"Religious literacy is important because it helps you understand yourself and your own culture. You don't need to persuade others when encountering different cultures — you need the vocabulary and knowledge to understand your own worldview and explain it to others when necessary," says Aleksandra Sooniste, social studies teacher and development manager at the Tartu Catholic Education Center and newly minted PhD from the University of Tartu. In today's globalized world, where cultures increasingly intersect, she says it's essential for everyone to be able to understand others' backgrounds, including their religion.

In her recently defended doctoral thesis, Sooniste took a closer look at the state of religious literacy among Estonian students. She analyzed how religion-related topics are addressed in Estonia's national curricula for both basic and upper secondary (high school) education. She also surveyed nearly 400 ninth-graders to assess the scope of their knowledge, attitudes and skills related to religion. "It's clear that students' knowledge is lacking," she noted.

Curricula do not support knowledge of religion

Currently, Estonia's national curricula for basic and upper secondary schools do not include a separate subject for religious education. "The argument is that, although it's not in the curriculum, religious knowledge should emerge as a byproduct of other subjects. But in reality, it doesn't," says Aleksandra Sooniste.

Students encounter religion most often in foreign language classes, but typically in indirect ways. Religion is also addressed in history and civics classes. "Those subjects deal with religion more directly, but very briefly and only in a factual way," Sooniste explains.

While her doctoral research focused on basic school, she notes that in upper secondary school, religious topics are likewise mostly found in history lessons. "Religion isn't presented as a part of contemporary society, nor is the internal diversity within religions shown," she points out.

This fragmented and distant portrayal of religion in the curriculum was reflected in the students' survey responses, according to Sooniste. She gave students 15 knowledge-based questions about religion. On average, students answered seven correctly and no one got them all right. "Fewer than half knew that Ramadan is important in Islam. Fewer than half knew that monotheism means belief in one god. When asked a more specific question, such as which day is holy in Judaism, only 8.8 percent knew the answer," she recalls.

In some cases, students were clearly confused. Some thought that the painting "The Last Supper" depicted Greek gods — material typically covered in sixth-grade history, Sooniste says. "It seemed to me that something like knowing Jesus was born in Bethlehem would be common knowledge. But in fact, fewer than half — just 42 percent — knew that. Nearly 30 percent guessed that he was born in Athens," she adds.

Only 8 percent of students answered more than two-thirds of the questions correctly. At the same time, a significant portion — about 22 percent — could answer fewer than a third. "I don't blame the students at all. They can't be expected to know what they haven't been taught," she says, pointing to shortcomings in the curriculum.

What's more, the survey showed that students' knowledge of religion comes just as often from social media as it does from school. But the quality of content on social media can be highly inconsistent. "It depends on what echo chamber the student ends up in — that's the level of preparation we're dealing with," she notes.

Real people's stories a way to learn tolerance

In addition to students' knowledge, Aleksandra Sooniste was interested in their attitudes and skills. She found that the more familiar a religion was, the more positive students' attitudes tended to be. "We saw that students held the most favorable views toward Christianity. Judaism and Buddhism followed closely behind," she explains. However, she notes that her survey was conducted before the escalation of the Israel-Gaza conflict, so attitudes may have shifted. "Attitudes toward Jews and Muslims in Estonia are still more negative than in similar studies conducted in Western societies," Sooniste acknowledges.

Students responded more positively toward members of distant cultures when those individuals were presented with a name, face and story. For example, 11 percent expressed negative views about a hypothetical anonymous Muslim, but only 9 percent felt the same about a Muslim introduced with a family. When presented with a British Muslim hip-hop artist coming to perform in Estonia, student attitudes were significantly more positive. "This shows how to teach tolerance — you need to use real stories, so kids see that the other isn't some distant, foreign threat, but a person with a face, a life and a family," the recent PhD recipient notes.

Sooniste also asked students how they perceived the potential value of religious education: could it help people live peacefully together, better understand the world, current events or their own worldview?

The responses were overwhelmingly positive. "Seventy percent believed that religious education could promote peaceful coexistence. About 60 percent thought it could help them better understand their own worldview," she says. In terms of school life, students felt that wearing modest religious symbols at school was acceptable, but they generally did not support granting additional religious holidays.

To assess skills, Sooniste gave students a hypothetical scenario: how should a student prepare if their family were to host a foreign exchange student? The key was to evaluate how Estonian students would present their own culture and engage with the guest's background. "It turned out that our students found it much easier to ask about someone else's culture than to introduce their own," she observes.

As part of that scenario, students were asked to explain a textbook image of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" to the exchange student. Sooniste considers this a basic element of Western cultural literacy, commonly encountered in both history and art classes. But fewer than half of the students recognized the painting. Some didn't know it but still attempted an interpretation. About a third neither recognized nor could interpret the artwork. "Altogether, 45 percent of students were familiar with "The Last Supper" to some degree. That feels low," she concludes.

Religious education at all school levels?

Given the fragmented nature of students' knowledge, Aleksandra Sooniste believes that every level of schooling in Estonia should include at least one course on religious education. "In my opinion, our existing religious education curricula are very well aligned with the goals of religious literacy. If a student receives one religion-related course over the course of three years, I believe their understanding would be significantly stronger," she says.

Sooniste's research showed that students are eager to engage with religious topics — when the material is contemporary and personally relevant. For instance, she asked students to reflect on the meaning of a church wedding and Christmas, to weigh the pros and cons of building a mosque in Tallinn and to interpret Banksy's artwork "Jesus with Shopping Bags."

While the topic of mosque construction felt distant to many students, Banksy's piece resonated strongly. "This shows that religion doesn't need to be presented as something distant and neutral," she notes.

Although Estonians tend to be personally secular, they interact with the wider world in numerous ways — through studying and working abroad or via books and films. Even domestic cultural expressions like Arvo Pärt's music, Sooniste argues, are best understood when the listener is aware of the composer's religious background. "It's practically impossible to separate culture from religion. Without religion, our students are missing out on a huge part of the subject matter," she says.

Aleksandra Sooniste defended her doctoral thesis in the field of religious studies, titled "Religious Literacy of Estonian Basic School Graduates," on October 20 at the University of Tartu. The dissertation was supervised by Associate Professor Olga Schihalejev and officially reviewed by Associate Professor Martha Shaw of London South Bank University.

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