Protestant Religious and Community Education (M.A.)

The Master's program is a consecutive degree program that builds on a Bachelor's degree in Protestant religious education or comparable qualifications. It expands the educational level acquired in the Bachelor's program to include further fields of activity (e.g. in the area of adult education and team coaching) and deepens the graduates' competences in the fields of educational work, didactics, theology and cybernetics (church leadership). Thus, a profile has been developed for this degree program that responds to the specific professional requirements within schools and congregations.

The Master's program opens up a variety of opportunities within the church job market. In particular, it qualifies students to:

• Teach religious education in schools
• Assume leadership positions and take on management tasks at a district church level
• Be accepted into ordained pastoral ministries (after a second, practical training phase/vicariate).

The Master's program imparts pedagogical, theological and didactic skills that are needed to organise congregational work within churches and to teach religious education in schools. In both fields of study, students are prepared for a critical examination of religious traditions as well as dealing with questions of Christian theology and ethics. Special emphasis is placed on the training of personality-related competences as well as the training of conversation skills, counselling and pastoral care. The study content includes, amongst others, the following areas:

• Education for all ages, especially adult education
• Counselling and leadership within the church and in the community
• Challenges being faced by modern religious cultures.

There is a great need for qualified professionals in the areas of religious education in schools and for the educational work of the church. The professional interpretation, didactic mediation and liturgical-practical staging of one’s religion under current social conditions demands a high degree of pedagogical, psychological and theological competence. The Master's program enables students to hermeneutically decode the signatures of modern religious cultures and to translate the symbols of the Christian faith into current life situations.

The three semesters of study consist of four module groups with the following focal points:

1st semester

Scientific-theoretical and practical basics (A modules), deepening of communicative, psychological and pedagogical professionalism (B modules)

2nd semester

Reflection on the professional fields of school and community (C modules)

3rd semester

Research methods, Master's lecture courses and Master's thesis (D modules)

The three-semester Master's program is designed as a full-time program. It starts annually in the summer semester. The Master's program has a special focus on the following contents:

• Pedagogical work with people of all ages (with a focus on adult education).
• Reflection on the special religious education challenges of the "systems" of school and congregation
• Development of one's own professional identity and empowerment to take on leadership responsibility
• The theory and practice of project learning
• Deepening biblical, systematic and practical theological competences.