International knowledge transfer in religious education: insights from a new volume

What is it about?

This review discusses International Knowledge Transfer in Religious Education (Waxmann, 2021), a collected volume that asks how ideas, practices, and research findings in religious education (RE) travel across borders. The book brings together scholars—mainly from Europe—to examine what “international,” “knowledge,” and “transfer” mean for a field where context matters greatly. Chapters range from historical case studies (e.g., Orthodox and Islamic RE in Europe) to methodological and theoretical contributions, including bibliometric mapping and a model of “boundary encounters” for tracing how ideas diffuse without erasing local particularities. The review highlights the book’s breadth and utility for supervisors, teachers, and researchers, while also noting gaps: contributions are largely European and focus mostly on Christian and Muslim contexts, leaving out perspectives from Africa, Asia, and the Americas, as well as settings without a formal RE subject.

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Why is it important?

The volume is one of the first to focus explicitly on international knowledge transfer in RE, offering frameworks and concrete cases that can inform comparative studies, curriculum thinking, and teacher education. By clarifying what kinds of knowledge travel more easily (e.g., metatheoretical vs. everyday classroom knowledge) and by proposing analytical tools (e.g., bibliometrics, boundary encounters), it equips the field to build more cumulative, internationally relevant research. The review underscores where future work can broaden impact: include more global regions and a wider range of religious and educational contexts.

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