Open Access

Kathrin Winkler

• Western immigration societies are struggling with numerous of educational challenges. Every third, sometimes every second child has an immigration biography and teachers working in early childhood education are often minimally prepared to deal with the resulting diverse and complex conditions of cultural and religious diversity. Children and Childhood studies show that religion is an essential reference point for migrant families and their children. How could these empirical settings be transformed into intercultural and inter-religious competences and spiritual well-being in early childhood education? In which ways religious education in pre-schools provides a “safe place” or space of negotiating (religious) identity, value building, resilience, and the capacity to deal with pluralism and otherness? On the basis of empirical and theoretical results, the opportunities of religious education in early childhood education for developing an attitude of global citizenship should be taken into serious consideration