Measuring the Academic Aspects of Religious Literacy of Estonian Basic School Graduates

Abstract

This paper reports on two domains of a survey to map the religious literacy of Estonian basic school graduates undertaken in 2022 to understand how well the respondents distinguish religion as a discursive category and how much they know about basic concepts of world religions and the Estonian religious landscape. The sample consisted of 392 respondents from schools all over Estonia, both from large urban and small rural schools. The survey was conducted with an original instrument designed according to the Estonian religious landscape, the content of the National Curriculum for basic schools, the educational model of religious literacy according to Francis and Dinham, and the characterization of religious literacy by Moore, Prothero, Francis and Dinham. The results reflect the reality of the Estonian situation. Being one of the least religious countries in the world and with almost no education about religions and worldviews in public education, the students do not have enough competencies in the examined areas to operate well in a religiously diverse world.