Researching Religious Education: Classroom Processes and Outcomes

Book Cover / Buchtitel

Contents / Inhalt

Introduction (Friedrich Schweitzer, Reinhold Boschki)

1. The focus on processes and outcomes in Religious Education

2. The wider background: religious education as a research discipline

3. Aims of the volume

4. The institutional research context for religious education at the University of Tübingen

5. How the volume developed

6. The breakdown of the book

7. Terminology

8. A note of thanks

References

Nested Identity and Religious Education Some Methodological Considerations (James C. Conroy)

1. Introduction

2. The nature of the task

3. Methodological Overview

4. The Professionals – Delphi

5. Being in Schools – An Ethnographic Approach

6. The Iterative Process

7. Conclusions

References

How Can Religion and Lifeworld Come into Dialogue with Each Other? A Research Project by the Essen Religious Education Research Group (Rudolf Englert)

1. The origins of the study

2. The aim of the project

3. Strategic decisions

4. Basic characteristics of the research design

5. The research instruments

a) The rating instrument

b) The instrument of the expertise of correlation

c) The instrument of the case analysis

6. Selected results of the study

a) A practice-based typology of patterns of orchestration in Religious Education

b) The observation of a tendency towards a descriptive rather than personally engaging type of Religious Education

c) The observation of weaknesses in the field of cognitive activation

References

Measuring Religious Competence: The Berlin Study (Henning Schluß, Joachim Willems, Christine Salmen)

1. Background

2. The Study

The Model of Religious Competence

The Construction of Testable Tasks

3. The Survey

4. Further results

5. Implementation

References

Researching Selective Traditions in Religious Education in Swedish Middle School. Delayed Meetings with “the World”, its Religions, and Existential Dimensions (Christina Osbeck)

1. Research context

Social Studies and Religious Education

Selections within the Religious Education field

2. Methodology of the empirical study

Selective traditions

Purpose, research questions and material

3. Selective traditions concerning content I: Religious Education and the other Social Studies subjects

Teachers’ perspectives concerning the balance of the Social Studies subjects

Selections in Social Studies subjects reflected in pupils’ perspectives on important content

4. Selective traditions concerning content II: Religious Education and selections within the subject

Teachers’ perspectives concerning the balance of content within Religious Education

Selections in Religious Education reflected in pupils’ perspectives on important content

5. Selective traditions concerning working methods: Religious Education and selections within the subject

Teachers’ perspectives concerning frequently used working methods in Religious Education

Selections in Religious Education reflected in pupils’ perspectives on important working methods

6. Concluding discussion

References

Researching Approaches to Religious Education. The Example of Performative Religious Education (Martina Kumlehn)

1. The project in the context of empirical research

2. The project in the context of the debate on performative Religious Education

3. Research design and methodology

4. Illustrative insights into a case example

5. Conclusion

References

Religious Education and Dialogue in Contextual Perspective. A Comparative Case Study in Hamburg and Duisburg (Germany) (Thorsten Knauth, Dörthe Vieregge)

1. Introduction

2. Methodology, methods, and terminology

3. Results

Similarities at the semantic level

Differences at the pragmatic level

Differences at the syntactic level and the impact of the contextual setting

4. Discussion: balancing tensions as a key task of dialogical practice

References

Video Analysis. Opening the Black Box of Teaching Religious Education (Ulrich Riegel)

1. The Technique of Video Analysis

1.1 Terminology

1.2 Benefits and Obstacles

1.3 Practice

2. Video Analysis in Religious Education

2.1 Video analysis as case study

2.2 Video analysis by qualitative methods

2.3 Video analysis by quantifying methods

3. Conclusion

References

Controversial Issues in Religious Education: How Teachers Deal with Terrorism in their Teaching (Trine Anker, Marie von der Lippe)

1. Introduction

2. RE and Controversial Issues

3. July 22 in school

4. Methods and materials

5. No joint strategy

6. Lack of time and expertise

7. Different teaching approaches

8. Discussion

References

Effectiveness of Innovative Ways of Inclusive RE in the Netherlands (Ina ter Avest)

1. Introduction

The end of the Dutch ‘pillarised’ society

Mono-, multi-, inter-religious: what’s in a name?

