About us

Since 2011, the interfaculty and interdisciplinary Research Center for Religion and Education (formerly the Center for Religious Education Research) has been dedicated to supporting, initiating, and conducting scientific research that investigates religious education processes.

The work of the RCRE focuses on both past and present educational processes at the intersection of religion and society, with historical, systematic, and empirical methods shaping its research. The RCRE is divided into three departments:

• Religious Education in the Context of Secularization and Religious Pluralization
• Religious Education in Historical Perspective
• Religious Education in Schools, Religious Instruction, and Teacher Education

In addition, it has three working units explicitly focused on the transfer of scientific findings into (religious) pedagogical practice:

• Working Unit for Culture- and Religion-Sensitive Education (KuRs.B)
• Working Unit "'Higher Jewish Schools' in the 'Long 19th Century'"
• Working Unit "Confessionally Cooperative Religious Instruction in Thuringia"

The RCRE currently consists of 23 ordinary members from four faculties of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. These are joined by extraordinary members from 13 universities, further institutional cooperation partners from Jena, Thuringia, and across Germany, as well as an international advisory board.