Challenges for teachers of religious education in Catholic and state schools in Poland: a comparative study

The present work aims at presenting and comparing challenges faced by religion teachers in Catholic and state schools in Poland. For that purpose, 10 religion teachers from Catholic and 10 from state high schools were interviewed. First of all, the concept of teaching religion was discussed, followed by an analysis of the Catholic schools’ situation in Poland. The subsequent research stage was focused on analysing the interviews with religion teachers, concerning perception of their students, contents and methods of education, as well as their satisfaction and fears related to Religious Education. There was also a comparison carried out, between the opinions of teachers working in Catholic and those employed in state schools. The paper is concluded with a discussion of the currently advocated changes in relation to methods of teaching religion in Poland.