Teachers Responding to Religious Diversity in Europe. Researching Biography and Pedagogy

Currently, all European societies are experiencing a transformation process towards greater cultural and religious pluralisation. Teachers need new answers to turn (religious) diversity into a resource for peaceful coexistence, not a cause of misunderstanding, division and hostility. Through a qualitative approach, we follow the different strategies of teachers to cope with religious diversity in the classrooms of six European countries, from Estonia to France, from Norway to England, from Germany to the Netherlands. The juxtaposition of biographical information on the teachers, together with their views on religious diversity and their strategies in responding to it, provides a well-rounded (and extremely attractive) impression of the attitudes of teachers in Europe. The role of the teacher takes on great significance. He or she has to meet the twin demands of offering both a solid basis of factual information and the opportunity to formulate individual interpretations and opinions. The readers of this book are offered the opportunity to gain insight into the field of the study at two levels. They can access the findings of the analyses of the respective national contexts and the European comparison. At the same time, they are able to study portraits of all of the teachers interviewed in the course of the project so that the collation of data is complemented by insight into the human perspective and the influence of national contexts. This is valuable for readers as it offers material for discussions and seminars in the field of education, on two very different levels (the portraits as ‘working material’).