the requirements of the Agency's governing documents. It also appears that the pupil’s motivation is affected by how the National Agency and the pupils' objectives, goals and beliefs correlate. When those are alignment or when the school takes account of pupils' expectations and their own goals the education seems more adequate to the pupils.

This study focuses on an analysis of textbooks in religious studies for the upper secondary school in Sweden. In the Swedish curriculum Christianity has a special importance even though school should be non-confessional in Sweden. Since Sweden today does not have a central authority that reviews textbooks, it is instead up to the individual schools to analyze and review their teaching materials and the authors of textbooks need to base their textbooks on their own interpretation of the curriculum. The study aims to explain whether we can find a typical Swedish textbook discourse and if so how it relates to the curriculum's wording about Christianity’s special importance. Furthermore, what potential impact the author’s interpretation of this special importance could have on the equivalence in Swedish religious studies in upper secondary school and how it potentially could lead to a discourse of Christian exceptionalism. The analysis of the textbooks is based on Fairclough's critical discourse analysis both as a theory and as a method of analysis. The findings indicate that there is a Swedish textbook discourse that values western traditions over eastern traditions of Christianity and often equates Protestantism with the Church of Sweden.

Skolverket menar att populärkultur, däribland dataspel, är användbara verktyg för att nå elevernas livsvärldar i religionskunskapsundervisningen. Den här uppsatsen undersöker den religionsdidaktiska potentialen hos Mass Effect-spelen i gymnasieskolan utifrån följande frågeställningar: Får rätt och fel handling något utrymme i Mass Effect? På vilket sätt? Vad är rätt och fel i spelkontexten? Kan Mass Effect fungera som stödstruktur för att arbeta med stoff och förmågor som är en del av religionskunskapens etikundervisning och i sådana fall på vilket sätt? Spelkontexten utforskas genom en analys av hur spelens Paragon/Renegade-system bedömer olika handlingar. Systemet jämförs med plikt-, konsekvens- och dygdetiska förhållningssätt; dessa är etiska modeller som tas upp av styrdokumenten. En av spelens beslutssituationer granskas också utifrån en beslutsmodell och styrdokumentens etiska modeller bidrar här med teoretisk och kursplanemässig förankring. Undersökningen visar att flera av de områden som ska ingå i gymnasieskolans etikundervisning kan beröras genom att låta olika element i Mass Effect-spelen möta ämnets stoff. Processen verkar ur ett didaktiskt perspektiv både berikande för spelkontexten och illustrerar komplexiteten hos etiska modeller och fattandet av etiska beslut. Resultatet är i linje med varför styrdokumenten rekommenderar användandet av populärkultur och arbetssättet förespråkas även utifrån tidigare forskning. / According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, popular culture, in which computer games are included, is a useful tool for connecting with the students and their worlds when teaching the subject of religion. This essay explores the potential of the Mass Effect-games to serve as an instrument when teaching the subject of religion, aiming to answer the following questions: Does right and wrong play a part in Mass Effect? How? What is right and wrong in the context of the game? Can Mass Effect be used as a framework when teaching the ethical content of the religious subject and if so, how? The context of the games is explored through an analysis of how their reputation system, here called the Paragon/Renegade-system, judges different actions, and through a breakdown of one of the decisions in the games, using a model designed for analyzing ethical issues. This context is then compared with ethical models appearing in the syllabus for the subject of religion and the knowledge and abilities that the subject should offer the students opportunities to develop. The research shows that much of the core content of ethical studies can be addressed using the various elements of the Mass Effect-games. On the basis of other studies, this kind of work is also encouraged.