A few people have been discussing online what a religion and worldviews approach to RE might be. If you have been watching/listening to some of the RE community in recent years you may have a flavour but there hasn’t been much simple explanation of what it means.
From what I’ve seen it has always been juxtaposed with a world religions paradigm, which is often criticised. It is also often been debated by lots of clever people that aren’t necessarily designing curriculums or teaching day-to-day. I like to know the practical implications of what it means so I will leave the theorising and problematising to others, and crack on with considering what it means to me and my department.
I’m not going to include arguments for or the criticisms of a world religions approach nor those critiquing a worldviews approach, I just want some clarity on what people are saying it actually means for the classroom, in terms of curriculum and pedagogy (although I think these aren’t clear cut).
I certainly have not been sure what it fully means for my curriculum and teaching and I’m sure that there are other teachers that feel the same so I thought I’d bring a few things together, for me and for you!
Curriculum focus – in our schemes and in our plans
- Using disciplinary knowledge or ‘ways of knowing’ in your curriculum & teaching (some have gone for theology/philosophy/human/social sciences/history) – simply asking ‘how do we know X to be the case when considering Y?’ then using one of more discipline to answer this e.g. How do we that Christians believe that in God? Using Theology to read the Bible evidence, using philosophy to analyse philosophical arguments for his existence, looking at human/social sciences to see how people behave due to their beliefs. This may include:
- teaching substantive knowledge (content/facts/stuff) through the disciplines
- teaching students the multi-disciplinary nature of RE
- considering if a unit of work uses one or more discipline
- If you want to see how you already do this use these primary and secondary balanced RE audit tools (from the Church of England education office but applicable to all schools)
- Watch Nikki McGee discuss a disciplinary approach
- Using academic scholarship – making students aware of the conversations and debates that have been had and are happening in the different disciplines – Read Joe Kinnaird’s thoughts on using scholarship here
- Including non-religious worldviews in your curriculum – Humanism is often mentioned but includes others. This RE:Online blog from Dr Kevin O’Grady may help with this
- (staring with) Looking at the lived experiences of individual perspectives (a person/people) rather than generalisations of institutional groups e.g. ‘Buddhists….’, ‘Christians….’ – Here’s an example for Islam from Dr Kate Christopher and Professor Lynn Revell.
- Considering the terminology we use when talking about religion & belief – an emphasis on presenting religions as worldviews, considering the names of religions (Hinduism/Sanatana dharma, Sikhism/Sikhi) Listen to an example on the RE Podcast with Louisa Jane Smith
- Teaching about diversity within and between worldviews – using similarities and differences – not all people within a religion agree e.g. looking at denominations/schools/traditions within a religion – Here’s an example from Zameer Hussein and Rachel Buckby on primary curriculum
- Teaching students about personal worldviews – not opinions but the things that have lead them to have them and the position that they have on the world. This isn’t AT2. This can be taught be using something tangible like lenses of a magnifying glass or glasses to help students understand the concept of perspective. Read my blog for some suggestions on how you might do this.
- Personal reflexivity – appreciating our own biases in our curriculum and teaching & encouraging students to do the same (thanks to Katie Gooch & Nikki McGee for highlighting) This blog explores our biases
Pedagogical focus – how we teach the curriculum
- Considering the language we use when teaching about beliefs & practices- Using ‘all/many/some/few/one’ rather than ‘Christians believe….’ See here for my blog on this
- Using the tools of our disciplines to create a critical approach to what we teach e.g. using philosophy requires us to consider the logic and reasoning of arguments – some have planned for students to be aware of the tools and have encouraged them to use them independently – some have used the metaphor of lenses (not the same as the personal worldview lenses!) to help students understand how we can apply them to substantive knowledge – See Joe Kinnaird’s example of getting students to write like philosophers
- Using a hermeneutical approach (considering how things might be read and interpreted differently) e.g. examining Genesis 1 from different perspectives – these resources from Jen Jenkins may give some ideas and this RExchange2022 video from Jennifer Jenkins, Shannon Clemo and Debbie Yeomans
Further reading on a worldviews approach
Reforming RE (website with many relevant blogs)
Worldviews in Religious Education – Trevor Cooling, with Bob Bowie and Farid Panjwani
An Ambitious Religion and Worldviews Curriculum for All Kathryn Wright
Worldviews – a new approach for RE RE council
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