ReaC - Religion and Citizenship
Research Group
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Alexander Unser
Coordinator: Janine Kuropka
Co PIs:
- Prof. Dr. Milda Ališauskienė (Vytautas Magnus University, LTU),
- Dr. phil. Aslıgül Aysel (Universität Innsbruck, AUT),
- Prof. Dr. Gerdien Bertram-Troost (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL),
- Prof. Dr. Pål K. Botvar (University of Agder, NOR),
- Dr. Dr. Mariusz Chrostowski (KU Eichstätt, POL),
- Prof. Dr. Sandra Cullen (Dublin City University, IRL),
- Prof. Dr. Ana Thea Filipović (University of Zagreb, HRV),
- Prof. Dr. Liam Gearon (Okford University, UK),
- Prof. Dr. Dr. Laima Geikina (University of Latvia, LVA),
- Dr. Petra Juen (Universität Innsbruck, AUT),
- Prof. Dr. Eszter Kodácsy-Simon (Lutheran University Budapest, HUN),
- Prof. Dr. Marios Koukounaras-Liagkis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, GRC),
- Prof. Dr. Didier Pollefeyt (KU Leuven, BEL),
- Prof. Dr. Marlene Printz Jellesen (Aalborg University, DNK),
- Dr. Inkeri Rissanen (Tampere University, FIN),
- Prof. Dr. Silviu Rogobete (West University of Timisoara, RO),
- Prof. Dr. Olga Schihalejev (University of Tartu, EST),
- Prof. Dr. Anders Sjöborg (Uppsala University, SWE),
- Dr. Viktória Šoltésová (Matej Bel University, SVK),
- Prof. Dr. Fahimah Ulfat (Universität Tübingen, GER),
- Prof. Dr. Michalinos Zembylas (Open University of Cyprus, CYP),
- Comenius Institut Münster (GER),
- Landeszentrale für politische Bildung NRW (GER)
Funding & Duration
The research project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with approx. 210.000,- €.
The project duration is three years (11/2021-10/2024).
Definition of the Problem & Objective
Due to the increasing threat to liberal democracies by populist movements and loss of acceptance in parts of the population, one of the central challenges of the education system is to promote the development of democratic values. Religious education must make a decisive contribution to this, because, for many people in Europe, religion is an important resource that shapes individual values. Since religious traditions have an ambivalent relationship to democratic values, there is a need for specific educational offers that strengthen the democracy-promoting potential of religion and counteract anti-democratic developments in a preventive way. Previous concepts, however, have proven to be ineffective.
Therefore, the proposed project aims to establish an EU-wide interdisciplinary network of experts and junior researchers from academia and practice, which will identify and analyze key educational challenges at the intersection of religious and civic education within three years, evaluate existing concepts to see how effectively they address the challenges and develop innovative contributions to solving the challenges on this basis.
Approach
Two network meetings per year are planned for the exchange between experts. The meeting in the first half of the year serves to explore the topic so that relevant issues, findings, and research approaches can be identified. The project partners will deepen the identified topics until the meeting in the second half of the year so they can come to a well-founded assessment. In the first year of the project, the focus will be on the challenges facing religious and civic education today, in order to identify educational needs. In the second year of the project, a critical assessment of existing approaches and interventions will be made. It will be examined to what extent these interventions actually address the needs identified in the first project year and whether there is sufficient empirical evidence for the effectiveness of these measures. In the third project year, with a view to the needs identified in the first two project years, ideas for innovative solutions in the form of pedagogical interventions will be developed. The results of the work are made available to the public in form of scientific publications and educational expertise.