Global terms: Other Evidence Informed Practice & Research

Educational Disadvantage, Social Mobility and Religious Identity

Research Poster

David Lundie & Mi Young Ahn, Education Studies, Liverpool Hope University

Beyond the Classroom: Informal Religion and Worldviews Education in the UK

Research Spotlight: Beyond the Classroom: Informal Religion and Worldviews Education in the UK

In a time of growing division, where religion is often seen as a problem, religious education cannot, and indeed does not, only take place within the classroom or within formal education. If we are to build compassionate, cohesive societies, we need to understand religious education as something active, lifelong, evolving and to be taken seriously.

The ‘Beyond the Classroom’ report from Theos* supported by Culham St Gabriel’s, explores where informal religious education happens across the UK; where are the places and spaces where people of all ages, in all kinds of communities, learn about and encounter other religions, belief systems and worldviews?

Through various sectors, including youth work, arts and culture, public services, media and sport, as well as extra-curricular spaces, campuses, anchor institutions and local interfaith networks, we map the opportunities and challenges of informal learning about religions and worldviews.

What have we found?

Informal religious education is strongest in areas of greater religious diversity, where there is greater opportunity for organic, unstructured encounters with those of other beliefs, reinforced by stronger interfaith networks. This raises the question of how to develop better religion and belief literacy in the whole population, not only those living in more diverse communities.

We find that informal religious education varies significantly from locality to locality, and context to context; nationally, the picture is somewhat patchy although there are myriad examples of good practice at a local level, which we highlight through case studies here. In some sectors, we identify a ‘squeamishness’ or tentativeness in talking about religion and belief, which we argue needs to be combatted in order to grow the religious literacy of everyone, regardless of background.

What can we do?

If every sector of society is provided with the tools and confidence for good conversations about religion and belief, then informal religious education can and will happen naturally anywhere. Greater formal literacy will lead to greater informal opportunities for religious education, which will in turn mean a more religiously literate population and a more cohesive community. The fact that this is not currently occurring universally or strategically across the UK is, we argue, a missed opportunity for a better society.

* Theos stimulates the debate about the place of religion in society, challenging and changing ideas through research, commentary and events. They are a Christian think tank based in the UK. 

Theos Beyond the Classroom Report: Informal Religion and Worldviews Education in the UK

Zoe Higgins: RE and the Climate Crisis

Teacher/Researcher Case Study: Zoe Higgins

 

RE Connect: RE and Climate Crisis Teacher Fellowship Programme

I had been teaching for 19 years, mainly in KS2, when I spotted the opportunity to join a teacher fellowship run in partnership with Dr Jeremy Kidwell, Senior Lecturer in Theological Ethics at the University of Birmingham and Dr Ian Jones of St Peter’s Saltley Trust. The fellowship was designed to give teachers a deeper knowledge and understanding of the climate crisis with a focus on religion and worldviews and lead to projects about how to transfer this learning into classroom practice. A teacher fellowship is a part time project, in this case 7 online evening sessions and 2 full days over 9 months, which enables teachers to work closely with researchers and specialists on transforming practice in a particular area. Having been RE Lead for over 10 years, Global Lead for 3 years and with a keen personal interest in climate issues I applied straight away. My school is a Church of England VA school in a large village setting and part of a diocese MAT. There are 320 pupils on role from Reception to Year 6 with 25% of these children coming from out of catchment. The majority of the children are White British.

The fellowship provided opportunities to hear from specialists, beginning with an introduction to the science behind the current climate situation which left me well informed, a little overwhelmed but also inspired by the knowledge. My main thoughts were; if this is what the Science is telling us, I need to continue with this project and find ways to include the climate crisis in my teaching of RE. Over the next few sessions we heard from a member of Extinction Rebellion Muslims, a Professor of Sikh Studies, a member of Young Christian Climate Network which explained how some Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are responding to the Climate Crisis and how their beliefs impact this. Again, more food for thought about how this could be shared with pupils and used to help them consider their own responses.

The next few sessions were more focused on pedagogy with Jeremy Kidwell speaking about ethics and culture, Lat Blaylock exploring classroom practice with the group, Ian Jones discussing Religion, Climate Change and the Affect. We tried scriptural reasoning with Nick Adams and went on to hear about creative and experiential ways of teaching and learning in RE. In our final session together we were inspired by Justine Ball, an adviser/inspector for primary RE in Hampshire, about an art project she had done with local schools focusing on climate changes and Charlie Syson, a secondary teacher, who has been developing a scheme of work on less widely taught religions as part of a Farmington Scholarship. Throughout the months of the project we were also provided with suggested reading and watching which provided further background knowledge and food for thought.

