The project "Religious Education at Schools in Europe" (REL-EDU), which is divided up into six volumes (Central Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe), aims to research the situation with regard to religious education in Europe. The third volume outlines the organisational form of religious education in the countries of Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Iceland). This is done on the basis of thirteen key issues, which allows specific points of comparison between different countries in Europe. Thereby the volume focusses the comparative approach and facilitates further research into specific aspects of the comparison.

International knowledge transfer in religious education (RE) is still a fairly new topic. Many scholars in the field consider this discussion of prime importance for the future of both the academic discipline of religious education and the related school subject RE. This book continues this discussion and specifies it in the direction of teacher education. Its focus is on the challenges that teacher students and their trainers are facing in the light of RE in a pluralized and detraditionalized society. The impact of these challenges on RE research is obvious. However, international exchange of research results for purposes of comparison and mutual enrichment is still rare. This book provides insights that can encourage and facilitate this exchange.

This book is about international knowledge transfer in religious education as an academic discipline; at the same time, though, it is related to the school subject of RE. Its aim is to strengthen the awareness of the need for international cooperation in the field of religious education in general and especially for clarifying the role of knowledge in this kind of cooperation. The contributions discuss a number of issues, among others related to the validity and transferability of knowledge in religious education. Thus, the book takes up a topic which so far has remained implicit and therefore also untreated. This approach implies a whole spectrum of new methodological and epistemological problems. Some crucial questions that are discussed in the chapters from different national contexts are: – How can the national and the international context be productively connected to each other? – Which concept or understanding of ›international‹ should be used when it comes to the transfer of knowledge? – What exactly is meant by ›knowledge‹ in religious education? – What does ›transfer‹ mean in this context? The scope of the book is an invitation to other colleagues to take part in and to continue the discussion.

This book brings together new thinking and research on religious education’s complex and evolving role in the multicultural, diverse postmodern era. It facilitates new realism and understanding of the current situation from empirical and reflective accounts relating to a variety of countries and political contexts, as well as providing innovative methodological approaches to the study of education and religion. In different contexts around the world, at different levels of education, and from different theoretical lenses, religious education occupies a contested space. The ongoing, changing nature of the world due to increasing secularization, rapid technological change, mass immigration, globalization processes, conflict and challenging security issues, from inter to intra state levels, and with shifting geopolitical power balances, generates the need to reconceptualize where religious education is positioned. It claims that religious education on its own can be an agent of moral, social and spiritual transformation are disputed. There is significant controversy about whether special religious education, that is in-faith education, still has a role within the post-modern world.

This book examines Religious Education (RE) in over ten countries, including Australia, Indonesia, Mali, Russia, UK, Ireland, USA, and Canada. Investigating RE from a global and multi-interdisciplinary perspective, it presents research on the diverse past, present, and possible future forms of RE. In doing so, it enhances public and professional understanding of the complex issues and debates surrounding RE in the wider world. The volume emphasizes a student-centred approach, viewing any kind of ‘RE’, or its absence, as a formative lived experience for pupils. It stresses a bottom-up, sociological and ethnographic/anthropological research-based approach to the study of RE, rather than the ‘top down’ approaches which often start from prescriptive legal, ideological or religious standpoints. The twelve chapters in this volume regard RE as an entity that has multiple and contested meanings and interpretations that are constantly negotiated. For some, ‘RE’ means religious nurturing, either tailored to parental views or meant to inculcate a uniform religiosity. For others, RE means learning about the many religious and non-religious world-views and secular ethics that exist, not promoting one religion or another. Some seek to avoid the ambiguous term ‘religious education’, replacing it with terms such as ‘education about religions and beliefs’ or ‘the religious dimension of intercultural 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.

In the World Library of Educationalists series, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. Religious Education for Plural Societies highlights key writings from Robert Jackson’s international career in education. It provides a historical perspective in relation to current debates about religious education in the UK and internationally, drawing attention to current issues of concern. Carefully selected examples explore the key themes in religious education that allow us to consider how things were, how they are now and the future for the field of study. Split into parts: empirical research; the interpretive approach to religious education pedagogy; religious education and plurality and human rights and international policy developments, Robert Jackson also provides an overview of the text in the form of a general introduction, and also introductions to each section of the book, allowing the reader a personal insight into why each piece has been chosen. Religious Education for Plural Societies allows readers to follow themes and strands across Robert Jackson’s career and see how his work has contributed to the development of the fields of religions and education. It will be of interest to all followers of Robert Jackson’s work and any reader interested in the development of religious education in the UK and internationally.

What are the key debates in Religious Education teaching today? Debates in Religious Education explores the major issues all RE teachers encounter in their daily professional lives. It encourages critical reflection and aims to stimulate both novice and experienced teachers to think more deeply about their practice, and link research and evidence to what they have observed in schools. This accessible book tackles established and contemporary issues enabling you to reach informed judgements and argue your point of view with deeper theoretical knowledge and understanding. Taking account of recent controversy, and challenging assumptions about the place of religion in education, expert contributors cover key topics such as: Effective pedagogy in RE teaching Exploring thinking skills and truth claims The relationship of science and religion in the classroom The place of school worship in contemporary society The role of RE in spiritual and moral development Diversity in the RE classroom. With its combination of expert opinion and fresh insight, Debates in Religious Education is the ideal companion for any student or practising teacher engaged in initial training, continuing professional development and Masters level study.

This volume offers an introduction to all questions of teaching Religious Education as a school subject and as an academic discipline related to this subject. The chapters cover most of the aspects that religion teachers have to face in their work, as well as the theoretical background necessary for this task. The volume is a textbook for students and teachers of religious education, be it in school or in an academic context, who are looking for reliable information on this field. The book has proven its usefulness in German speaking countries. This volume is the English translation of the German Compendium of Religious Education (edited by Gottfried Adam and Rainer Lachmann). The present English version is based on the 2012 edition which aims for a most current representation of the field. The background of the book is Protestant but its outlook is clearly ecumenical, and questions of interreligious education are considered in many of the chapters. The compendium continues to be widely used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – as an introduction to the field and as a handbook for students who are preparing for their final exams. The English edition makes this compendium available to students and colleagues in other countries.

Preparing pupils to engage with religious and cultural heterogeneity is increasingly seen as a key task for school education. This book presents research on religion-related dialogue in European schools and addresses the complex intersection of various factors supporting or hindering it. The volume offers findings of the international research project ‘Religion and Dialogue in modern societies’ (ReDi). The chapters present analyses of school case studies in five European cities London (England), Hamburg and Duisburg (Germany), Stockholm (Sweden), and Stavanger (Norway), to empirically answer the question: What are possibilities and limitations of religion-related dialogue in schools? Possibilities and Limitations of Religion-Related Dialogue in Schools in Europe will be a key resource for practioners and researchers of religious education, education studies, educational research, religious studies, and sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of the Religion & Education.