Preparation of Islamic Religious Education Teachers in Secular Countries: A Study in Austria

Especially in Austria itself, it is estimated that in 2050 the Muslim population will be around 19.9% of the total population and the population increase will be second in Europe after Sweden with 30.6%. Interestingly again in Austria apart from being a secular country but it provides concern for Muslims to develop Islamic religious education there. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how universities in Austria prepared Islamic religion teachers at undergraduate level both in terms of models and curricula to face increasingly complex challenges and a growing number of Muslim citizens. This study used library research, while the approach used interpretative approach. The main reference source was the content on the university website that offers Islamic Religious Education programs. In addition, various sources lead to discourse and curriculum development in Austria. The number of data were displayed using descriptive statistics and described using descriptive qualitative. Then research design that would be carried out was to reveal the course content contained in the web and then reduced, especially in terms of the preparation curriculum for Islamic Religious Education teachers. Of the various courses presented were analyzed using content analysis where the important point was to take the most fundamental content that was related to the principles of curriculum development, namely contextual and responding to the challenges of the times. The results showed that the preparation of Islamic teachers in one of the colleges in Austria consists of undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate degrees. Undergraduate program of Islamic Religious Education consists of two models, namely Bachelor’s Program Secondary School Teacher Training (General Education) – Subject: Islamic Religion and the specific name is Bachelor’s Program Islamic Religious Education. In general, the content emphasis

1 Islamic Religious Education -Students and Teachers in Austria in 2017 In addition, Austria also provides training programs for Islamic Religious Education teachers (Berglund, 2015). This condition is seen in the following table.
United States V (Shakeel, 2018) Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands not only provide the facilities stated above but also fully facilitate Islamic educational institutions, funding, teaching of Islamic Religion in Government-Owned Schools and Provision of Teacher Education funded by the Government Budget.
Regarding the development data of Muslims in Europe according to Pew Research Center (2017) said that even if all migration into Europe were to immediately and permanently stop -a "zero migration" scenario -the Muslim population of Europe still would be expected to rise from the current level of 4.9% to 7.4% by the year 2050. This is because Muslims are younger (by 13 years, on average) and have higher fertility (one child more per woman, on average) than other Europeans, mirroring a global pattern. Especially in Austria itself it is estimated that in 2050 the Muslim population will be around 19 .9% of the total population, this is second only to Sweden with 30.6%.
In the other hand, one of Western Europe's most developed public Islamic education programs is in Austria, where religious education at public schools is a right of recognized churches and religious communities. In addition, curriculum for all religious courses is therefore uniform and nationally approved, and the Austrian government provides funding for instruction. This regulation and financial support guarantee that religious education in Islam is not given outside the school in a way that evades the national educational system. Austria itself, in accordance with this study, has no problems with communities developing Islamic education programs outside of state regulations if running in compliance with relevant requirements. In 2015 had some 37,000 children participate in Islamic education programs at 2,700 public schools across Austria, taught by 350 teachers. These numbers continue to rise. Interestingly that Muslim pupils at public schools do not have to attend lessons on Muslim holidays (Musharraf, 2015).
From the data above, it is found that there are many concessions from the Austrian government where Muslim citizens are given the right to design and develop especially Islamic religious education. In addition, as the data above states that the development of Muslims in the Austrian region is expected to continuously experience a significant increase. By referring to some of the data above, it is very important to uncover and analyze the courses and curricula used by universities that have Islamic Religious Education programs. This will show the extent to which Islamic Religious Education struggles in the midst of a secular country but provides a lot of leeway for minority Muslims in terms of designing courses, especially by universities that offer these majors. Apart from that, this point will show the readiness of the university in ensuring the courses it designed in facing all the complex challenges of the growing number of Muslims in Austria.

