The Future of Religion Lessons on the 30th Anniversary of the Return to School. Sociological Contexts

Abstract

The topic of this article is the future of religion lessons in Polish schools. A supporting argument for the analysis of this issue this school year (2020/2021) is the 30th anniversary of the return to schools of and the fact that a religious class is the most controversial school subject. During this period, its presence almost constantly sparked off discussions. The article refers to the outcomes of online research conducted in 2020 among students from Polish universities (research sample – 621 respondents). Within the outcome of the research, together with the already known results of the studies (revealing the shortcomings of such classes) one can provide a statement that in the coming years, the general interest in participating in religion lessons, will decline and will evolve towards elite classes, in which only pupils and students from deeply religious families will be primarily involved.

Keywords

• students
• social control
• secularization
• religion lessons
• socio-cultural pluralism
• selective religiosity