The Place of Religion and Worldviews in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education (PReWiSE)

Contemporary Swedish society is characterized by increasing pluralism and what research describes as super-diversity, which includes a vast variety of religions and worldviews. This development directly impacts the daily pedagogical work in preschools and the competencies required by today's preschool teachers to meet children and families from diverse backgrounds. The research project The Place of Religion and Worldviews in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education (PReWiSE) investigates how religion and worldviews are represented and managed within Swedish preschool teacher education (PTE). The overarching objective is to contribute new knowledge about the discourses and educational content of the programs to enhance students' religion and worldview literacy, thereby promoting socially sustainable professionalism in future preschool teachers. The study is grounded in a theoretical framework of intersectional feminist and postcolonial ethics of care, incorporating central concepts such as bell hooks’ "caring communities," Nira Yuval-Davis’s "politics of belonging," and Nel Noddings’ relational ethics of care.

Through a power-conscious perspective, the project makes visible processes of inclusion, exclusion, and "othering" related to religious and secular worldviews within the educational context. Empirically, the project is conducted in four phases, collecting data from all PTE programs in the country: an artifact analysis at the policy level of syllabi and teaching materials, semi-structured interviews with teacher educators regarding their experiences and challenges, the collection of student narratives through essays and surveys, and a concluding overarching discourse analysis. The project is expected to contribute to increased quality in Swedish preschool teacher education by offering tools for a more inclusive and equitable education, which in the long run benefits all children in preschool and contributes to the creation of a socially sustainable society.

Funding

The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, Dnr 2023-03293) for the period 2024–2026, and will continue until December 2027.

Participating researchers

Magdalena Raivio, PhD., Project Manager and Senior Lecturer in Educational Work, Karlstad University.

Ellinor Skaremyr, PhD., Senior Lecturer in Educational Work, University of Borås.

Arniika Kuusisto, Prof., Child and Youth Studies, University of Helsinki, Guest Professor at Karlstad University.

Vetenskapliga publikationer (Peer-reviewed)

Tidskriftsartiklar

Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E., & Kuusisto, A. (2022). Caring for worldviews in early childhood education: Theoretical and analytical tool for socially sustainable communities of care. Sustainability, 14(7), 3815. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073815.

Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E., & Kuusisto, A. (2023). Discursive norms and incentives for equipping students with religion and worldview literacy in Swedish preschool teacher education policy. Religions, 14(9), 1194. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14091194.

Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E., & Kuusisto, A. (2026). Navigating the methodological risks of ‘othering’ in research on inclusion and exclusion of religion and worldviews in teacher education. Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education, 2026(1).

Bokkapitel

Skaremyr, E., Raivio, M., & Kuusisto, A. (2025). Caring for the whole child in preschool education: Repositioning ‘religion’ in socially sustainable educational professionalism. I L. Gearon & A. Kuusisto (Red.), The Oxford handbook of religion and education (s. 588–602). Oxford University Press.

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Genomförda konferenspresentationer och symposier

Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E., & Kuusisto, A. (2023, 8–10 maj). A place for religion and worldviews in Swedish preschool teacher education? In search for policy-related incentives for supporting students’ development of a socially sustainable professionalism [Paperpresentation]. 17th Annual Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) Conference, Karlstad, Sverige.

Raivio, M. (2023, 20 juni). Religion and worldviews in Swedish preschool teacher education policy – A national pilot study [Paperpresentation]. 8th Intercultural Perspectives on Education Conference, Karlstads universitet, Sverige.

Skaremyr, E., Raivio, M., & Kuusisto, A. (2023, 30 augusti – 2 september). Caring for the whole child in preschool education: Attentiveness and curiosity for children’s different worldviews in sustainable educational professionalism [Paperpresentation]. 31st EECERA Conference, Lissabon, Portugal.

Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E., & Kuusisto, A. (2024, 11–14 juni). Methodological issues for studying discursive elements of ‘othering’ and ‘belonging’ in relation to religion and worldviews in Swedish preschool teacher education [Paperpresentation]. 17th Nordic Conference of Religious Education (NCRE), Reykjavik, Island.

PReWiSE (Arrangör). (2024, 2 oktober). Social hållbarhet i utbildning: Ett samtal om religion och världsbilder i supermångfaldiga utbildningar [Symposium]. Karlstads universitet, Sverige.

Skaremyr, E., Raivio, M., & Kuusisto, A. (2025, 5–7 mars). The place of religion in Nordic higher education: The case of Swedish ECEC teacher education [Paperpresentation]. NERA 2025 Conference, Helsingfors, Finland.

Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E., & Kuusisto, A. (2025). Religion? Inte direkt – Studentröster om erfarenheter av religion i svensk förskollärarutbildning [Posterpresentation]. UBB Forskningsfestival 2025, Karlstad, Sverige.

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Arbeten under granskning/manuskript

Skaremyr, E., Raivio, M., & Kuusisto, A. (2025). Students’ experiences of religion and worldviews in Swedish ECEC teacher education – Questions of epistemic (in)justice and violence? [Inskickat manuskript]. British Journal of Religious Education (Specialnummer: Education, Religion, and Superdiversity).