B. Literature Review
Darling-Hammond (2020) considers teacher education as a sacred trust because teaching is a work that forms the basis of this profession and others. Teacher education, which is the foundation of democracy and prepares teachers with the tools they need to do good work, is very important and cannot be underestimated. Due to the important and strategic education/preparation of teachers, Feuer et al. (2013) provide a definition of teacher preparation and education as a place for prospective teachers to gain a basic knowledge of pedagogy and subject matter, as well as an initial exposure to classroom practice experience.
Prepared and unprepared teachers supervised by teacher education institutions are different. Findings of Darling-Hammond, Chung, & Frelow (2002) show that teachers who are prepared through teacher education programs feel significantly more ready in most dimensions of teaching than those who start teaching through alternative programs or without preparation. Teachers' views on the programs to prepare teachers vary. Teachers feel more ready when they pass several programs. Finally, the extent to which teachers feel ready when they start teaching is significantly correlated with their sense of teaching success, their sense of responsibility for student learning, and their plans to keep teaching.
Serious preparation of teacher education is an embodiment of fulfilling accountability. Accountability in the form of determining the quality elements of teacher preparation programs is included in professional standard as part of professional policies for accreditation and licensing. This implementation is called Darling-Hammond (2020) as a performance-based accreditation strategy. In addition, standard-based performance assessment is needed by prospective teachers during teaching practice in educational institutions. It includes the evidence of preparation and experience of teacher candidates and investment in school partnerships in the development of professional teacher education, so there is a strong link between theory and practice.

C. Research Methodology
The method used in this research is content analysis. It is done by observing the content on the website of the college with validation of texts relating to teacher education in general and specifically at colleges in Austria. The addresses of the main website are as follow: This study used library research, while the approach used interpretative approach. The main reference source was the content on the university website that offers Islamic Religious Education programs. In addition, various sources lead to discourse and curriculum development in Austria. The number of data were displayed using descriptive statistics and described using descriptive qualitative. Then research design that would be carried out was to reveal the course content contained in the web and then reduced, especially in terms of the preparation curriculum for Islamic Religious Education teachers. Of the various courses presented were analyzed using content analysis where the important point was to take the most fundamental content that was related to the principles of curriculum development, namely contextual and responding to the challenges of the times. This research seemed simple because it used web-based sources, but it was very important to do and disclose considering that curriculum development is one of the keys to responding to the challenges of the times. In addition, the experience in implementing the curriculum in a predominantly non-Muslim country with various challenges needed to be a joint study for future progress.

D. Findings 1. Preparation of Religious Teachers in Austria
Religious teachers that are mostly prepared in Austria are the Catholic religion teachers. This is because the majority of the population is Catholics. The description is as follows: The data above show that there are 5 universities in Austria that organize the education of prospective Catholic Religious Education teachers. Compared to a report released by the Ministry of Education of the Austrian Federation, in which there are 14 university colleges of teacher education, this means that only 35% of colleges hold the preparation of Catholic religious teachers at the graduate level, and at the undergraduate level, only 4 colleges or around 28%. Preparation is from undergraduate to graduate level. A different degree of scholarship occurs at the University of Salzburg, namely the Bachelor of Religious Education -University (B.Rel.Ed.Univ), while other colleges assign a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. The period of each level can be seen in the following data. The table above shows that the longest duration of the graduate program in Catholic religious education at the University of Salzburg is 8 semesters, while others only have 6 semesters.

Model of Preparation of Islamic Religious teachers in Austria
Colleges in Austrian not only prepare Catholic religious teachers but also educate prospective Islamic teachers; but not as many as the above. The description is as follows. The data above shows that there are 2 universities in Austria that organize the education for prospective teachers of Islamic religious education at graduate level. The percentage is only 13% when compared to the total number of colleges amounting to 14 university colleges of teacher education. At the undergraduate level, there is only one university organizing Islamic teacher education. Even though there is only 1 university, it organizes two educational models with the same faculty affiliation, but different in its scientific guidance department. The first model is called Bachelor's Program Secondary School Teacher Training (General Education), and the Subject is Islamic Religion under the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, while the second model is named Bachelor's Program Islamic Religious Education under the Department of Islamic Theology and Religious Education. Level of education is from undergraduate to postgraduate degree. There are differences in undergraduate and graduate degrees. The description is as follows: There are different titles in the undergraduate level. In the first model, the degree is called a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed), while the second model applies Bachelor of Arts (BA). That also happened at the graduate level, even though the titles at the postgraduate degree level are the same, namely PhD. The study period of each level can be seen in the following data. The study period at the graduate level is the same, but it is different at the undergraduate level. The first model is 2 semesters longer than the second model.

