Towards a methodology for comparative studies in religious education

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In this work, Oddrun M. H. Bråten aims to apply and evaluate her methodology for comparative religious education, integrating two sets of ideas. The first set encompasses supranational, national, and subnational processes. Formal supranational processes involve international policymaking in educational organizations, while informal processes include secularization, pluralization, and globalization. Subnational processes highlight regional variations within countries. The second set focuses on the societal, institutional, instructional, and experiential levels of curriculum, all influenced by the aforementioned processes. The societal level examines the historical contexts of religion, state, and education in each country. Institutional research analyzes relevant policy documents and legislation, while instructional research looks at teachers' interpretations and planning of the curriculum. The experiential level investigates student interactions with peers and teachers to enhance understanding. Additionally, Bråten incorporates Schiffauer and collaborators’ concepts of social/national imaginary and civil enculturation, which provide insight into the historical and sociological dimensions of national traditions. This publication represents a pioneering contribution to the methodology of comparative religious education, earning the author recognition as the Outstanding Research Student of 2009-2010 in education at the University