Across the European context, the subject of religious education (RE) is seen increasingly as an important tool with which schools may enhance students’ sense of identity, promote intercultural understanding, and raise awareness of issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (Jackson, 2014; Weisse, 2010). Acknowledging that religious beliefs and practices are essential dimensions of diversity in a pluralistic society, educators working with RE are given the responsibility to teach skills and knowledge that are vital for living together in diverse communities. In RE classrooms, students get to learn about a variety of religions and worldviews. As such, RE is seen to provide a space in which students are given the opportunity to reflect on existential and ontological questions and enhance their understanding of the beliefs and perspectives of people whose worldviews and values differ from their own (Bråten, 2015; Engen, 2018; Reiss, 2016). For that reason, although many countries still practice confessional RE in public schools (Kuyk et al., 2007), there is a trend and also recommendations towards inclusive and non-confessional RE in public schools in Europe, such as the Norwegian non-confessional RE subject (see also Jackson, 2014).

Simultaneously, many students in public schools attend non-formal faith education programs of religious minorities in their spare time, often run by local religious communities. Most participants in these programs are children and youth with immigrant backgrounds. So-called “Quran schools” (Moore, 2012) are probably the most well-known example of such education programs, although most minority faith communities have their equivalents, such as Catholic catechesis. Yet, this type of education has received modest attention in research, despite the politicization of migration-related diversity, particularly religious diversity, across Europe (Alba & Foner, 2017; Connor, 2014; Schweitzer et al., 2019). In particular, there is a gap in research and understanding about the interface between faith community and public school religious education, not least with regard to how schools accommodate for and address the phenomenon of students’ dual experience of RE.

On this background, the proposal at hand investigates how school leaders in urban and rural parts of Norway view the interconnections between formal RE in public schools, and non-formal religious education in local faith communities, mapping views on religious diversity, students’ leisure activities, exposure to and experiences with local religious communities. The paper aims to answer the following research question: How do school leaders in public schools in Norway understand religious diversity, and how do they reflect upon the phenomenon of non-formal faith education?

The study has a qualitative research approach with a phenomenological perspective. Data for this paper has been collected as part of the project Non-formal faith education, the public school, and religious minorities in Norway (FAITHED), funded by the Research Council of Norway. During 2022 and early spring 2023 we conducted semi-structured interviews with school leaders in eight schools with a diverse student population (four primary, four lower secondary) (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2015). Four of the schools are located in a highly diverse urban context, while four of the schools are situated in a rural area. The interviews were conducted by the researchers, working in pairs in the urban and rural contexts respectively. All interviews were transcribed and coded by our research team, using NVivo software for analyzing the transcripts. The analysis of the data material follows Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-step thematic analysis. The interviews of school leaders are part of a larger data collection that also includes observations, interviews with teachers, and analysis of student assignments. As part of the larger FAITHED project, data has also been collected in Catholic and Muslim faith communities. This broadens the perspective and gives us an opportunity to discuss our findings from different angles.

Our results show that the informants report a widespread tolerance for religious diversity. In some cases, however, school leaders uttered skepticism towards exclusive truth claims and when religion becomes visible in social practices. They also reported critical attitudes amongst students towards certain religious traditions, such as Judaism and celebrations of for instance pride, which they reported as challenging issues to manage in everyday school situations. In the interviews, intercultural events such as the United Nation Day was reported as important, but without linking these events of celebrating diversity to religion. Moreover, the RE subject was seen as an important arena for giving students intercultural competence to prepare them for interactions with people from diverse backgrounds. In some of the interviews, the informants recognized a tension between attitudes towards religious diversity within the school and the aims and intentions of the non-confessional RE subject. We found that the informants knew about some faith education programs outside of school. However, they had limited specific knowledge about the content of these programs and how they potentially could relate to RE in the schools. While recognizing the value of students’ leisure time and expressing an ambition of connecting the curriculum to students’ lives outside of school, they were unsure about the relevance of utilizing knowledge and experiences from the faith programs in school.

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