What do we learn from Religious Education?

Que nous apprend l'enseignement religieux ?

Was lernen wir vom Religionsunterricht?

During the last decade, Religious Education (RE) has been the object of intense debates and deep reforms in many European countries as well as outside Europe (e.g. Québec). The Chair for the Study of religions at the University of Fribourg, with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, would like to stimulate the scientific discussion on this topic. With this thematic conference, we would like to stress the importance of the Religious education-research for the study of history and politics of religion.

Scholars of religion in different countries have put great effort in order to lift the fog surrounding the different national systems of RE and thus permitting a comparison between different institutional models. Thanks to this works it is now possible to have a clearer view of the diversity of RE and the trends of its change in the western world.

Academics have also invested significant resources to analyse the form, the content and the orientation of RE. Through the analyses of school curricula, pedagogical models, teaching materials or classroom praxis this research can lead to a better understanding of the aims, possibilities and limits of RE and has often a practical implication, permitting an actual improvement in the quality of the lessons.

The contributions should present empirical findings based on different national and international cases. However the comparison between institutional models should not be the fil rouge of this conference; Nor should it be the pedagogical concern. The aim is to approach the topic of RE from a different perspective: RE is not only an important object of research, but also a powerful instrument to analyse the social reality and history of religions. Schools occupy a very peculiar social position, in the midway between State, religious communities and civil society.

Therefore, the presence, the form and the aim of RE at school strongly address the question of the role of religion(s) in society and invite to analyze the States' politics in this domain.

Hence contributions to this conference should deal with the following questions: What does the scientific study of religious education tell us about the contemporary history of religions? What can we learn from our findings for the sociological analysis of religion and the politics of religion? In what sense can we understand Religious education as an indicator for the relationship between State and religious communities?

To answer these questions, we would like to establish a pluridisciplinary frame, by inviting scholars of different disciplines (Study of religion, sociology, history, political studies, theology, pedagogy, law) interested in the topic.

The conference will take place in Fribourg (Switzerland) on June 25-26, 2010. French, German, and English contributions are welcome. Presentation time is 30 minutes per contribution.

If you are interested in participating, please send us an abstract of approximately 200 words of your contribution. Submission deadline is December 1, 2009.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Fribourg,

Yours faithfully

Dr. Ansgar Jödicke (ansgar.joedicke@unifr.ch)
Lic. phil. Andrea Rota (andrea.rota@unifr.ch)

Religionswissenschaft
Universität Fribourg - Pérolles 2
Boulevard de Pérolles 90
CH-1700 Fribourg
+41 (026) 300 74 56
www.unifr.ch/sr