In their everyday life, students in urban, multicultural schools face classmates who come from various cultures and religions as well as those who are not religiously affiliated. Increasing diversity creates different kinds of ethical, intercultural and interreligious dilemmas and presents educational challenges for schools which should be able to support adolescents to pursue a democratic citizenship. In the modern pluralistic society, ethical, intercultural and interreligious sensitivities are needed. In this study, these sensitivities are put together since they demand many of the same skills and are crucial for citizens in the 21st century. But how sensitive are young people with regard to these areas? The purpose of this study was to develop measurement instruments to scale adolescents' ethical, intercultural and interreligious sensitivities. Further, the study investigates the self-evaluations of 12- to 16-year-old students from two Finnish urban secondary schools concerning their ethical, intercultural and interreligious sensitivities. The book consists of four original refereed articles and a summary. It pulls together the empirical findings of the original studies and discusses the results in the educational context.

Kristiina Holm (MTh) is a doctoral student in the Department of Teacher Education in the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has worked in the international EU research projects 'Leading Schools Successfully in Challenging Urban Context' and 'Educating through Diversity in Europe'. Holm has her background in theology and teacher education. She currently works as a teacher of religious education, ethics education and psychology in a University Teacher Training School which is a separate unit of the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences of the University of Helsinki.