The Discourse on Religious Education in Schools

The survey springs from the fact of religious diversity and asks for its consequences for religious edu- cation. The main focus of the survey is religious education in its denominational form which is con- fronted with several challenges at some schools due to religious plurality. Especially at schools with a high percentage of non-Christian pupils one is confronted with the limits of religious education in its denominational form, for example when there are not enough pupils who attend it. The survey makes a contribution to the future development of religious education so that schools are enabled to fulfil their religious educational mission. A possible future format of religious education is still an open question as well as the question which organizational form is the most adequate in a religious pluralistic con- text. Within academia there are debates about the organizational form of religious education. However there is no empirical information about the opinions of persons who are responsible for religious edu- cation at schools. The qualitative-empirical survey attends to get such information and investigates the discourse about religious education at two secondary schools in Vienna. The purpose of the research project is to get empirical information about how religion, religious diversity and religious education are perceived and assessed and in which way Religious Education for all pupils with responsibility of all churches and religious communities is accepted in these schools. To get empirical information about the discourse at schools, it is necessary to reconstruct areas of collectively shared experience. Focus groups and the reconstructive empirical evaluation method of Ralf Bohnsack are suited to col- lect and evaluate the data in a very particular way. The survey consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces the challenges which religious educa- tion in its denominational form faces in the light of religious diversity. Furthermore, an overview of the characteristics of religious education in Austria and the present discussion on this subject is given. Finally, the Austrian discussion on religious education is related to the wider European context where a fundamental question is which form a future format of religious education can take. The last part of chapter 1 gives an overview of the current state of empirical researches on religious education. Chap- ter 2 describes the methodological considerations, the methods and the procedure of this qualitative analysis. Chapter 3 and 4 contain the empirical part. First both schools are briefly presented. Then the group discussions are described as well as the different perspectives on the research question which came up during these discussions. Furthermore, the analysed discussions are presented in summaries. On the basis of theses group discussions conclusions are drawn with regard to a possible future format of religious education (chapter 5).