Estudio descriptivo de la educación religiosa de estudiantes de secundaria de la provincia de Córdoba (España)

Abstract: The phenomenon of globalisation has transformed our educational centres into plural environments. Cultural diversity is concentrated and coexists in them; and religious beliefs, which are learned within cultures, constitute a major social and political issue which must be therefore addressed as a priority in scientific-social research, as well as its educational implications. This aim of this research work is to figure out and then describe the implicit thinking of young people about religious diversity and the teaching of religion in Spain, using the European project REDCo (Religion in Education: A contribution to dialogue or a factor of conflict in transforming societies of European Countries) as a basis. This project is funded by the Research Department of the European Commission and is intended to establish the potentialities and limitations of religion in the educational systems of eight different countries, namely Estonia, Russia, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, England, France and Spain. The instrument used for the collection of data has been a questionnaire validated by RDCo. It was administered to 385 students from four Secondary Education centres in Cordoba (Spain), characterised by their complex and changing diversity of beliefs. The descriptive analyses indicate, first, the interest of students to understand other religions and/or worldviews through flexible grouping; second; the existence of different experiences with religion in the school and, third; the varying positions of students with respect to the different models of teaching religion.