Varying curricular responses to children’s existential questions in RE syllabi from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Bavaria and Berlin-Brandenburg

Abstract In which ways do curricula recognize existential questions of compulsory school students, and what direction is given regarding how to address them? By asking these two questions, this study analyses syllabi for the school subject of religion education and its equivalents in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and in the two German regions of Bavaria and Berlin-Brandenburg. The study forms part of a research project based in Sweden where, in 1969, the theme of ‘ livsfrågor ’—translated here as ‘existential questions’—was introduced into the curriculum. A qualitative content analysis of the use of the word ‘question’ in the respective languages is the basis for the comparative study of the current syllabi. The Berlin-Brandenburg and Danish syllabi recognize and, in integrated ways, address students’ questions, while the other syllabi do so considerably less. Significant variations in the relationship between the child and the curriculum are exemplified. The results of the study raise both religion educational and general didactic questions of how existential dimensions and subjectification (cf. Biesta in World-centred education, Routledge, 2022) can find their expression in curricula. Additionally, the question is addressed of whether students’ questions can be understood as crucial in their orientation in the world and responded to responsibly, for example in a Bildung context.