After analysing 414 textbooks of Evangelic-Lutheran religious education, it was time to move to the curricula behind them and see how they fit within the frame that the textbook analysis has shown. Finnish basic education curricula from 1925 to 2014 place Finnish folk religion as knowledge with varying value and legitimacy in school. The analysis of the eight curricula has been conducted via quantitative and hermeneutical content analysis.
There are three options for how the curricula make it possible or force the education of Finnish folk religion in two subjects: Evangelic-Lutheran religion and secular ethics. The three hermeneutically analyzed options are: (1) cultural framings, (2) permissive openings for non-Christian content, and (3) direct mentions of Finnish folk religion.
The pattern shows persistent marginalization under Evangelic-Lutheran-dominant curricular frames. Only during the 1970s was there a brief moment when old traditions had more space. After this, folk religion appears indirectly within the broader culture rather than through explicit recognition.
Shifts in epistemic inequalities in interreligious and intercultural learning reveal the distribution of authority, not content. Evangelic-Lutheranism is presented as standard, and Finnish folk religion as peripheral, although these have formed a syncretistic religion and culture in Finland.
For the panel, this article offers an empirically grounded case of institutional production of recognition deficits. I also offer examples of syncretistic Finnish Christianity and examples from earlier educational materials from the 16th century onwards.