This article overviews the contemporary context for teaching Religious Education (RE) in Ireland and profiles changing religious demographics in an increasingly secular context. It presents the findings of a two-year mixed-methods study undertaken in two third-level Catholic colleges in Ireland, investigating four hundred third-level Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students’ perceptions of the religiously unaffiliated. The research data reveals the complexity and ambivalence of ITE students’ attitudes to teaching RE in primary schools in a rapidly changing Irish society where one in ten is religiously unaffiliated (Central Statistics Office, 2017). Several challenges emerge for ITE students as they begin teaching RE in Ireland’s denominational primary school context. The religious and convictional perspectives of the sample group are profiled and findings reveal that participants’ personal worldviews impact on their understandings of their future professional roles as religious educators. Data from this mixed methods research suggest that while ITE students view the teaching of RE as an important professional duty, a disconnect between their own personal beliefs and the curricular content they are required to teach in sacramental RE programmes in Catholic primary schools creates a climate of ambivalence and uncertainty.

本文概述了爱尔兰宗教教育 (RE) 教学的当代背景，并概述了在日益世俗化的背景下不断变化的宗教人口统计数据。它介绍了在爱尔兰两所三级天主教大学进行的为期两年的混合方法研究的结果，调查了四百名三级初级教师教育 (ITE) 学生对无宗教信仰的看法。研究数据揭示了 ITE 学生在快速变化的爱尔兰社会中对小学可再生教育教学态度的复杂性和矛盾性，其中十分之一的人没有宗教信仰（中央统计局，2017 年）。当 ITE 学生开始在爱尔兰的宗派小学环境中教授 RE 时，他们面临着一些挑战。对样本组的宗教和信念观点进行了概述，调查结果表明，参与者的个人世界观会影响他们对未来作为宗教教育者的职业角色的理解。这种混合方法研究的数据表明，虽然 ITE 学生将 RE 教学视为一项重要的职业职责，但他们自己的个人信仰与他们在天主教小学的圣礼 RE 课程中要求教授的课程内容之间的脱节造成了一种氛围矛盾和不确定性。