Buddhismens olika ansikten: Gymnasieelevers föreställningar om buddhism
2017 (Swedish)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesisAlternative title
The many facesof Buddhism : Upper secondary school students' ideas of Buddhism (English)
Abstract [en]
In Sweden and in the West, interest in Buddhism has increased and many have a more positive view of Buddhism than other religions. Other studies have been able to discern this positive view of Buddhism, but I have not yet found a study that has examined how students view Buddhism.At secondary school, Religionskunskap 1 is a compulsory course that all-school students read regardless of program, and thus all studentshave been taught about Buddhism.In this thesis, I try to find out how secondary school students who recently took the course view Buddhism and how well the orientalist mindset and postcolonial perspective appear in the students ́ statements.Students from three upper secondary schools participated in the survey and at each interview 5 -6 students were interviewed. The result showed that the students had a very positiveimageof Buddhism.The view of religion, prayer and ruleswas not as good and therefore the students had difficulty defining Buddhism as a religion. Two imagesappeared clearly and the first was that Buddhism is a kind of philosophy of life and the other that it is a religion but without a god and that it is a good religion.The students meant thatBuddhismcan be definiteas areligion because there is a founder, Buddha, belief in some supernatural powers like "samsara" and "nirvana", but somestudents object by saying that a religion must have some kind of God, and they understand that Buddhism doesn’t have a God. In the conversation about Buddhism, it is clear that the students are talking about a form of Buddhism. The leek's rites are notmentioned. The only ritual associated with Buddhism is meditation seen as a tool for reaching the "truth" or nirvana. There are monks, the Dalai Lama and the Buddha who can represent the Buddhists, the laymen, on the other hand, get little place in student conversations.The conclusion that can be drawn from the results is that the students' view of Buddhism is largely in line with the image found in previous research. The result that was extra interesting was that the students questioned Buddhism as a religion, something that seems to be public perceptions both within the academy and the public.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017. , p. 33
Keywords [sv]
Buddhism, orientalism, gymnasiet, positiv syn, religion
National Category
Religious Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-62885OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-62885DiVA, id: diva2:1137982
Subject / course
Religious Studies and Theology
Educational program
Secondary Education Programme: Upper-Secondary School: Swedish (330 ECTS credits)
Supervisors
Examiners
2017-09-042017-09-032017-09-04Bibliographically approved