Religious capital in relation to teachers’ views of RE. A comparative study in the Greek educational context

Abstract

In this article, we attempt to conduct a comparative study of two different groups. The first group consists of Greek student teachers (1009) while the second comprises Greek in-service teachers (432) of primary education, namely current teachers with several years of experience. These teachers do not have training in theological studies, but they do have some knowledge of religious education (RE; With the term RE, we refer to the ‘subject of RE’ and not an everyday lesson of RE. In Greece, there is a debate on the teaching methodology of the course, i.e. utilising catechistic manners of teaching or teaching Christianity and different religions under historical/cultural criteria) after attending the Greek pedagogical faculties and receiving other forms of special training in the teaching of RE, especially the teaching of different religions from a historical/cultural point of view. Our aim in this paper is to offer a better understanding of how teachers aim to reproduce and change religious capital and examine if religious capital is tailored to the needs of schools or whether it operates independently. The paper will also examine how teachers themselves assess the effectiveness of their practices when teaching RE.