Drawing on a major EU-funded research project, this book examines how religious/secular beliefs are formed at school and in the family across different European countries, offering insights into key policy issues concerning the place of religion in the school system and illuminating current debates around religion and multiculturalism.

In this book, scholars around Europe reflect on the changing role of religious education in a time of growing pluralism in Europe and across the world. The various contributions from different European countries (England and Wales, Germany, Netherlands, and Norway) focus on the debate about the existing multicultural and multireligious situation in European societies. Difference and diversity, especially of religion, is seen as a challenge for education in Europe. The chapters mention trends and common challenges for religious education. As a key term of religious education "religious competence" is introduced. It includes the ability to deal with religious pluralism and differences in a constructive way. It is argued that contextual religious education facilitates a new religious competence. The book also contains detailed information about current developments in the field of religious education in some European countries.

Drawing on a major EU-funded research project, this book examines how religious/secular beliefs are formed at school and in the family across different European countries, offering insights into key policy issues concerning the place of religion in the school system and illuminating current debates around religion and multiculturalism.

Religious Education in schools in Europe is facing societal and cultural diversity. It has become a key issue how to handle diversity adequately in the classroom. Religious Education and diversity are also the background of an Erasmus+ project of teacher training institutions (READY) in five European countries: Austria, Germany, England, Scotland, and Sweden (2016-2018). The book contains contributions from READY, a European project on teacher training in Religious Education. Experts and student teachers worked together on issues of diversity in classrooms of different European countries. Outcomes of the project include guidelines for study visits and online communication, case studies on Religions Education in the participating countries, contributions from national and international multiplier events and academic insights into the project. Statements and voices of student teachers enrich the publication. Dr Peter Schreiner is director of the Comenius-Institut, a Protestant Centre for Research and Development in Education in Münster/Germany. He edited the book on behalf of the READY Consortium. Contributions from Kerstin von Brömssen, Martin Fischer, Heinz Ivkovits, Peter Kliemann, Heid Leganger-Krogstad, Siebren Miedema, Kristian Niemi, Graeme Nixon, Janika Olschewski, Farid Panjwani, Jo Pearce, Jane Savill, Christof Schilling, Peter Schreiner, David Smith, Alexis Stones.

This book is a contribution to the development of the young discipline of the didactics of the Study of Religions (Religionswissenschaft) in international perspective. Integrative religious education refers to education about different religions in classrooms with children of various religious and non-religious backgrounds. Cornerstones of recent debates about theory and methodology in the academic study of religions and in education are discussed in the first chapter. They form the basis of the following analysis and evaluation of current approaches to integrative religious education in Europe, with a special focus on England and Sweden. Particular attention is paid to the different underlying concepts of religion, education and ways of representing religious plurality in these approaches. Building on a discussion of the current situation of teaching and learning about religions in schools in Europe in the context of wider cultural, social and political debates, the book concludes with the suggestion of a framework for integrative religious education in Europe, from a perspective that combines insights from the study of religions and education.

Against the backdrop of labour migration and the ongoing refugee crisis, the ways in which Islam is taught and engaged with in educational settings has become a major topic of contention in Europe. Recognising the need for academic engagement around the challenges and benefits of effective Islamic Religious Education (IRE), this volume offers a comparative study of curricula, teaching materials, and teacher education in fourteen European countries, and in doing so, explores local, national, and international complexities of contemporary IRE. Considering the ways in which Islam is taught and represented in state schools, public Islamic schools, and non-confessional classes, Part One of this volume includes chapters which survey the varying degrees to which fourteen European States have adopted IRE into curricula, and considers the impacts of varied teaching models on Muslim populations. Moving beyond individual countries’ approaches to IRE, chapters in Part Two offer multi-disciplinary perspectives – from the hermeneutical-critical to the postcolonial – to address challenges posed by religious teachings on issues such as feminism, human rights, and citizenship, and the ways these are approached in European settings. Given its multi-faceted approach, this book will be an indispensable resource for postgraduate students, scholars, stakeholders and policymakers working at the intersections of religion, education and policy on religious education.