The CoGREE steering group meets twice a year to plan and discuss common projects.
The current members are:
Piet Jansen (IV) – CoGREE moderator
Piet is chairman of the board of two school foundations for Protestant and Catholic education in the western part of The Netherlands. These foundations together include 23 schools for primary, special and secondary education. Over 8000 pupils attend these schools. Piet started his educational career 45 years ago as a teacher of the Dutch language, economics and social studies.
Since 2018 he is President of the International Association for Christian Education (IV). Currently Piet is the moderator of CoGREE and can be contacted via: pja@scopescholen.nl.
OStD Michael Jacobs (IV)
Michael is Headteacher of the Protestant Theodor-Fliedner-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth, a church grammar school, and has been working for protestant schools in Germany since more than thirty years. He studied Theology, Social and Educational Science and has also worked in teacher training and quality inspection of schools. He has been a board member of several protestant teacher associations in Germany and is still member of the board of the Comenius Institute.
Since 2018 he is Secretary of the International Association for Christian Education (IV). Michael can be contacted via: michaeljacobs@netcologne.de
Bert Roebben (EFTRE)
Bert Roebben is professor of religious education at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Bonn. Previously he was teaching in Leuven (BE), Tilburg (NL) and Dortmund (DE). He is extraordinary professor at the Faculty of Theology of Stellenbosch University (RSA). He is passionate about teaching and researching learning processes in the field of religions and worldviews in a European context.
Bert became Chair of EFTRE in 2023 and then began to represent EFTRE on CoGREE. He can be contacted via: chair@eftre.net
Dr Werner Haussmann (ICCS)
Werner is a researcher and senior lecturer in religious education at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. After his university studies he worked in schools for several years and at a centre for advanced training of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria.
Werner’s work is situated in the context of several organizations in the field of RE and interreligious dialogue: Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Religionspädagogik (GwR), International Seminar on Religions and Values (ISREV), Religions for Peace (RfP). Finally, he is Deputy Director of the Research Unit for Public Religion and Education (RUPRE) at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. His main interests lie in the field of public theology and public religious education as well as in the field of interreligious education and European developments of the relation between religion(s) and school(s).
Werner is co-opted board member of ICCS and can be contacted via: werner.haussmann@fau.de
Bianca Kappelhoff (ICCS)
Bianca is an educational researcher at the Comenius-Institute in Germany. In this role, she is doing research about questions concerning the Church and education issues and promotes European exchange in this field across various networks. Bianca studied political sciences focussing on European studies in a French-German degree programme.
Bianca is Assistant Secretary of ICCS and can be contacted via: kappelhoff@comenius.de
Stephanie Polzhofer (EuFRES)
Stephanie Polzhofer serves as Academic Associate (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) in the field of Special Pedagogy at the Religious Education Institute Bavaria (RPZ in Bayern).
Here she oversees the curricula for Special Needs Schools across the state of Bavaria, connecting with both catholic and ecumenical colleagues and institutes on national level, as well as providing post-graduate training and developing didactic material for teachers in the field of Special Education. In addition, she works as university lecturer both at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) and at Katholische Stiftungshochschule München (KSH München) University of Applied, Campus Benediktbeuern in the field of religious didactics for teaching in primary, secondary and special schools with a focus on special education.
She holds a Diploma in Religious Education from the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU), and has gained until 2018 many years of experience as a full-time teacher in several schools for Special Education in Munich. Her current academic research interests focus on vulnerability and resilience of young people especially regarding current religious education at Special Needs Schools in Germany.
Stephanie Polzhofer serves as member of EuFres since 2024.
Prof Mag. Michael Holzwieser (PILGRIM)
Michael has been teaching Religious Education in Vienna since 2003 after six years of pastoral services in two parishes. Now, he teaches at the University College of Agrarian and Ecological Pedagogy in Vienna, for example „Sustainable Developement and Spirituality“ as well as „Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue“.
Michael has been involved in PILGRIM since 2008. Michael can be contacted via: holzwieser@pilgrim.at
Louis-Marie Piron (CEEC)
Louis-Marie is originally from the west of France, and he has a legal background in public and social law. He has been a teacher in higher education institutions as well as an educator before taking over the management of various secondary school for 16 years. Since September 2011, Louis-Marie has joined the General Secretariat of the French Catholic Education to develop international relations and has been in charge of supporting the diocesan departments in the overseas territories. Since 2012, he has represented France on the Executive Board of the CEEC and on the Council of the OIEC (International organisation of Catholic Education) for which he was treasurer for three years. Louis-Marie is also President the editorial board of the journal Educatio which publishes scientific articles on Christian education twice a year.
In July 2022, he took over as CEEC Secretary General from his predecessor Guy Selderslagh. Louis-Marie can be contacted via: ceec@ceec.be.