Dealing with Religious Heterogenity in Confessional Religious Edcuation. A Triangulative Study on the Status Quo of Religious Education at State Schools

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Reinhold Boschki; Professor Dr. Ulrich Riegel
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 401439582

Religious plurality and the upcoming presence of religious truth claims in public life put the handling of religious heterogenity on the agenda of religious education at state schools. The project addresses how confessional religious education addresses religious heterogenity on the basis of qualitative interviews with teachers of this subject (N = 24) and the analysis of videotaped lessons of religious education (N = 48). The sample will be drawn from vocational training as well as from state schools, because both settings differ characteristically in both the didactics and the heterogeneity inside the groups of learners. To analyse the data the project will conduct Dokumentarische Methode (interviews) and Video Analysis (lessons). These data will be triangulated according to content-related criteria. The findings of the project are of theoretical as well as of practical importance. In theoretical perspective the findings contribute to a better understanding of how religious heterogeneity is dealt with in planning and moderating religious education. Relevant discourses may be supported, reviewed, brought forward by these findings. In practical perspective the findings enable an improvement of recent teacher training by providing examples of best practice and critical indicents.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants