REDCo: A European Research Project on Religion in Education

Abstract

The international research project REDCo (Religion in Education. A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries) addressed the question of how religions and values contribute to dialogue or tension in Europe. Empirical studies, targeting students in the 14–16-year age group, looked into their own perceptions of dialogue or conflict within the different national contexts. Eight European countries have been involved: Estonia, Russia, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands, France, England, and Spain.

KEYWORDS:

• dialogue
• empirical studies
• Europe
• religion

Notes

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In the United States we have seen strong approaches “in support of including the study of religion in public schools from a comparative and multicultural lens that emphasizes diversity”, see D. L. Moore, Overcoming Religious Illiteracy. A Cultural Studies Approach to the Study of religion in Secondary Education (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p. 5.

Council of Europe's White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue: Living Together as Equals in Dignity, 2008, launched by the Council of Europe Ministers of Foreign Affairs a their 118th Ministerial Session, Strasbourg, May 7, 2008. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe.

W. Weisse (Ed.), Dialogischer Religionsunterricht in Hamburg. Positionen, Analysen und Perspektiven im Kontext Europas (Münster, Germany: Waxmann, 2008).

W. Weisse's (2007) The European Research Project on Religion and Education ‘REDCo’: An introduction, in R. Jackson, S. Miedema, W. Weisse, and J.-P. Willlaime (Eds.), Religion and Education in Europe: Developments, Contexts and Debates (Muenster, Germany: Waxmann, 2007), pp. 9–25. See also D.-P. Jozsa, T. Knauth and W. Weiße, (Eds.): Religionsunterricht, Dialog und Konflikt. Analysen im Kontext Europas (Münster, Germany, New York, and Berlin, Germany: Waxmann, 2009).

Wolfram Weisse, University of Hamburg, Germany; Robert Jackson, University of Warwick, United Kingdom; Jean-Paul Willaime, Sorbonne University, Paris, France; Siebren Miedema and Ina ter Avest, Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Cok Bakker, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; Geir Skeie, University of Stavanger, Norway; Pille Valk, University of Tartu, Estonia; Muhammad Kalisch and Dan-Paul Jozsa, University of Münster, Germany; Vladimir Fedorov, University of St Petersburg, Russia; and Gunther Dietz and Aurora Alvarez Veinguer, University of Granada, Spain.

See E. Lévinas, Penser Dieu à partir de l'éthique, in E. Lévinas, Dieu, la Mort et le Temps (Paris, 1993), pp. 154–164. And W. Weisse, Difference without Discrimination: Religious Education as a Field of Learning for Social Understanding? In R. Jackson (Ed.), International Perspectives on Citizenship, Education and Religious Diversity (London, 2003), 191–208.

R. Jackson, Religious Education: An Interpretive Approach (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997); see also S. Miedema (2004), Beyond foundationalism. A plea for a new normativity in the philosophy of religious education, in R. Larsson & C. Gustavsson (Eds.), Towards a European Perspective on Religious Education, Stockholm, Sweden: Artos & Norma, pp. 36–45. G. Skeie (2001), Citizenship, identity politics and religious education, in H.-G. Heimbrock, C. Th. Scheilke, & P. Schreiner (Eds.), Towards Religious Competence. Diversity as a Challenge for Education in Europe, Muenster, Germany: Lit Verlag, pp. 237–252.

R. Jackson (Ed.), International Perspectives on Citizenship, Education and Religious Diversity (London: Routledge Falmer, 2003), 67–92.

W. Weisse, difference without discrimination: Religious education as a field of learning for social understanding? In R. Jackson (Ed.), International Perspectives on Citizenship, Education and Religious Diversity (London, 2003), 191–208.

R. Jackson, S. Miedema, W. Weisse, and J.-P. Willaime (Eds.), Religion and Education in Europe: Developments, Contexts and Debates (Muenster, Waxmann, 2007).

I. ter Avest, D.-P. Jozsa, T. Knauth, J. Rosón, and G. Skeie (Eds.) Dialogue and Conflict on Religion. Studies of Classroom Interaction in European Countries, (Muenster: Waxmann, 2009).

A. van der Want, C. Bakker., I. ter Avest, J. Everington (Eds.), Teachers Responding to Religious Diversity in Europe (Münster: Waxmann, 2009).

A. Alvarez Veinguer, G. Dietz, D. P. Jozsa, and T. Knauth (Eds.), Islam in Education in European countries: Pedagogical Concepts and Empirical Findings (Muenster, Germany: Waxmann, 2009).

T. Knauth, D.-P. Jozsa, G. Bertram-Troost, & J. Ipgrave (Eds.) (2008), Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe (Muenster, Germany: Waxmann).

P. Valk, G. Bertram-Troost, M. Friederici and C. Béraud, C. (Eds.), Teenagers' Perspectives on the Role of Religion in Their Lives, Schools and Societies. A European Quantitative Study (Muenster, Germany: Waxmann, 2009).

