Research designs in ‘religious didactics’

ABSTRACT

At present, there are relatively few international studies that reflect research in religious didactics from a metatheoretical perspective. Against this background, the fundamental question of this contribution is whether there are research designs that are typical for research in religious didactics (1.). For this purpose, research was conducted for a later Delphi study; its development (2.), results (3.), and open questions (4.) are presented below. The study does not only produce certain findings and problem indications with regard to research designs of religious didactics, but perhaps even in a general model for religious-didactic research. We regard the current status of this project as an interim result, which shall be examined in a subsequent round, taking into account the international context (5).

KEYWORDS:

• Research design
• religious didactics
• philosophy of religious education
• methodology
• model for religious-didactic research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We would like to thank our colleague Friedrich Schweitzer for his respective advice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Rothgangel

Martin Rothgangel is full professor and head of the Institute for Religious Education at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Vienna. He is also affiliated professor at the University of Haifa. From 2012-2016 he was chairman of the Society of Subject Didactics (Gesellschaft für Fachdidaktik, GfD e.V.), and from 2014-2018 dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Vienna.

Ulrich Riegel

Ulrich Riegel is full professor of religious education at Siegen University. In between 2013 and 2017 he was co-coordinator of the EARLI-SIG 19 “Religious and Spiritual Education”. His main research interests are on the empirical analysis of teaching and learning in/from/about religion in scholastic context, as well as on the spirituality of young people.