2. Islam in mono-religious education

‘Diversity – the key to peace’

‘Every child matters’

‘A bird with two wings’

3. Islam in multi-religious education

4. Islam in inter-religious education

‘Child in context’

5. Effective Religious Education

6. Conclusion and recommendations

References

Empirical Research on Religion Teachers. A Triangulated Study in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (Martin Rothgangel in cooperation with Philipp Klutz and Christhard Lück)

1. Design, method, and context of the study

2. Perspectives and experiences of Religious Education teachers regarding classroom processes

2.1 Pupil-oriented classroom processes

2.2 Emotional aspects and role conceptualisation when handling interdenominational and interreligious topics

3. Contextual factors of classroom processes

3.1 The reference field of Religious Education teachers

3.2 The contextual factors of (dis-)satisfaction

4. The pupils and the form of Religious Education

4.1 The pupils in Protestant Religious Education

4.2 Reasons for the abandonment of denominational separation in Religious Education

4.3 Attitudes to different forms of Religious Education

5. Outlook

References

How Teachers Deal with Religious Plurality in Denominational Religious Education. A Research Project in the Northernmost State of Germany (Uta Pohl-Patalong)

1. The Reason for conducting the ReVikoR Study

2. The design of the ReVikoR Study

3. Religious plurality as a natural part of denominational Religious Education

4. Didactic strategies in dealing with religious plurality

(1) “There is a common ground” – An increased consideration of topics which apply to more than one religion

(2) “That you think about what values these religions pass on” – World religions as a topic

(3) “Then I could always rely on insider knowledge” – Interreligious and inter-denominational learning

(4) “To get the others on board” – Religious multi-perspectivity

(5) “So you just always have to start from scratch” – Religious Education and religious literacy

(6) “I really just make sure not to get too biblical and too Protestant or Christian” – Holding back on the Christian denominational profile

(7) “I have to teach them the same topics” – Lesson planning without considering religious diversity

5. How do teachers picture the future of Religious Education?

6. Conclusion

References

Researching Classroom Processes and Outcomes in Religious Education. The Need for Intervention Studies (Friedrich Schweitzer)

1. Reasons for researching classroom processes and outcomes in Religious Education

2. Topics of research: The example of interreligious education and values education

3. The design of intervention studies and its usefulness for Religious Education

4. Conclusions

References

Interreligious Learning Through Perspective-Taking. An Intervention Study (Martin Losert, Magda Bräuer, Friedrich Schweitzer)

1. Introduction

1.1 The need for empirical research on interreligious learning

1.2 Interreligious competence

1.3 Research goals and overview

2. Method

2.1 Recruitment, research design, and procedure

2.2 Teaching units

2.3 The questionnaire

3. Results

3.1 Sample

3.2 Factor analyses

3.3 Measurement scales and variables

3.4 Learning effects

4. Discussion

References

Appendix

Interreligious Competence for Kindergarten Teachers in Education (Friederike Strohm, Rebecca Nowack)

1. Introduction

1.1 Aims of the study

1.2 How the study was conducted

2. How the study was conducted

2.1 Design, methods and sample

2.2 Teaching units

2.3 Measurements

3. Preliminary results

3.1 Qualitative analysis

3.2 Quantitative analysis

4. Discussion

References

Training Future Caregivers Through Religious Education. An Intervention Study (Martin Losert)

1. Introduction

2. Method

2.1 Recruitment, research design, and procedure

2.2 Teaching units

2.3 Questionnaire

3. Results

3.1 Sample

3.2 Factor analysis

3.3 Learning effects

4. Discussion

References

Appendix

Values in Religious Education. An Intervention Study (Friederike Strohm, Georg Wagensommer)

