Detachment and Relatedness - The Tension of a Twofold Pedagogy in Confirmation Work in the Church of Sweden

Two approaches to moral education are discussed in the article: one aiming at detachment in terms of personal autonomy, one aiming at relatedness in terms of a conscious socialisation into a shared morality of a community. The philosophical features of the two approaches are related to their respective pedagogical implications in a study of the pedagogical guidelines for confirmation work in the church of Sweden. An Examination of 'The Guiding Principles for Confirmation Work at the Church of Sweden' (2001) shows that both pedagogical approaches are expressed, but not related to each other. This creates a pedagogical situation characterized by tension. It is claimed that the two pedagogical appraches can be linked together by conceptualizing autonomy as a contra-factual pedagogical goal and as part of a relational understanding of morality.