With all this content the difficulty was narrowing down what my individual project would look like as I came away with ideas and new knowledge after every session. I finally settled on a scheme of work with a set of accompanying photo cards. The scheme of work would focus on how people’s religious beliefs influence their thoughts and actions about climate change. I used key enquiry questions for each key stage to frame the learning; ‘What do people love about Earth and how do they look after it?’; ‘Why does caring for the world matter?’; ‘What do different people do to care for the world and why do they do it?’; and ‘How do beliefs influence people’s responses to the climate crisis?’. The scheme of work would include 6 lessons for Reception, Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2 and could be used as a half term’s block of work or as RE focus week. I also wanted to include the photo cards and some accompanying resources that could be used without the scheme of work.

When trialling some of the resources and lesson plans, I found that all of the children were engaged and excited about the learning and when using the photo cards they found havingpictures of real people inspiring and interesting. In the initial y1/2 lesson, which looked at what climate change is, the children were very eager to discuss their ideas. What I also found was that the y4 children looking at the photos needed some structure to help them focus their discussion about encourage deeper thinking. With the y1/2 lessons, the teachers who trialled the first two lessons found them easy to use and appropriate in length and activity but found that the children lacked some subject knowledge to fully access the lesson.

At this stage, I have a working scheme of work and accompanying resources, which I will continue to develop based on trialling and discussions with the teacher fellows and RE specialists who met in person on the official final day of the fellowship. The aim is that this will be shared more widely allowing other schools to include a focus on RE and Climate Change within their curriculum. Being part of the fellowship has been an opportunity to focus my time and thinking on RE and about the importance of including climate change. The opportunity to work with others who are passionate about both RE and raising awareness about climate change amongst young people really has been inspiring.

For further information or to discuss the project please email: zhiggins@scargill.derbyshire.sch.uk

 Zoe Higgins Teacher and Religion & Worldviews Lead

Y12 understandings of Christianity’s internal diversity: enhancement through ethnography?

Research Summary: Y12 understandings of Christianity’s internal diversity: enhancement through ethnography?

Religious Education in British schools seeks to help students learn critically about, and from, a wide range of religious phenomena. Yet, how do we ensure that these religious traditions, in all their rich diversity, are authentically represented within the Religious Education classroom? Many will do so without ever interacting with these faith communities personally. Building on the work of Robert Jackson, this research thus explores the extent to which ethnographic material can be used to invite diverse religious perspectives into the classroom, to ensure that generalised understandings of religious communities are debunked and not perpetuated.

Researchers

Zoë Grainger

Research Institution

University of Cambridge

What is this about?

  • How do Y12 students develop understanding of the diversity within Christianity?
  • To what extent can an ethnographic approach help them to do this?

What was done?

There was a review of relevant literature, followed by action research on two questions: What prior knowledge did the class have of Christianity’s internal diversity? What insights did students gain through engaging with the ethnographic material? Jackson’s interpretive approach was adapted in a Y12 scheme of work, using various materials and methods to bring diverse Christian insider voices into the classroom. The students completed questionnaires, the teacher-researcher and her mentor made observation notes, the students’ classwork was analysed and visitors from the different Christian communities were interviewed.

Main findings and outputs

  1. Ethnographic content does clarify and consolidate subject knowledge.
  2. It also aids deconstruction of stereotypes.
  3. Further, it also enables critical engagement with subject matter.
  4. Attention is also needed to how students’ understanding of religion is shaped by social media.
  5. The interpretive approach is best used alongside complementary pedagogical models, e.g. hermeneutical examination of sacred texts.

Relevance to RE

The research has various forms of relevance to RE. The original article gives a useful introduction to the interpretive approach, including practical applications and criticisms, and takes the approach into KS5 for the first documented time. It shows the value to KS5 students of interactions with religious insiders. The main findings suggest potentially useful classroom teaching strategies.

Generalisability and potential limitations

As an action research study, the research does not aim for generalisibility, but the findings certainly suggest promising avenues for other teachers to explore in their own classrooms; and the background and context of the study are very well accounted.