For example, the pre-tests customary in quantitative studies were used to calibrate our qualitative survey by running a preliminary questionnaire. The results were used to improve the form for the final survey that took place in the autumn and winter of 2006 and 2007. To avoid going into too great detail on the field and interpretation guides and evaluation systems, we agreed that it should be enough at this point to state that we followed the heuristic approach by sociologist Gerhard Kleining in this regard. The sample in all countries was selected to be gender-balanced and represent different socio-economic, cultural, and religious groups on as broad a basis as possible. All national samples had to amount to a minimum of 70 returned questionnaires, and in almost all cases the number was significantly higher (in Hamburg, around 150 were collected). As a final observation here, we were surprised to find that rather than answer briefly, most respondents had provided extensive, in some cases lengthy answers that offer rich material for analysis.

See G. Dietz, F. Roson Lorente, and F. Ruiz Garcon., Religion and education in the view of Spanish youth: The legacy of mono-confessionalism in times of religious pluralism, in T. Knauth, D.-P. Jozsa, G. Bertram-Troost, J. Ipgrave, (Eds.), Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe, (Waxmann: Münster 2008), pp. 21–49, quotes 38.

Dietz, Roson Lorente, Ruiz Garcon (2008), p. 39.

F. Kosyrev, Religion and Education through the Eyes of Students from Saint-Petersburg, in: Knauth, T., Jozsa, D.-P., Bertram-Troost, G. & Ipgrave, J. (Eds.) (2008), Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe (Münster, Germany: Waxmann 2008), pp. 279–308, quote 297.

M. von der Lippe, To believe or not to believe. Young people's perceptions and experiences of religion and religious education in Norway, in T. Knauth, D.-P. Jozsa, G. Bertram-Troost, and J. Ipgrave (Eds.), Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe (Muenster, Germany: Waxmann, 2008), pp. 149–171, quote 162.

T. Knauth, “Better together than apart”: Religion in School and Lifeworld of Students in Hamburg, in T. Knauth, D.-P. Jozsa, G. Bertram-Troost, & J. Ipgrave, (Eds.), Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe. (Münster, Germany: Waxmann: 2008), pp. 207–245, quote 230.

J. Ipgrave and U. McKenna, Diverse experiences and common vision. English student's perspectives on religion and religious education, in T. Knauth, D.-P. Jozsa, G. Bertram-Troost, and J. Ipgrave (Eds.), Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe (Münster, Germamy: Waxmann, 2008), pp. 113–147, quote 131.

I am indebted to Anna Körs for the following results, see: A. Körs, Jugend und Religion in Europa. Einstellungen zu Religion in Lebenswelt, Schule und Gesellschaft im Vergleich acht europäischer Länder, in: Jozsa, D.-P., Knauth, T., Weiße, W. (Hg.): Religionsunterricht, Dialog und Konflikt. Analysen im Kontext Europas (Münster; New York; München; Berlin: Waxmann 2009), 242–287.

T. Knauth and A. Körs, European dmparison: Social dimension of religion, in T. Knauth, D.-P. Jozsa, G. Bertram-Troost, & J. Ipgrave (Eds.), Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe (Münster, Germany: Waxmann: 2008), pp. 397–404.

The majority expressed fundamental disapproval of all attempts to undermine the principle of equality of all religions, cf. Bertram-Troost/Ipgrave/Jozsa/Knauth, 2008, p. 407.

Bertram-Troost/Ipgrave/Jozsa/Knauth, 2008, p. 408.

J. Casanova, Die religiöse Lage in Europa, in H. Joas & K. Wiegandt (Eds.), Säkularisierung und die Weltreligionen (Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2007), pp. 322–357, especially 344–345.

A. Körs, Jugend und Religion in Europa. Einstellungen zu Religion in Lebenswelt, Schule undGesellschaft im Vergleich acht europäischer Länder, in D.-P. Jozsa., T. Knauth, & W. Weiße (Eds.): Religionsunterricht, Dialog und Konflikt. Analysen im Kontext Europas (Münster, Germany; New York; Berlin, Germany: Waxmann, 2009), pp. 242–287.

R. Florida, Cities and the creative class, in: City & Community 2:1, March 2003, 3–19.

Council of Europe: White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue “Living Together as Equals in Dignity”, 2008, launched by the Council of Europe Ministers of Foreign Affairs a their 118th Ministerial Session, Strasbourg, 7 May 2008. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 13.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wolfram Weisse

Wolfram Weisse is Professor at the University of Hamburg (pedagogy and international theology). He specializes in intercultural and interreligious dialogue. He has been the coordinator of the European REDCo-project and is the Director of the newly founded Academy of World Religions at the University of Hamburg (www.awr.uni-hamburg.de). E-mail: [email protected]