The aim of this study is to examine if the Muslim diversity is present and what type of views (open and closed) there are in three textbooks in religion for grades 4 - 6. This type of study is important because other studies show that there has been a negative picture of Islam in textbooks (Härenstam 1993; Otterbeck 2006). One of the problems that they found in their studies was that Islam and Muslims where portrayed as a homegeneous group.
In order for me to come to a conclusion about this matter I had two questions:
To answer these questions I used two methods, one method is inspired by Otterbeck (2006) and the other one is inspired by Runnymedes Trust (Larsson 2006, s14). The qualitive content analysis showed that the Muslim diversity was present in the textbooks. Some more than others. But all three textbooks showed that there are different types of Muslims. When it comes to the close and open views of Islam, the textbooks contained of both. When compared to previous studies the result showed that the close view of Islam has improved but it still occurs.