Child Theology and everyday practices in classrooms. A reconstructive analysis concerning the relationship between the normative program of Child Theology and the implicit rules and norms inherent in routines in Religious Education

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The pedagogical program of Child Theology has been widely established during the last 10 years. However, the program has not yet been implemented into everyday lessons of Religious Education (R.E.) on a larger scale. The project focusses on this aspect of implementation and asks how the normative program of Child Theology relates to those rules and norms which can be observed in the practices of R.E. lessons. The project interprets videotaped scenes from R.E. lessons from two different perspectives. The first perspective is inspired by the program of Child Theology. It looks for examples of good practice and regards the norms of Child Theology as criteria of this good practice. The second perspective is informed by the practice turn. This perspective suspends the question of good practice and tries to reconstruct the rules and norms which are inherent in those practices which are constitutive of R.E. lessons. Practices are defined as routines in a social field that are taken for granted by its participants. Incidents which, from the perspective of Child Theology, might be interpreted as missed chances, indicative of deficits in the teachers professional capacities, can thus be described as incidents of conflicting norms. The aims of the project are threefold: First, it analyses how much Child Theology there can be found in everyday R.E. lessons. Second, it elucidates some of the taken-for-granted apects of R.E. lessons. Third, it describes potential conflicts over norms between Child Theology and those rules and norms which are effective in practices that constitute R.E.