Religious Education in Context

Research Context

Religious Education and Catechetics are embedded in a social discourse. In research, education and practice, the discourse on religious education refers to the contexts of the present society. Challenges and questions that arise, form impulses and perspectives on the sustainability of religious education. The Department of Religious Education and Catechetics participates in the development and concretization of basic theories, in approaches of empirical research and hermeneutical perspectives. Current central topics for religious education reflect political dimensions of religion, creation and ecology, mediatization and digitality, migration, violence and gender. The research focus "Religious Education in Context" cooperates on an interdisciplinary basis with the Research Center "Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society" (RaT), the Research Network "Gender and Agency", the Research Platform "Mediatised Lifeworlds" and the International Research Group "Film and Theology".

Aims

  • Examine the contribution of religious education to a development of democratic societies
  • Develop models for gender-sensitive religious education
  • Investigate (sexualised) violence, its causes and effects in educational and religious contexts and develop models for preventative action
  • Perceiving, developing and accompanying religion and religious education in the migration society
  • Contouring religious education in the horizon of mediatized life worlds and developing them in the context of digital education
  • Considering religious construction and staging in social media and opening it up as a source and horizon of religious reflection and analysis of the present for approaches to religious education
  • Opening up fictional films as a medium of religious education and religious reflection of the present

 Projects

  • Violence and Gender
  • Identity-aware religious education
  • Art and film as media of religious education and for reflecting on the present
  • Migration and religious education
  • Visual presence of religious cultures and strategies of informal learning in digital platforms
  • Religious education studies with a special focus on political issues
  • Theories of subjectivity
  • Theology and religious education studies in the horizon of digitality
  • Future of religious education
  • Discourse-sensitive education

Team

Andrea Lehner-Hartmann, Viera Pirker, Bettina Brandstetter

Cooperation

Qualified Research Projects