Find out more

The original article is: Zoë Grainger. 2023. Seeing the kaleidoscope: Investigating whether Year 12 understandings of Christianity’s internal diversity can be enhanced through an ethnographic approach. Journal of Trainee Teacher Education Research.

It can be freely downloaded from https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.96937

Worldviews in RE

Research Summary: Worldviews in RE

Jacomijn van der Kooij and colleagues provide a clear and concise definition of worldview, for use in RE curriculum development and pedagogy.

Researchers

Jacomijn van der Kooij, Doret de Ruyter and Siebren Miedema

Research Institution

VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

What is this about?

Whilst the original article is about what worldview means in relation to RE, and is a very interesting and detailed read, the summary below under Main findings and outputs should give curriculum developers and teachers at least a start and a framework for getting to grips with the issue – and you can follow up the link to the original article if you have library access and want the wider context.

What was done?

The researchers looked over literature on worldview and distilled some principles for curriculum and pedagogy in RE, as summarised in the Main findings and outputs section.

Main findings and outputs

  1. Every religion’s a worldview, but not all worldviews are religious, because they don’t all recognise the existence of the transcendent.
  2. There are organised and personal worldviews; organised are systemic, whereas personal can be developed through a bricoleur approach, taking elements from different sources.
  3. Worldviews aren’t just views on life, the world and humanity. More is needed. Membership of a political party, for instance, isn’t a worldview.
  4. There are four conditions – having views on matters of ultimate concern, including ontological, cosmological, theological, teleological, eschatological, and ethical notions; these views must influence thinking and acting; a worldview has moral values related to understanding of the good life and the well-being of other people; a worldview gives meaning in a person’s life, and on the meaning of life, or an understanding of the purpose of human beings in general.
  5. So, an organised worldview is one that has developed over time as a coherent and established system. It has sources, traditions, values, rituals, ideals, or dogmas, and a group of believers.
  6. But a personal worldview can be held without being articulated. Somebody’s answers to existential questions may not be clear-cut, the person may be continuing to reflect. If somebody’s moral values are what give meaning to him or her, these can constitute a personal worldview, though people can have personal worldviews in the absence of moral values: aesthetic or other ones may be central. A personal worldview can be based on a meaning in life or can be one where a belief in pointlessness replaces this; it must affect thoughts and actions to qualify as a worldview, though other practical factors may also affect the person’s decisions.
  7. RE shouldn’t only focus on religions as organised systems, but also on differences between people who identify with the systems, and how the personal worldviews of pupil or their parents are developing. Depending on the school, pupils’ worldviews might be expected to be developing in relation to one organised worldview (‘learning in religion’) or several (‘learning from religion’).

Relevance to RE

Curriculum developers and teachers need a clear concept of worldview, as applied to RE, in order to consider what to include in the curriculum and how to approach it in the classroom.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This isn’t the only way in which the concept of worldview has been understood, but it was developed with RE in mind, is widely cited, and may well be of good use.

Find out more

Jacomijn C. van der Kooij , Doret J. de Ruyter and Siebren Miedema, “‘Worldview’: the Meaning of the Concept and the Impact on Religious Education,” Religious Education, 108 (2) (2013): 210-228.

Understanding Christianity

Research Summary: Understanding Christianity

Disagreements about how Christianity should be taught in state-funded school RE have a long history. In this article are considered debates that have arisen about theologically-based pedagogy. The focus is Understanding Christianity, a resource inspired by recent developments in hermeneutics. When studying the Bible, should pupils should be viewed as insiders or outsiders? The argument is that hermeneutics offers a robust model for an academically rigorous approach that enables pupils to be both insiders and outsiders. There is explanation of how Understanding Christianity has attempted to embody this aspiration.

Researchers

Stephen Pett & Professor Trevor Cooling

Research Institution

RE Today Services / Canterbury Christ Church University

What is this about?

  • How should Christianity be approached in state-funded school RE? Especially, how should the Bible be approached?
  • Are theological approaches to Christianity appropriate in state-funded school RE?
  • Hermeneutical approaches to Christianity are argued to be appropriate: academically rigorous, requiring pupils to examine the nature of the text but also attending to their own backgrounds and responses.
  • It is shown how the Understanding Christianity resource puts this approach into practice.

What was done?

The article is a scholarly essay on theological approaches to RE, examining the different arguments for and against and presenting the strengths of a hermeneutical theological approach, as exemplified in the Understanding Christianity resource.