Curriculum for the Preparation of Islamic Teachers
The different name of the program has an impact on the curriculum structure that must be followed by the prospective Islamic teachers at undergraduate level. However, the subjects of the curriculum are relatively the same, namely Philosophy, Arabic, Aqidah -Morality, Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh, History, Research Method, Education and Learning, and Contemporary Issues of Education. The first subject relates to strengthening the way of thinking through Philosophy Subject Both models have similarity in giving Philosophy Subject with the strengthening of Islamic Philosophy in the context of the History of Philosophy. Further development in logic requires the provision of foreign language courses; in this case is Arabic. Arabic subject of the two models differ in number. This is because in the second model, the material of Islam must be understood from the beginning through its primary book, which uses Arabic.
Aqidah is the basis for someone to do or not to do something, given to students as follows. Islamic ethics (Akhlaq) 6.
Questions of Faith in the Present The first model only has 4 courses related to Aqidah and Akhlaq (3 Aqidah courses and 1 Akhlaq course), while the second model has more courses, which is 7 courses (5 Aqidah courses and 2 Akhlaq courses).
There are two main sources of reference for Moslems, namely Qur'an and Hadith. These two references are given separately. Qur'an course can be seen below. Qur'an Exegesis Qur'an Exegesis 3.
Qur'an in Religious-Educational Fields of Action 7.

Genesis and Exegesis of Written Sources Genesis and Exegesis of Written Sources
In the general model, Qur'an Subject contains 4 courses, while in the specific model, the content of Qur'an Subject is 7 courses. For the second main subject, the Hadith is given to prospective Islamic teachers as follows. The first and the second models of Hadith Subject only have 1 course. Hadith Subject in both models emphasizes more on the methodology of the Hadith than the course of the Hadith.
In Islam, there are many types of vertical worship. Thus, Fiqh curriculum is needed for prospective teachers. This curriculum is provided for teachers, so they can later teach the types of worship to students. The course of Fiqh curriculum in Islamic Religious Teacher Education is as follows. The courses of Fiqh in the second column are less than the third column. The calculations are 3 courses: 4 courses. Bachelor's Program in Islamic Religious Education has Fiqh courses (basic and advanced), Fiqh methodology, and comparative Fiqh.
Human development is documented in historical documents, as well as the development of Islam and its adherents. This development needs to be studied by the prospective Islamic teachers. Thus, the preparation is given a History Subject curriculum. More materials of History Subject are given to students who take the second model. The History Subject includes the History of Islam in general, the History of Art and Culture, the History of Islamic Education, the History of Islamic Culture in Basic and Advanced Europe, and the Life History of the Prophet. For the first model, the History Subject does not include the History of Islamic Culture in Basic and Advanced Europe. Other history courses are the same between the first and second models.
Strengthening the logic of scientific thinking needs to be given to prospective teachers of Islam in order to facilitate the development of Islamic studies, and this requires a research methodology course. Qur'an Research in the Present 7 Courses for advanced study of the topics modules 1 to 4 or courses on topics in current education science of the accordingly marked course offer resp Project Development In the general model, Research Method Subject consists of 3 courses, while the specific model consists of 7 courses. There are seven courses in general, educational contexts, research relating to the development of courses, project development, and the final scientific work program seminar.
In terms of the courses that are directly related to the context of the school and class, students are prepared with the following educational and learning courses. Profession -specific knowledge and action 24 Profession -specific knowledge and action Teaching Practice IIIa and IIIb 25 Integration of Profession -specific competences In the general model, Education and Learning Subject contains 16 courses. The courses are from basic theory, classroom and school practice, professional practice and cross-professional practice. This is different from the specific model, in which there are only learning practices in class and school, but there are no professional practices and cross-profession practices.
The latest courses on education are given to all students who take the first and second models. Courses on the latest issue of education are different. The general model consists of 4 courses but students are only required to take 1 course. In the specific models, there are 5 courses in order to develop the insight of prospective Islamic teacher students. Students are equipped when dealing with the wider community when they are not in class or when they graduate and face the community.

