Privileged and non-privileged agencies - education about, into and with social justice in religious education classrooms

When social justice education is conducted in religious education (RE) classes, it can take the forms of education about (concepts and facts), into (enhancing commitment), with (negotiating practices) and through (pupil-led action) social justice. The first three approaches were used in seven RE lessons observed in urban Finnish lower secondary schools. The aim was to find out how different approaches to social justice education fit into RE classes and what kind of social justice identities these create. Social justice identities were combinations of the degrees of privilege and agency constructed in the classroom interaction. The analysis shows that non-privileged identities were often referred to as absent and remote. Construction of agency was also often left incomplete. The exceptions were the instances where the teacher intentionally taught with social justice and encouraged the pupils to criticise school practices. They provided a safe but limited way to address powerlessness and promote pupil agency. RE classrooms are well fitted for cultivating informed and concerned citizens but more attention needs to be paid to fostering agency and addressing minoritized identities.