How school practice undermines religious education programs. A complexity-sensitive view of (organizational models of) religious education

As a system (Luhmann), teaching can only process a certain degree of complexity. If religious education programmes become too complex with regard to the organisation and design of religious education, school practice will develop (sometimes unconscious) practices that reduce this complexity and thus undermine the programme. This article reconstructs some of these practices within the framework of three current organiza-tional models (denominational, denominational-cooperative, RUFA). Practices of differentiation, entanglement and linking as well as inclusion (as required by religious education programmes) prove to increase complexity. Practices of homogenization, decoupling and exclusion (as observed in school practice) prove to reduce complexity.

Confessional religious education, confessional-cooperative religious education, the Hamburg model, sensitivity to complexity, religious pluralization