Religion Education in Norway: Tension or Harmony between Human Rights and Christian Cultural Heritage?

Abstract

Both research and public and scholarly debate on religious education (RE) in Norway have mostly revolved around the subject in primary and secondary school called Christianity, Religion and Ethics (KRL) (later renamed Religion, Philosophies of Life and Ethics, RLE), not least due to the criticisms raised by the UN’s Human Rights Committee in 2004 and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2007 of the Norwegian model for RE in primary and secondary schools. The RE subject in upper secondary school, however, is hardly ever mentioned. The same applies to teacher education. This article therefore aims at providing some insight into how RE has developed in the Norwegian educational system overall, ranging from primary and secondary to upper secondary and including the different forms of teacher education.