During the 1960s, the Swedish Religious Education subject underwent a complete transformation. The former Lutheran Christian education was criticised and something new was demanded. In the syllabus for compulsory school (nine school years for all Swedish children) launched in 1969, ‘livsfrågor’, existential issues, were introduced to open the subject to students’ own questions. ‘Livsfrågor’ has had a place in Swedish RE syllabi ever since.
This chapter provides a background to the changes of the 1960s and traces the concept of ‘livsfrågor’ through the curricular transformations for compulsory school of 1980, 1994, 2011 and 2022. The concepts of ‘small’ and ‘grand narratives’ by Jean Francois Lyotard are used for analysis. In 1980, the narrative of ‘livsfrågor’ became the ‘grand narrative’ with considerable space for students’ questions and ‘livsfrågor’assuming the integrating pedagogical role of the RE subject. However, this role was lost in the next curricular transformation to become a ‘smaller narrative’.
The authors discuss the concept of ‘livsfrågor’ in relation to challenges such as the plurality of worldviews, the changing views on children and youth giving more authority to them, and secularism. Although the curricular changes of the last decades have not been favourable to ‘livsfrågor’ the authors note how Lyotard emphasises that change can open up for small narratives to replace dominating ones.