Information in English

Teachers’ religious or worldview beliefs are often assumed to impact their way of teaching. Public debates in Western countries about teachers wearing headscarfs, about evangelical science teachers refusing to teach evolution theory or about confessional requirements of teachers at faith-based schools indicate that this assumption has societal and political implications. There is also a fierce debate on whether connections between teachers’ religious or worldview beliefs and their professional thinking and acting should be viewed as legitimate at public (state) schools that are obliged to be ‘neutral’ regarding religion and worldviews – while there is still scarce empirical evidence on this topic. Thus, empirical evidence regarding links between teachers’ religious or worldview beliefs on the one hand and their profession-related beliefs on the other hand is needed.
The aim of this research project is to examine these links for the German context.
The project was third-party-founded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). Further information are provided here: www.dfg.de

Check out our latest publications:

(see also our – partly in German – complete list of publications)

Penthin, M., Christ, A., Kröner, S., Pirner, M., & Scheunpflug, A. (2023). Does Teachers’ Spirituality Make a Difference? The Explanatory Value of Spirituality and Religiosity for Teachers’ Professional Beliefs on Teaching and Learning. Religion & Education, 1-12, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2023.2185051
postprint: coming soon

Penthin, M., Pirner, M., Scheunpflug, A., & Kröner, S. (2022). Measuring student teachers’ beliefs regarding religion in schools: piloting and preliminary validation of two newly developed scales. British Journal of Religious Education, 1-18. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2021.2007047
postprint:
Full Text

Penthin, M., Christ, A., Kröner, S., Pirner, M., & Scheunpflug, A. (2022). Relationships between religious-spiritual and professional-ethical beliefs of schoolteachers. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11618-021-01063-y
Full Text

Häusler, N./ Pirner, M./ Kröner, S./ Scheunpflug, A. (2019): Religious and Professional Beliefs of School Teachers – A Literature Review of Empirical Research. In: International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research (18/5), S. 24-41. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.5.3
Full Text