Religious Education in a Multicultural Europe: Children, Parents and Schools (Education, Economy and Society)

Drawing on a major EU-funded research project, this book examines how religious/secular beliefs are formed at school and in the family across different European countries, offering insights into key policy issues concerning the place of religion in the school system and illuminating current debates around religion and multiculturalism. Religion and schooling has become a controversial issue across Europe. But we know little about how these tensions are experienced by children and their families. This groundbreaking book draws on an innovative, comparative study to examine how religious and/or secular beliefs are formed at school and in the family in five countries with very different educational systems (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Malta, and Scotland). New information on how schools and families influence the development of children's religious identities is presented by placing the experiences of primary school children at the centre of the research, yielding fresh insights into their perspectives on religion and schooling. The book adopts a multidisciplinary perspective, thus providing a more holistic perspective on the processes at play. Importantly, it offers insights into key policy issues concerning the place of religion in the school system, illuminating current debates around religion and multiculturalism across Europe Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-14 Religion and Schooling: The European Context....Pages 15-36 Religious Education in Primary Schools in Scotland: Consensus or Uneasy Truce?....Pages 37-68 The Material and Symbolic Cultures of the Everyday: Religion in Maltese Primary Schools....Pages 69-100 Children’s Agency and Religious Identity in Irish Primary Schools....Pages 101-131 Religion and Immigration: The Acculturation Attitudes of Muslim Primary School Children Attending Flemish Schools....Pages 132-163 Education as Negotiation: Discovering New Patterns of Religious Identity Formation in Germany....Pages 164-201 Conclusions....Pages 202-209 Back Matter....Pages 210-215