E. Discussion
The term teacher education, teacher preparation, or pre-service teacher education in any field of study still leaves problems. There are weaknesses in the mastery of contents and the delivery of content to students. Data from the findings of this study indicate that the education of Islamic Religious Teachers in Austria is indeed different from what is happening in Indonesia. There are two models developed in one college, namely the first model is the Bachelor's Program Secondary School Teacher Training (General Education), and the Subject is Islamic Religion. This model is developed by the Department of Teacher Education and School Research. The second model is the Bachelor's Program in Islamic Religious Education. This model is developed by the Department of Islamic Theology and Religious Education.
These two models have different curriculum compositions. In the first model, the knowledge content courses consist of 17 subjects, learning/education content has 16 courses, the basic profession has 1 course, and the professional development has 3 courses. In the second model, the knowledge content courses consist of 34 subjects, learning/education content has 20 courses, the basic profession has 1 course, and the professional development has 7 courses. Both models have dominant content reinforcement. This is in line with Munadi (2017) found, where the preparation of Islamic Religious Education teachers in Higher Education in Indonesia, especially under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Culture, is more dominant in the mastery of content knowledge. Mastery of Islamic Religious content is indeed unbalanced among groups of Islamic religions. This can be seen in Tables 8-13, where the proportion of each family is unbalanced, in both the first and second models.
Education and Learning Subject shows a proportion of the balance between theory and practice. This is consistent with opinion, where today's pre-service teacher education is a place of contrasting trends. The contrast lies in the theory-practice correlation, cohort groupings, teaching for understanding, reflective practice, school-university partnerships, and independent learning research.
Three important components (theory -practice -reflection) of these programs include close integration among courses, as well as among practice and courses and clinical practice in schools, extensive and intensively supervised clinical practice integrated with practical courses pedagogy that connects theory and practice. It also includes a closer and proactive relationship with schools that serve diverse students effectively, as well as develop and model good teaching (Darling-Hammond et al., 2002). The integration as stated above is described in an interesting description by Kitchen & Petrarca (2016) in teacher education, namely: Figure: 2 The Position of Theory, Practice, and Reflection on Teacher Education The picture shows that (1) High in theory, reflection, practice; (2) High in practice, low in theory and reflection; (3) High in theory, low in reflection and practice; (4) High in reflection, low in theory and practice; (5) High in reflection and theory, low in practice. Islamic Teacher Education in Austria develops high theory and practice; low reflection.
The content of the latest educational issues must also be mastered by Islamic Religious teachers so that the content delivered is in accordance with the needs of the main stakeholders, namely students. Students in plural, heterogeneous, and multicultural societies need courses on plurality, as well as basic competencies related to conflicts and crises faced by society. Teacher education students who have learned about the most current educational issues are already equipped with the theological content listed in table 9, including contextual theology and Islamic ethics. The courses in table 16 actually strengthen the courses in the table of Knowledge courses.
When good prospective teachers in models 1 and 2 can carry out lectures as formulated, there will be quality teachers. It can be formed like the statement of Feiman-Nemser cited by Leggo & Irwin (2013), in which teaching and learning in teacher education is "learning to think like a teacher, learning to know like a teacher, learning to feel like a teacher, and learning to act like a teacher" in an integrated and sustainable way.
When all goes hand in hand, the quality of teachers will increase due to a good quality of teacher education. This is in line with the opinion of Loughran & Hamilton (2016), namely the expectation of teachers and expectation for progress in learning in schools are often associated with the perception of 'the quality' of teacher education.
Thinking about curriculum means trying to put down the most basic things, therefore (Sahin, 2018) criticizes that there is an urgent need to rethink the overall Islamic educational culture and the role it plays within the way these societies perceive and manage this unprecedented rapid socio-cultural change in their midst. In this case, Teachers of Islamic Religious Education in any part of the world must be better prepared to face new and complex challenges. With curriculum development, it is expected to be able to answer these challenges. This does not only apply to countries with Muslim minorities, but also those that are predominantly Muslim. In today's technological era, national borders can almost be reached within a few hours. In addition, the emergence of various innovations in information technology has made everyone able to access everything in the world in one cellphone grip.
Curriculum development is the main foundation in preparing Islamic Religious Education teachers so that later they have sufficient provisions in carrying out classroom learning with their students. According to Salleh (2013), there are several challenges that must be answered in curriculum development, firstly, what is the management method of the Islamic educational institutions should be; and secondly, what is the pedagogical and learning methods that should be adopted in the institutions. The `how' question deals with how the Islamic education could advance in an operational framework that is thought to be innovative and workable. All the three elements embedded in both `what, and `how' questions however intimately linked to each other, forming the very foundation in strategizing the effective enhancement of the Islamic education.
