Religionslärares användning av tidningsartiklar
en kvalitativ undersökning om alternativa läromedel
This study discusses and examines the alternative teaching materials in religion class amongst seven teachers in Stockholm region. As religion is a complex subject to both learn and to teach it may be beneficial to use alternative texts to show the diversity of the subject. The aim of this study was to examine why teachers use news articles and other articles from daily magazines in their religion class. I also examined how the teachers motivated their choices of teaching materials. The study is qualitative and the empirical work was done by interviewing seven teachers in religion. The interviews were face to face and through email correspondence. The interviews were either recorded or noted. The result indicated that the teachers use news articles in their class to give their students a diverse picture of the subject. It also showed that some of the teachers found that text books often are outdated and do not necessarily show the complexity of the subject, hence giving them enough reason to chose the alternative teaching materials such as news articles. The study also found that the teachers using news articles believed their students were more engaged and curious through the new material than the text books. In addition, the teachers also found that their students were more able to evaluate and critique the news articles and the text books, giving them another reason to use news articles. In conclusion, the study showed the reasons and benefits of using news articles and how this was motivated by the teachers. It gives a diverse teaching of the subject religion and makes the students more engaged and up to date.