Homo religiosus – den religiösa mannen? : en kvantitativ och diskursiv analys av kön och sexualitet i läromedels kapitel om buddhism och hinduism.

• Main Authors: Nordlander, Petra, Dahlgren, Sara
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier 2014
• Subjects: Sex; sexuality; religious studies; upper secondary school textbooks; content analysis; discourse analysis; social dominance theory; norm critical theory.
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-226432

This study aims to analyse how sex and sexuality are presented in the Buddhism and Hinduism chapters of religious studies textbooks for upper secondary school. The chosen textbooks are all linked to the new curriculum Lgr 11 which was implemented in the Swedish school system in the spring of 2012. The textbooks were analysed by using two methods; content analysis and discourse analysis. Content analysis was used to examine with which frequency sexes and sexualities appear in the textbooks, while discourse analysis was used to find what discourses surround the two concepts. The discourse analysis used two theories in order to contextualize the several discourses about sex and sexuality. The two theories were social dominance theory and norm critical theory.   The study shows that men are more frequently mentioned in the textbooks than women, with two exceptions. In the chapter describing Buddhism in one of the textbooks, women are more frequently portrayed in pictures. Women are also more frequently mentioned in the chapter describing Hinduism in another textbook.   In the chapters about Buddhism, men are often described as leaders and are mentioned in connection to education. When women are mentioned, it is often in the role of nuns, who are always described as subordinate to monks. In the chapters about Hinduism, men are often mentioned in connection to education, and are often described as in power and as practitioners of the religion. Women are described as dependent on men and are mentioned in connection to marriage and their husbands. Sexuality is a subject which only one textbook brings up. It defines homosexuality as unacceptable in the Hindu society, but does however point out that it is not illegal. Other than that, the textbooks display a lack of interest in discussing sexualities in patriarchal religions in which heterosexuality is considered a norm. Every example and description the textbooks give about religious life and the different stages humans go through are based on a heteronormativity. The authors always base their examples on heterosexual relationships and heterosexual people. The findings of this study are troubling, particularly as the Nation Agency for Education (Skolverket) has stated that the Swedish upper secondary school must study religion from different perspectives, for example sex and sexuality.