“Will I or Won’t I Be Sorry?”—Qualitative Research on Emotional Reactions of Secondary School Students in Poland after Resignation from Religion Lessons

Abstract

There is an empirical underestimation with regard to the study of the emotional states of young people. In Poland, an increasing number of secondary school students are deciding to stop attending their schools’ religious lessons. Of these, 57 students shared their experiences during structured interviews that were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Before the young people taking part in the interview were asked about their emotional state, they were previously given the opportunity to express their attitudes towards their school’s religious lessons. The students had various emotional reactions after dropping out of their school’s religious lessons. In many cases, the students had difficulty noticing and naming their emotional states. These students were in the majority. Other students did specify their emotional states related to this decision. The analysis of these emotional reactions reveals students’ attitudes towards secondary-school religious lessons. The results of the study may prove to be an important voice for those responsible for the substantive design of religious lessons at schools. In addition, young people’s inability to name their emotions may prove to be an alarming fact for mental health professionals.

Keywords

• adults
• religious education
• emotions