How do faith visitors fit in to a religion and worldviews approach?

Using faith visitors to support RE lessons is a fantastic way to develop pupils’ understanding. Encountering someone who lives their faith, who can draw on real and authentic experiences, can really make the religion come alive.

In an essentialised, world religions paradigm, using faith visitors was simple, essentially, ‘this person represents their religion, children, and whatever they tell you is what all of the other people in their religion believe as well.’ However, in a religion and worldviews approach, the relationship between faith visitors and the curriculum needs to be more nuanced. No longer do we want pupils to equate the experiences, values and beliefs of one person with all members of a religion. Faith visitors in a religion and worldviews approach is exciting, but also tricky. How to tease apart the institutional and personal elements of a visitor’s worldview, for example? Below are three practical tips:

1 – Notice essentialism in the curriculum

In the past I have certainly been guilty of posing questions such as, ‘What do Hindus believe?’ When we ask questions like this we are broadcasting to pupils that there is only one way to be a ‘proper’ Hindu. In a curriculum like this, when pupils meet a faith visitor they make all sorts of simplistic assumptions. In being aware of essentialism we can acknowledge that members of a religion act and think in very different ways, and this is completely normal. This allows pupils to interact with the knowledge in a much more explorative way.

2 – Listen to many voices

Another way that we can help pupils to explore diversity is make sure pupils hear a variety of voices. This might not always be easy or straightforward, but there are ways and means. While a real-life interaction has the greatest impact academically, if this isn’t an option then there are a plethora of videos to be found on the internet by all sorts of people on a huge array of subjects. The inclusion of any of these in lessons, will help to build up pupils’ understanding and normalise diverse perspectives for when a visitor does come in.

3 – Introduce hermeneutics

Hermeneutics seems like a complicated word, in fact Ofsted’s 2021 Research Review describes hermeneutical thinking many times without mentioning the word!  Essentially hermeneutics is the idea that everyone interprets things differently. You can find a fantastic guide to it here: RE:Online – Hermeneutics. When pupils are used to exploring different interpretations, including their own, it becomes much easier to see a visitor’s interpretation as just that; one view among many. In a religion and worldviews approach, faith visitors are able to represent their religion in their own way and not answer for all other members.

As well as intellectual benefits of diverse voices, there are social benefits too. For many teachers who work in areas of low diversity, there may be local prejudice towards people who are perceived to be ‘different’. Welcoming a faith visitor provides an excellent opportunity for pupils to meet those they might not encounter outside school. These contact experiences can develop understanding and interest, and potentially decrease prejudice.

Moreover, as the religion and worldviews approach deliberately avoids associating one visitor with an entire religion, it is possible that prejudicial views will decrease as reductive and essentialising ways of seeing are no longer on the menu.

I would suggest that following a religion and worldviews approach means faith visitors are just as welcome to the classroom, for academic and social benefits. It could be argued that with this renewed emphasis on cultural context and diverse voices, faith visitors can have an even bigger impact in allowing young people to explore the connected, complicated world we live in.