Religious and professional beliefs of school teachers
Final Report Abstract
Research indicates that teachers personal beliefs influence their professional thinking and acting. That this is especially true for religious beliefs has been shown especia!ly th studies from the USA and has repeatedly been suggested in public discourse in Germany. The project therefore investigated possib!e connections betweeri the religious and professional beliefs of school teachers. Religious beliefs were assessed by means of tried and tested scales on religiosity and spintua!ity, as wel! as a sca!e on re!igious to!erance. Among the professional teacher beliefs the focus was job-related ethica! beliefs (educational goals, performance-demanding teachthg sty!e, orientation towards the thdividual reference norm of students, support of students through an adaptive orientation of teaching), epistemological beliefs (authonty-dependence ofknow!edge, secunty ofknow!edge, appreciation ofnon-functional knowledge) and subjective theories about teaching and leaming (positive error cu!ture, student-centered teaching, professional idea!ism, professional se!f-efficacy expectations). As an innovation, self-developed scales on educational-theological convictions were introduced, which hadpreviously been tested in a separate valldafion study. As reflective convictions, as it were, they ask abouf the teachers opinion on how much religion should be present in school life and to what extent a teacher should bring her religious or worldview orientation into her profession. In a hypotheses-testing design, teachers at public schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Bavaria were sutveyea by means of an online questionnaire. Data from 1,441 Chnstian and non-denominationa! teachers cou!d be inc!uded Th the study. The hypotheses about existing connections between religious and professional teacher beliefs could not be confirmed in the project for the most part. One exception is non-theistic facets of spirituality. Here, the spirituality facet connectedness with others (essentially representing an altruistic attitude) had the most substantial explanato,y value for the professional beliefs (above a!l forjob-related ethical beliefs, student-centered teaching andjob idealism); this exp!anato,y value was Iess substantial for the spintuality facet connectedness with oneself which essentially reflects the experience of ones own Iife as meanThgful (above all for selfefficacy expectations). The presumed significance of educational-theological beliefs as moderator variables could a!so not be confirmed statistical!y, as effects were ve,y weak. Of the background and context variab!es, the type of school, the affinity to the teaching profession and the subjective sense of being called to teach proved to be relevant, especially for the teachers self-efficacy expenence.
Publications
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Religious and Professional Beliefs of Schoolteachers – A Literature Review of Empirical Research. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 18(5), 24-41.
Häusler, Nastja; Pirner, Manfred L.; Scheunpflug, Annette & Kröner, Stephan
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Religious beiiefs and professional beliefs of schoolteachers— Theoretical deliberations and preliminary research findings. ln L. Francis & Lankshear, D. (Hrsg.), New Directions in Religious and Values Education. lnternational Perspectives (S. 183-197). London: Peter Lang
Pirner & M. L. & Röhl, S.
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Measuring student teachers’ beliefs regarding religion in schools: piloting and preliminary validation of two newly developed scales. British Journal of Religious Education, 44(3), 281-292.
Penthin, Marcus; Pirner, Manfred L.; Scheunpflug, Annette & Kröner, Stephan
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Zusammenhänge zwischen religiös-spirituellen und berufsethischen Überzeugungen von Lehrkräften. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 25(1), 81-106.
Penthin, Marcus; Christ, Alexander; Kröner, Stephan; Pirner, Manfred L. & Scheunpflug, Annette
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Does Teachers’ Spirituality Make a Difference? The Explanatory Value of Spirituality and Religiosity for Teachers’ Professional Beliefs on Teaching and Learning. Religion & Education, 50(2-3), 159-190.
Penthin, Marcus; Christ, Alexander; Kröner, Stephan; Pirner, Manfred L. & Scheunpflug, Annette
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Professionalität von Religionslehrkräften. ln: M. Hailer, A. Kubik-Boltres, M. Otte, M. Schambeck, B. Schröder & H. Schwier (Hrsg.). Religionslehrer:in im 21. Jahrhundert — Transformationsprozesse in Beruf und theologisch-religionspädagogischer Bildung in Studium, Referendariat und Fortbildung. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt.
Scheunpflug, A.
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Skalenhandbuch Religiöse und berufsbezogene Überzeugungen von Lehrkräften (RebeL), Nürnberg u. Bamberg.
Penthin, M.; Kröner, S.; Pirner, M. L. & Scheunpflug, A.
