Project description
Currently, there is talk of climate change and its consequences in terms of a global mega-crisis, which makes ecological transformation processes urgently necessary. However, as environmental awareness research shows, such ecological transformations are not possible without social changes, in order to ultimately lead to changes in attitudes and behavior. The starting point is therefore the interconnectedness of religion as a social system and its interaction with contextual ecological systems, since faith in the sense of religious affiliation determines mentalities and thus also shapes environmental awareness. This can and must be seen in ambivalent terms – comparable to the issues of ‘war and peace’: Religions are not per se conducive to peace or awareness-raising in terms of environmental ethics. On the contrary, history has repeatedly shown the opposite. Nevertheless, the so-called world religions have immense potential for the preservation of creation (here especially with regard to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam) or the appreciation of nature in the sense of a nature-based spirituality (more in the context of Far Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism) in recourse to the texts regarded as sacred.
In the Erasmus Plus project, these potentials are to be theologically emphasized from an interreligious perspective in order to be made fruitful in terms of religious didactics in the context of teacher training. As people can be reached via religious affiliation regardless of gender, national affiliation, cultural reference or social class, effects are expected which are of awareness- raising significance in terms of ecological transformation. Unlike in Germany, religions have a different, usually more important significance for Europe in terms of their power to shape culture. For example, Islamic religious education has long been established in Austria and integrated into the school context, whereas this has only been achieved hesitantly in Germany or Spain.
With the help of an alternative model of interreligious teacher training with a focus on environmental ethics, impulses can be given on a European horizon which, as an entry into the training and further education of teachers, are value-forming for society: both in the sense of inclusion of religious diversity in schools that enables democracy in today’s increasingly pluralistic context and with a view to environmental ethics, which generates encouragement, hope and motivation to act, especially in the common orientation. The global dimension – linked to the keyword of climate justice – must not be lost sight of. In a fundamental sense, this project is intended to make a significant contribution to securing peace.
Objectives
What we want to achieve by implementing the project:
Interreligious learning is to be (re)designed through impulses from international cooperation for teacher training in such a way that nature and climate protection, climate resilience promotion and reflection on climate justice are integrated into educational efforts as subject areas in order to promote urgently needed ecological transformation processes not only in the sense of promoting environmental knowledge, but also for joint environmental ethical awareness-raising.
Implementation
What activities we are going to implement:
On the basis of information transfer, discourses and reflections on theological foundations and environmental-ethical, context-related approaches in dealing with nature conservation and climate change, the practice of training and further education of teachers (of all disciplines) is professionalized in such a way that interreligious cooperation on environmental education is transferred into school practice (didactic concepts, team teaching, joint teaching materials)
Results
What project results and other outcomes we expect to have:
The connection between environmental and climate protection and the preservation of social peace is recognized and implemented by professionalized teachers in the field of interreligious education across all subjects in schools. This promotes a change in awareness of environmental ethics because the opportunity for international and interreligious cohesion can be emphasized through criteria such as solidarity and justice, thus counteracting the rampant resignation.
Impressions
