Interreligious Dialogue in the Classroom: A Qualitative Study

Interreligious Dialogue in the Classroom: A Qualitative Study

KU Leuven is an autonomous university. It was founded in 1425. It was born of and has grown within the Catholic tradition.

Are you fascinated by religious diversity in education and interested in exploring what really happens when students and teachers engage in interreligious dialogue? Do you want to understand how power, difference, and normativity shape these encounters? If so, this Ph.D. position might be right for you.

The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, are seeking a doctoral student to conduct research on the implementation of interreligious dialogic learning (IDL) in Flemish philosophy of life education. This research is part of a broader comparative research project titled *Interreligious Dialogue between Promise and Power: A Comparative Study of Belgium/Flanders and Morocco*, led by Prof. Dr. Marianne Moyaert and Prof. Dr. Nadia Fadil.

Project

Interreligious dialogical Learning has recently become a mandatory component of the Flemish curriculum for religious education. Although dialogue is often presented as a natural means of promoting mutual understanding, respect, and social cohesion, teachers face significant pedagogical, institutional, and normative challenges in implementing it. Furthermore, the role of power relations, hegemony, privilege, and the broader social and historical context in which interreligious dialogue takes place often remains underexplored.

Through qualitative and ethnographic research, you will examine how IDL is shaped and experienced in Flemish schools. You will investigate how teachers and students experience dialogic practices, which norms, values, and expectations are promoted within them, and how these are internalized, negotiated, contested, or resisted. In this way, the project contributes to a critical and empirically grounded understanding of the possibilities and limitations of inter-philosophical dialogic learning in contemporary education.

You will be part of an interdisciplinary research team that also conducts research on interreligious dialogue in other socio-political contexts. The project is a collaboration between the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and the Cultural Anthropology research unit of the Faculty of Social Sciences at KU Leuven, led by Prof. Marianne Moyaert and Prof. Nadia Fadil.

Profile

• You have earned, or will have earned by the start of the appointment at the latest, the Research Master’s degree: Master of Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion, or an academic master’s degree in educational sciences, social sciences, anthropology, or another discipline outside of theology or religious studies that aligns with the proposed doctoral research in terms of subject matter and methodology. Candidates with a Master’s in World Religions combined with an academic master’s degree in a non-theological discipline are also eligible. Before the start of the fellowship, you must be admitted to the doctoral program at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.
• You have a demonstrable interest in qualitative empirical research. Experience with ethnographic research methods is a significant asset.
• You have a strong interest in religious education, religious diversity, and interreligious dialogue.
• You have an affinity for critical approaches to religion, power, secularism, and diversity.
• You are familiar with, or have a clear affinity for, the Flemish educational context, particularly Catholic education and community-based education.
• You have an open and reflective attitude toward philosophical and religious diversity.
• You possess strong analytical skills, work independently and in an organized manner, and at the same time enjoy working in an interdisciplinary research team.
• You have excellent oral and written communication skills in Dutch, which are required for fieldwork, and a good command of English, which is required for academic writing and international collaboration.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

• You will prepare and conduct qualitative and ethnographic research on interreligious dialogical learning (IDL) in Flemish philosophy of life education.
• You will collect empirical data using qualitative research methods, including participant observation, interviews, and document analysis.
• You will analyze how dialogical practices are shaped, legitimized, and experienced in educational contexts, with a particular focus on power relations, normativity, processes of inclusion and exclusion, and ethical education.
• You contribute to the theoretical development of the research project by linking empirical findings to insights from religious studies, theology, anthropology, and educational sciences.
• You write schola