Finnish secondary school students’ interreligious sensitivity

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the self-evaluations of Finnish secondary school students’ (N = 549) interreligious sensitivity. The data were collected from 12–16-year-old young people with a 15-item Interreligious Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (IRRSSQ). The IRRSSQ is based on Abu-Nimer’s Developmental Model of Interreligious Sensitivity, which is based on the Developmental Model of Interreligious Sensitivity by Bennett. The IRRSS measures the orientations towards religious differences in five categories: Denial, Defence, Minimisation, Acceptance and Adaptation, of which the first three are religiocentric orientations and the last two religiorelative. Three research questions were examined: Are there any differences in the interreligious sensitivity between (1) girls and boys, (2) students who study religious education and (religion-free) ethics education in school, and (3) students who differ in academic achievement, measured with the grade point average (GPA)? The results showed that the girls assessed their interreligious sensitivity higher than did the boys. Further, no statistically significant differences were found between the students attending religious education in school and the students attending ethics education. However, the low GPA scores were related to a religiocentric framework and the high GPA scores to a religiorelative framework.

Keywords:

• interreligious sensitivity
• religious education
• ethics education
• academic achievement
• MANOVA