Vi har i alla fall aldrig varit apor!
En postkolonial studie om kreationism bland unga
This case study examines how a group of upper secondary school students in a multiethnical suburb of Stockholm reason about the theory of evolution. The theoretical background of the thesis is postcolonial and the questions raised were how spread the creationist thoughts are in the group; in what way the backgrounds of the students are relevant to their thoughts; how the students construct the notion of the theory of evolution; how they position themselves and others in relation to the discourse of the theory of evolution; if there are any differences between students at the collage program of natural science and the collage program of social science, and in that case, what differences; and who or what inspires the young in their thoughts about the theory of evolution. To answer these questions both a survey poll and interviews were used. The result of the case study showed that a majority of the students at the investigated school has creationist ideas and that the students profiled on social science have creationist ideas in a wider extent. Another result is that the religious background seems to be relevant to develop creationist thoughts, while the variables gender, home district and educational level did not differ the creationist group from the whole group. The students accept some parts of the theory of evolution, for example the development of spices and their adaptation to the environment, but they position themselves mainly outside the discourse of the theory of evolution. The students say that there is no contradiction between religion and science but their talk reveal a discourse where the two stand as opponents. They see themselves as inferior to their teachers, scientists and atheists in general. The study shows that the interviewed were not able to tell were they got inspired to their thoughts. In short, the students starting-point is above all their religious identity and their reasoning about the evolution emanate from it.