Main findings and outputs

  • There is suspicion that using theology as a pedagogy of RE is hijacking RE for faith formation.
  • However, Understanding Christianity and its hermeneutical approach answers this concern.
  • Julia Ipgrave’s work is cited, whereby it is possible for students as academic outsiders to learn from the Bible as insiders with personal integrity, without being treated as Christian insiders.
  • Pupils should ask what their ‘pre-understanding’ of texts is; from what point of view do they interpret?
  • They should try to discern its originally intended meaning, through study of the various background factors, then ask about its significance (if any) for themselves.
  • In these ways, there can be responsible interpretation and awareness of diversity.
  • The selection of material for and pedagogy of Understanding Christianity reflect these priorities.

Relevance to RE

The article presents and defends the merits of an increasingly known though contested approach to Christianity in RE. It offers thought-provoking points for teachers to consider when preparing lessons (e.g. on page 265 where we are asked to consider the effect of offering pupils various titles for the same parable: Prodigal Son, Wasteful Son, Lost Son, Foolish Father, Careless Country, Forgiving Father or Two Lost Sons). Many RE teachers will be familiar with the Understanding Christianity materials and readers are encouraged to read the original BJRE article.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Because this is a scholarly essay, the question of generalisability does not really apply. Rather, readers are encouraged to try out and evaluate the approach in their own classrooms.

Find out more

Stephen Pett & Trevor Cooling (2018) Understanding Christianity: exploring a hermeneutical pedagogy for teaching Christianity, British Journal of Religious Education, 40:3, 257-267.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2018.1493268?journalCode=cbre20

Worldviews education in Finland and Australia

Research Summary: Worldviews education in Finland and Australia

This research covers global issues relating to the decline of the popularity of institutional religions, the rise of numbers of non-religious persons, and new models of spirituality in ‘superdiverse’ societies. It shows the need to reconceptualise religious diversity as worldviews diversity, and to critically examine calls for the provision of worldviews education in schools. It gives an overview of scholarship on worldviews and worldviews education. It provides case studies of worldview/s education in Finland and Australia, drawing on data of recently completed qualitative and quantitative studies in the two countries. It compares the two contexts, and makes recommendations on worldviews education as a means of enhancing cross-cultural literacy, positive attitudes to religious diversity and social inclusion.

Researchers

Tuuli Lipiäinen, Anna Halafoff, Fethi Mansouri & Gary Bouma

Research Institution

University of Helsinki; Deakin University, Melbourne; Deakin University, Melbourne; Monash University, Melbourne

What is this about?

  • How ‘old-style religion’ has declined.
  • How in increasingly diverse, or ‘super-diverse’ societies, people’s worldview or spirituality can be a hybrid of influences, from religious traditions and beyond.
  • What worldviews education means.
  • Worldviews education developments in Finland and Australia.
  • How worldviews education should reflect young people’s lived realities.

What was done?

A wide range of literature was reviewed, across worldviews, religion, education, state statistics and education policy documents. Two jurisdictions were considered in some detail, in relation to their worldviews education provision, and recommendations for future good practice were drawn.

Main findings and outputs

  • ‘Old-style’ or ‘packaged’ religion is declining; less and less people follow one religion’s rules, beliefs or ways; instead, people’s worldviews often comprise different elements from inside, between and outside religions, and (especially those of young people) often change.
  • Education about these processes and worldviews can play a part in pupils’ maturation, understanding of others and management of diversity.
  • No two countries are identical, so standardised worldviews education strategies are not achievable – they must be context-specific.
  • In Finland, where pupils study religion and worldviews in own-religion or worldview groups, pressure and innovation from scholars and some schools to adopt mixed groups has resulted in positive development of dialogue skills.
  • In Australia, Victoria is the only state to include distinct educational content on learning about worldviews and religions. Scholars are pushing for more of this, to foster religious and worldview literacy and respect for diversity.
  • Young people are more and more likely to encounter diverse worldviews and their education needs to reflect this. It also needs to examine the power relations that are part of diversity and associated with holding different worldviews.

Relevance to RE

This analysis presents major challenges to policy makers and curriculum developers, and, in time, to teachers. How can structures be established to replace the outdated ‘old-style religion’ RE model with one that reflects the ‘superdiverse’ R&W situation? Possibly this means more attention to personal worldviews, with organised religious and non-religious traditions studied as background resources.

