Muslim diversity, religious formation and Islamic religious education. Everyday practical insights into Muslim parents’ concepts of religious education in Austria

Abstract

Since its establishment, Islamic religious pedagogy at German-speaking universities has primarily faced basic questions like: What kind of methodological and didactic approaches can be employed in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) and how should the structural framework be designed? Analyses concerning these questions are often drafted via top-down approaches, which neither hypothesise from practice nor consider the perspectives of Muslim populations and parents. This paper gives a hearing to those voices from a practice-theoretical research perspective, which is built upon an evidence-based empirical analysis of everyday practical realities. The study of these realities was conducted in Austria, where IRE has been taught within the public education system nationwide since 1982/1983. This article evaluates the importance Muslim parents assign to religious questions among different concepts of education, and also deals with the question of which pedagogical approach they favour. Furthermore, the paper analyses the parents’ position concerning religious formation in mosques and schools, and points out their related expectations, aspirations and worries. Consequently, the paper breaks new ground by profoundly illuminating the realms of experience of Muslim students and by providing the basis for pupils to be systematically taken into account in religious pedagogical and religious didactic approaches.