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Science and Religion in Education pp 169–188Cite as

Changes and Stabilities in the Views of German Secondary School Students on the Origin of the World and of Humans from the Ages of 12 to 14 and 16: First Results of a Qualitative Empirical Longitudinal Study

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Part of the book series: Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education ((CTISE,volume 48))

Abstract

Based on the empirical data, I describe some changes and stabilities in the views of students in secondary schools in Germany on the origins of the world and of humans. In these views, religious as well as scientific perspectives interact: the belief in God as creator on the one hand and the trust in the theories of big bang and evolution on the other. The longitudinal study presents different ways in which two students, Nico and Lena, combine these two perspectives and examines how their combinations changed across the ages of 12, 14, and 16. The comparison of these two cases brings up the problem of explaining the shown differences which will have to be researched further.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the Federal Republic of Germany, each of the 16 states decides on its own educational system. This has led to a very complex overall situation. In 14 federal states, pupils attend primary schools for 4 years (in Berlin and Brandenburg for 6 years). Then the students have to choose between three (or two) different types of secondary schools: They attend secondary modern schools in order to graduate after the 9th form. Otherwise, they go to junior high schools and graduate after the 10th form. (In some states, secondary modern and junior high schools have merged.) Or they attend grammar schools/high schools until graduating after the 12th or 13th form. In several federal states, students also attend comprehensive schools.

    Religious Education (RE) normally takes place in every state school and form in conformity with the German Constitution (article 7,3). About 60% of German students belong to a Christian church, in Eastern Germany; however, undenominational students often are in the majority. In most states in Germany, the religious communities work together with the state which has to organize RE. This results in schools in diverse offers of confessional RE, e.g. of the Protestant, Roman Catholic and meanwhile in some places of the Islamic type (about 5% of the students are Muslim). Most students have to attend RE in their own religion and confession with a teacher of the same confession or choose the subjects ethics or philosophy as a neutral alternative. In some regions, Roman Catholic and Protestant RE cooperate (from time to time). In three federal states (Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen), RE is substituted by a neutral subject. An interreligious RE for all the students is offered by Protestant teachers in Hamburg.

  2. 2.

    A quantity of 14 persons is sufficient and quite normal for qualitative research, because it is aimed at gaining a theoretical saturation of a theory or a typology (Strauss and Corbin 1996; Kelle and Kluge 2010, 41–55) instead of reaching representativeness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catholic Theology, Institute of Theologies, University of Education Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

    Christian Hoeger

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  1. LASAR (Learning about Science and Religion), Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK

    Berry Billingsley  & Keith Chappell  & 

  2. Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK

    Michael J. Reiss

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Hoeger, C. (2019). Changes and Stabilities in the Views of German Secondary School Students on the Origin of the World and of Humans from the Ages of 12 to 14 and 16: First Results of a Qualitative Empirical Longitudinal Study. In: Billingsley, B., Chappell, K., Reiss, M.J. (eds) Science and Religion in Education. Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, vol 48. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17234-3_14

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