1. Design and methods

1.1 Procedure and sample

1.2 Teaching units

1.3 Measurements

2. Results

2.1 Interest

2.2 Value Orientations

2.3 Moral reasoning

3. Discussion

References

Researching Religious Education in Finland (Antti Räsänen)

1. Introduction: From catechetics to religious education

2. Paradigms and paradigm change

3. The paradigms of Finnish Religious Education

4. Discussion

References

Empirical Research in Austria (Martin Rothgangel, Robert Schelander)

1. Historical perspectives

2. Conditioning factors of Religious Education

2.1 Religious plurality and religious minorities

2.2 Curriculum and textbook analyses

2.3 Studies on the organisational form of religious and ethical education

3. Research on pupils

3.1 Pupils’ perceptions of Religious Education

3.2 Empirical studies of the religiosity, values and happiness of young people and children

4. Studies of Religious Education teachers

4.1 Prelude: Religious Education teachers in the big city

4.2 Main focus: professional satisfaction

4.3 Further studies

5. Education research in the narrower sense

6. General research in schools and religious educational research beyond schools

7. Summary considerations

References

Researching Religious Education in Switzerland. Empirical Research in the Context of Current “Didactic Paradigm”-Debates (Thomas Schlag)

1. Reasons for the lack of empirical research on Religious Education in Switzerland

1) Cooperation of state and church: No need for plausibility checks of RE

2) Lack of profile of academic religious education

3) RE – not a “regular” subject and not sufficiently interesting

4) The Churches’ lack of interest and their political silence

2. The current situation of Religious Education in Switzerland – the shift to new forms of Religious Education in schools

1) The pluralism-argument

2) The secularisation-argument

3) The dissatisfaction-argument

3. Starting points of empirical research

1) RE-teachers in the Cantone Berne (2004)

2) Evaluation of Islamic Religious Education (2004)

3) Arguing for an obligatory RE in the context of “teaching about” (2004ff.)

4) Teacher motivations in confessional RE (2009)

5) Subject-oriented and competence-based religious didactics (2010)

6) The societal relevance of RE and the responsibility for it (2010)

7) Assessing RE teacher trainers (2016)

4. Conclusions and future empirical perspectives – How to interpret classroom processes in a “teaching about”-context

1) Teacher’s training

2) REMEMBER – An international comparative study on the Teaching of the Holocaust in RE

3) Teaching Islam in RE – An international comparative study

References

The Micro- and Macro-Politics of the Classroom and of Classroom Research. The Case of Denmark (Mette Buchardt)

1. The scientification of public educational debate

2. The politics of classroom research

3. A concept for the classroom within curriculum as an extensive social practice

4. Classroom research in religion and school as social practice – and politico-scientific challenges of future research

References

Current State of Research on Islamic Religious Education in Germany (Fahimah Ulfat)

1. The term “Islamic religious education (Islamische Religionspädagogik)”

2. The Development of Islamic religious education as a scientific discipline in Germany

3. Current situation of the subject “Islamic Religious Education”

a. Systematic-theoretical religious education research

b. Historical research on religious education

c. Empirical research on religious education

d. Evaluative Research

e. International comparative research

4. Conclusion

References

Conclusions (Reinhold Boschki, Friedrich Schweitzer)

1. Introduction

2. Researching processes and outcomes in Religious Education

3. General observations

4. Perspectives for the future

References

Appendix

The Tübingen Institutes of Vocation-Oriented Religious Education. An Overview of Empirical Studies (Reinhold Boschki, Matthias Gronover, Christoph Knoblauch, Hanne Schnabel-Henke, Friedrich Schweitzer)

1. Introduction

2. Examples: Additional research projects carried out at the Tübingen Institutes

RE teachers’ spirituality: a qualitative teacher study

Development of Religious and Interreligious Competence in Early Childhood Education: A Qualitative Explorative Study

New organisational models for RE in vocational schools

The denominational character of RE: A Delphi-Study

References

Questionnaire: Interreligious Competence (Future bank employees)

Questionnaire: Interreligious Competence (Future Caregivers)

Authors