When referring to the results of research in Austria, at the level of development, the courses given still provide a very large portion in terms of theory, especially materials that are the scope of Islamic Religious Education. It was as it happened in IAIN Lhokseumawe Aceh-Indonesia, curriculum development in Department of Islamic Religious Education (IRE) also stressed on the aspect of IRE consisting of Al-Qur'an-Hadith, Aqidah Akhlak, Fiqh, and History of Islamic Culture to improve the professional competence of future teachers (Hayani, 2018). In addition, it also occurred at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta-Indonesia. One of the research results at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, especially in the (IRE) curriculum, states, the development of the curriculum to accommodate all the requirements of a professional teacher with four competencies; pedagogical, personality, social and professional competence, plus the competence of the leadership. On the other hand, curriculum development in PAI Department also stressed on the aspect of PAI consisting of Qur'an, Hadith, Aqidah and Morality, Fiqh, History of Islamic Art to improve the professional competence of future teachers (Suwadi, 2016).
In other parts of the world such as America, in a case study it is stated that Islamic education has several challenges, among which is the Islamic Religious Education teacher must be able to understand Concept of Similarities, Concept of Diversity, and many contributions of Muslims to the world in science, mathematics, and medicine (Hossain, 2013). Additionally, there are eight steps of systematic process in teaching and learning Islamic Education in the classroom. This eight steps of Islamic Education teaching and learning process would consider four pedagogical factors in its implementation once the systematic steps were applied in the systematic teaching and learning, the knowledge taught becomes more understandable and students could gain more experience and enable them to achieve the objectives of language teaching and learning in the classroom (Lubis, Yunus, Embi, Sulaiman, & Mahamod, 2010).
It does not stop there that even in Indonesia and Malaysia Islamic Religious Education experiences challenges which confirm that In seeking to live successfully in this modern world and at the same time having a strong relationship with Islamic principles, Muslim countries have been emphasizing a great deal on the significance of the role of Islamic education and the importance of mastering science and technology (Hashim & Langgulung, 2008). Meanwhile the results in Belgium revealed there is an urgent need for an updated qualitative Flemish IRE curriculum and IRE textbooks, developed by an expert committee of Belgian-educated educationalists experts. A new Flemish IRE curriculum imperatively needs to pay (more) attention to the development of affective, spiritual, physical and overall cultural skills, referring to the holistic approach of Islamic-religiouseducation in which the development of the mind, the heart and the soul are strongly intertwined. To achieve this overall education goal, it is necessary to develop a qualitative didactical-pedagogical framework that guides Flemish IRE teachers in tapping into the capacities, talents, interests and passions of the pupils, and in educating the pupils in cognitive and socio-communicative skills, such as inquiring, questioning, relating to others, dialoguing, being inspired, and pursuing religious and non-religious ideals (Lafrarchi, 2020).
From some of the challenges above, it shows that teachers must be prepared not only for courses related to theory in depth, but also development to the professional area of teaching with a variety of interesting approaches. Of course, this must really be prepared from the start of lectures to graduation. The latest fact in Indonesia is that the curriculum has undergone an overhaul, namely the implementation of (IRE) learning is expected to be based on a scientific process (scientific approach) by enabling students (student centered) to build knowledge (epistemological approaches) (Fathurrohman, 2018). In addition, the curriculum must be designed to be moderate so that the teachers are able to accept differences. The results study of the teachers' understanding of Islamic teaching found that teachers have different opinions regarding sensitive issues regarding Islam in its social context. Some teachers tend to be closer to conservative ideas. Others tended to be more moderate in their understanding of Islam. There is actually no clear demarcation between conservatives and moderates. However, one can generalize that the conservatives tended to be more closed to differences while the moderates tended to be more accepting of differences (Zuhdi, 2018).

F. Conclusion
The results show that the preparation of Islamic Religious teachers for undergraduate program uses two models. The first one is the general model. This model is called Bachelor's Program Secondary School Teacher Training (General Education) -Subject: Islamic Religion. The second one is specific model or named as Bachelor's Program -Islamic Religious Education. Curriculum of the first model consists of Philosophy (1 course), Arabic (1 course), Aqidah -Morality (4 courses), Qur'an (4 courses), Hadith (1 course), Fiqh (3 courses), History (4 courses), Research Methods (3 courses), Education (16 courses), and Contemporary Issues (4 courses), and 1 optional course. Meanwhile, courses in the second model consist of Philosophy (1 course), Arabic (4 courses), Aqidah and Morality (7 courses), Qur'an (7 courses), Hadith (1 course), Fiqh (4 courses), History (6 courses), Research Methods (7 courses), Education (20 courses), and Contemporary Issues (5 courses). The challenges that exist show that a curriculum development is needed that does not only prioritize theories on material related to Islam itself but also courses that lead to professionals such as methodological frameworks, conflict handling, social and other contextual approaches.