Contours of a classism-critical religious education

Abstract

It is well established that educational opportunities in Germany are distributed very unequally, depending on the socio-economic background of pupils. To what extent can these disparities be explained, at least in part, by classist forms of discrimination? This article explores this question by first outlining the concept of classism and then applying it to various stages in the biographical educational trajectories of children and adolescents that may contribute to socially selective educational outcomes. With reference to religious education, the article further examines whether the social-milieu narrowing of the Protestant Church may result in religious educators—often unknowingly—becoming implicated in classist mechanisms of exclusion. Finally, the article sketches an approach to classism-critical religious education aimed at ensuring that its objectives, attitudes, and practices do not reinforce class-based discrimination.