Research focus

The aim of the study is to find out how (and whether) current socio-political and church-political topics play a role in religious education lessons, what relevance is attributed to them and to what extent they are made the subject of lessons and discussions by religious education teachers or pupils. In addition to concrete teaching experiences, the focus is also on the motivation for addressing the topic. The associated opportunities and target perspectives for religious learning as well as the particular challenges and hurdles in the practical implementation in religious education settings are also taken into consideration.

In the first part of RaP, based on an interview study with religious education teachers from all school levels, the teachers' internal view of their teaching and the expertise they bring with them was surveyed. The focus was on how current and topical, socially and ecclesiastically relevant issues are addressed and dealt with in religious education lessons, the associated actors and factors that influence the discussion (heterogeneous learning groups, globalized crises, contextual school conditions).

In the fourth quarter of 2022, 16 teachers from all types of schools were interviewed using a guided interview with open narrative impulses and closed questions about their teaching experiences with current issues. At the beginning, the teachers were openly invited with a narrative impulse to talk about their teaching practice and report on specific teaching scenes, lesson plans or projects on current topics. This was followed, where appropriate, by guideline-oriented questions about motivation, the initiators, the challenges and, finally, the question of which topics they currently consider to be highly topical and relevant for religious education. The evaluation of the interviews, which has not yet been completed, is based on content analysis according to Mayring as well as an intensive semantic-syntactic analysis of narrative and dense interview passages. The aim is to crystallize successful teaching examples as well as obstacles to dealing with current issues in religious education. A publication of the findings of the first part is planned for 2025 by Kohlhammerverlag.

Building on the results of the survey of religious education teachers, the second part will develop, test, implement (record) and reflect on discussion formats in a circular manner as part of subject-specific didactic development research. In cooperation between university and school(s), the processing of such topics in (religion) lessons is to be successfully accompanied in the sense of social responsibility and under the claim of democratic language skills.

Finally, in a third part, the knowledge gained will lead to the creation of teaching material in the form of macro-adaptive manuals for didactic discussion formats. These discussion formats are intended to help and provide orientation in giving space to current topics, such as "war" and "political crises", and to be able to deal with these in a guided and successful manner, in order to ultimately strengthen the confidence of teachers to teach in tune with the times.

Following on from the objectives of the University of Kassel to establish the Center for Sustainable Development and the central guidelines for equal opportunities, gender and diversity, the Institute of Catholic Theology at Faculty 02, Humanities and Cultural Studies, intends to strengthen the sensitivity to and perspective on gender and diversity in teacher training courses for theology. Retraditionalizations in the church and society represent a current challenge for gender research, which must be met with a differentiated and professionally broad approach in order to train future religious education teachers in a power-critical, gender-sensitive and theologically competent manner. At the same time as these traditionalist efforts, a growing awareness and increased interest in gender issues among students can also be observed in recent years, which is being met with this teaching focus for 2023/2024, which was funded by the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Empirical research is planned to accompany the courses offered in these years. Interviews will be conducted with students before and after the study days and courses. The main aim is to evaluate the newly established teaching formats on gender equality.

Curricular coherence describes an important quality feature of teacher education. The professional areas of subject science, subject didactics and educational and social science must be related to each other in a meaningful way in terms of topics, processes and objectives, both in teaching and in research. The insights gained here were transferred to religious education and the university training of religious education teachers and published:

• Bertram, Daniel / Reese-Schnitker, Annegret / Richwien, Martin: Curricular coherence as a requirement of innovative university teaching. Consequences for religious education teacher training, in: Religionspädagogische Beiträge. Journal for Religion in Education, 47(2024), pp. 1-17.
• Bertram, Daniel / Reese-Schnitker, Annegret, Curricular coherence as a quality feature of teacher education, in: SEMINAR 2/2023 "Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung - Zeit für eine Bilanz", pp. 54-64.

In cooperation with the educational project "BNE konkret: FMNR" of the ZLB of the University of Kassel, in which the integration of the cross-cutting issue of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into educational processes was further strengthened. Participants include six teacher training departments at the University of Kassel, eight schools, the city of Kassel, extracurricular educators in the region and the Bad Vilbel study seminar.

LINK: https://www.uni-kassel.de/einrichtung/zlb/forschung-innovationsprojekte/bne-konkret-fmnr

In the context of the educational project "ESD in practice: FMNR", a religious education seminar for student teachers of Catholic religion was developed and held for the first time in the summer semester of 2023. In this course, religious didactic concepts of religious education for sustainable development were analyzed and discussed. The focus was on role model learning, with Tony Rinaudo as an example. A particular highlight was that the students were able to meet Tony Rinaudo in person: This encounter proved to be extremely inspiring and motivating.

The aim of the seminar was to develop interdisciplinary teaching materials based on Rinaudo's life and the FMNR method, which enable students to acquire ethical and religious skills. In collaboration with the Engelsburg-Gymnasium and the geography learning group there, two double lessons were designed, implemented and reflected upon. The first double lesson was about getting to know and deepening knowledge of role models for sustainability; the second double lesson was dedicated to the question of biblical arguments for sustainable development. The students then developed their own motivations and ideas on how they themselves could become local heroes for sustainable development.

In the winter semester 2023/2024, a follow-up seminar was offered under the title "Religious Education for Sustainable Development: Seminar with Teaching Relevance". The focus was now on religious education in elementary school. Together with the Herkules elementary school, four lessons were again designed, implemented and reflected upon. The ongoing collaboration and the practical orientation of the seminar provided students with valuable insights and practical experience.

The educational project "BNE konkret: FMNR" of the Center for Teacher Education received the national award "Education for Sustainable Development: Realizing the Global Sustainable Development Goals (ESD 2030)" from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German UNESCO Commission!

The link to the press release: https://www.uni-kassel.de/uni/aktuelles/meldung/2024/10/2/bildungsprojekt-ausgezeichnet?cHash=95a3d3dc9170d1d800bbf64f87ef5db6

1. Understanding and evaluating performance in religious education
2. War and violence from a religious education perspective (discourses on approaches to peace education, gender and violence, violence in schools)
3. Questions and consequences for religious adult education work through the empirical perception of religious and non-religious forms of life organization and world interpretation of women and men in view of the (religiously) pluralistic contemporary situation
4. Contemporary art as an occasion for religious learning
5. Migration, flight and expulsion as theological and religious educational challenges
6. Biographical learning