In the long history of the Catholic school in Europe, it has taken various forms, linked to local cultures and to the history, particularly religious but also political, of each state. While it is possible to account for this diversity, it is also important to highlight common features and challenges, such as secularisation and globalisation,…

Christianity is one of the cultural and ethical cornerstones of Europe. In the European Union (EU) there is no overarching policy on religious education (RE) in the school system. The authors use a comparative methodology to analyze the constitutions of Western European countries in relation to different aspects of RE. Specifically, it is focused…

A tiny section on the agenda of the National Assembly of the Weimar Republic from February to July, 1919 was entitled "Religious instruction and the public elementary school," part of the preparation for the new Constitution of the German Reich, the so-called Weimar Constitution [Weimarer Reichsverfassung; abbr. WRV], of August 11th,…

This article summarises the state of comparative historical research in the field of religious education. After describing a range of purposes to be fulfilled by comparative studies, it categorises a number of studies written in either English, French or German according to their methodological approach and subject focus. As a result, a…

"Life Design-Ethics-Religion Studies" (LER) is the only non-confessional form of religious education (RE) in Germany. Six years after German reunification, the federal state of Brandenburg introduced LER with its dimension of non-confessional RE into the school curriculum. In this contribution, LER will be elucidated in three steps.…

Power over education and the upcoming generations has always been an important instrument in shaping religious and secular values. As a consequence, control over schools, pupils and teachers was, particularly in periods of war, an important means for bringing about acceptance of the new regime. The aim of this paper is to discuss priest-teachers'…

This article focuses specifically on the incorporation of ethnic minority children within the education systems of England, France and Germany. The trends in policy development after World War II in these countries are examined through the prism of three ideal-typical incorporation strategies--integration, assimilation and separation. This is done…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2013, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1 to 3 of June. Education, in a global sense, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and acts. One of the…

Bavarian schools promote a Christian civil religion by providing religious instruction for Catholic and Protestant students but not for religious minorities, and by creating an environment suffused with Christian rituals and symbols. Interviews with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim administrators and community members revealed a wide gap in opinion…

German adult education before 1933 stressed group experience in the family, clan, and culture rather than knowledge and the individual. Outside trends, expecially in England, Austria, Denmark, and the United States, repeatedly influenced the German movement. While lecture institutes, university extension, and other activities were important, the…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 11th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 14-17 May 2013, and papers submitted to the 1st International Distance Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre "Scientific Cooperation,"…

This book, which focuses on the relationship between adult education institutions and social movements, contains 31 papers originally presented at a 1998 conference on the history of adult education. Following an Introduction (Cooke), the papers are: Mobilisation, Popular Participation and Sustainable Development: Themes in the Recent History of…