Summary

In 2021/2022 confirmands and workers in the participating countries filled in questionnaires which gives an insight into the reality of confirmation work during the challenging times of the pandemic. Parallel to this study the feedback tool “i-konf” was developed, which can be used for the feedback of confirmands in several languages. It is accessible for free under www.i-konf.eu.

Objectives

  1. Confirmands can use the feedback tool i-konf to give feedback on their experiences during confirmation time. Thus, the participation of young people is fostered with the help of a digital tool.
  2. i-konf gives parishes and subordinate units the opportunity to receive feedback and impulses for the further development of this field of work on an empirical basis.
  3. With the collected data the quality development of confirmation work is promoted on different levels – directly in the local parishes as well as on the level of the regional churches and internationally.
  4. The survey 2021/2022 provides data for the regional churches on the current situation of confirmation work. Almost ten years after the second study (2012/13) and fifteen years after the first study (2007/08), a continuous data basis on this important field of work is thus emerging, which is likely to meet with interest not only within the church but also in science and politics.

Relevance

Why is feedback from confirmands necessary for developing the quality of confirmation work?
Evaluation research shows that the possibility of giving feedback is an important aspect of participation, also from the perspective of young people. However, young people only identify giving feedback as a participation possibility if they have the impression that their opinions are actually taken seriously and contribute to the further development of the educational program, in this case the further development of confirmation work.

Why should the potentials of digitalisation be used for the quality development of corporate work?
Conventional feedback procedures using questionnaires etc. often fail because the evaluation takes up too much time, skill and resources.
Since the data is fed and processed digitally in i-konf, a targeted interpretation is tied to much fewer prerequisites and consequently less effort. The existing online tool i-EVAL, which has been extensively tested and utilised in youth work, provides the basis for i-konf. This ensures that group leaders or pastors can start an evaluation with a few clicks and receive the results just as quickly and directly from the system. Standardised questionnaires are developed by researchers and provided in the system. The questionnaires can be adapted individually, so that congregations have a tailor-made feedback tool at their disposal. It is also possible to use the tool for the subject-oriented evaluation of individual components of confirmation work (camps, all-day programs etc.).

Further potentials
There is also particular potential for quality development at the supraregional level of deaneries, communities, church districts, etc., and regional churches. Since the data is collected centrally, it can also be evaluated at this level. This shows that i-konf can be used and made useful as an instrument for community and church development. Through the participation of all regional churches, the feedback findings can also be used for nationwide analyses. Furthermore, since i-konf is integrated into a European research context, feedback findings can also be compared at a European level.