Generalisability and potential limitations

As the authors say, their research focuses on two particular contexts, and cannot simply be transferred to others. But superdiversity and worldview or spiritual hybridity can be recognised in different places, and the research clearly connects with English discussions on the introduction of R&W.

Find out more

The original article is Tuuli Lipiäinen, Anna Halafoff, Fethi Mansouri & Gary Bouma (2020): Diverse worldviews education and social inclusion: a comparison between Finnish and Australian approaches to build intercultural and interreligious understanding, British Journal of Religious Education, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2020.1737918

https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2020.1737918

What makes great teaching?

Research Summary: What makes great teaching?

This report reviews over 200 pieces of research to identify the elements of teaching with the strongest evidence of improving attainment. It finds some common practices can be harmful to learning and have no grounding in research. Specific practices which are supported by good evidence of their effectiveness are also examined and six key factors that contribute to great teaching are identified. The report also analyses different methods of evaluating teaching including: using ‘value-added’ results from student test scores; observing classroom teaching; and getting students to rate the quality of their teaching.

Researchers

Robert Coe, Cesare Aloisi, Steve Higgins & Lee Elliot Major

Research Institution

Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, Durham University, Sutton Trust

What is this about?

This review set out to address three apparently simple questions:

  1. What makes ’great teaching’?
  2. What kinds of frameworks or tools could help us to capture it?
  3. How could this promote better learning?

What was done?

The researchers carried out a review of a large number of international research sources on what makes great teaching and different ways to evaluate teaching quality. Those found to be most relevant are included in the review. The review concludes with recommendations about how the findings might be taken forward, i.e. keeping a focus on student learning, using multiple measures of evaluation, asking school leaders to develop high quality assessment and data skills and balancing challenge and acceptance so that there is not too big a gap between the research evidence and what teachers are already doing.

Main findings and outputs

The two factors with the strongest evidence of improving pupil attainment are:

  • teachers’ content knowledge, including their ability to understand how students think about a subject and identify common misconceptions
  • quality of instruction, which includes using strategies like effective questioning and the use of assessment

Specific practices which have good evidence of improving attainment include:

  • challenging students to identify the reason why an activity is taking place in the lesson
  • asking a large number of questions and checking the responses of all students
  • spacing-out study or practice on a given topic, with gaps in between for forgetting
  • making students take tests or generate answers, even before they have been taught the material

Common practices which are not supported by evidence include:

  • using praise lavishly
  • allowing learners to discover key ideas by themselves
  • grouping students by ability
  • presenting information to students based on their “preferred learning style”

Relevance to RE

The emphasis on teacher content knowledge underlines the need for RE to be taught by qualified specialists. It also encourages RE teachers to think hard when planning topics and lessons about how their specialist subject knowledge might be used to promote student learning. The other main findings are also relevant to RE classroom practice, e.g. the emphasis on quality of instruction suggests that teachers and departments might build up banks of questions and assessment tasks found to be effective in promoting student learning.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The authors do recognise limitations. For example, their review is focused on teacher effectiveness, “that which leads to high achievement by students in valued outcomes, other things being equal.” (p.9). However, they acknowledge that this might not fully capture desirable aims for education. They also acknowledge that attributing effects on student outcomes to individual teachers is not straightforward and that a range of factors should really be taken into account. The report merits careful consideration and cannot be understood as a check-list.

Find out more

The report is freely downloadable from https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/great-teaching/

Why and how media coverage of religion must be part of RE

Research Summary: Why and how media coverage of religion must be part of RE

Existing GCSE and A-level syllabuses include modules on religion and the media, but these have not been widely or well studied. The modules may be difficult to teach well, and teachers have few good resources to use. The newly launched specifications for RS GCSE and A-level examinations have eliminated, almost entirely, any study of religion and the media. The absence of this theme is troubling. Critical appreciation of the ways media depicts religion is especially important for forming responsible, educated citizens in modern Britain. Key principles and questions that might help equip teachers to tackle critically and intelligently issues about religion in the media are offered. The approach is illustrated by considering media responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Researchers

David G. Horrell, Karen O’Donnell & David Tollerton

Research Institution

University of Exeter, University of Durham

What is this about?

  • For RS students to learn about how the media shape views of religion is important, but often not well done.
  • Religion and the media is troublingly absent from the new generation of exam specifications.
  • However, teachers can still do something about this.
  • The researchers offer a framework of principles and questions that will help teachers to tackle the issues critically and intelligently.

What was done?

This research is partly a survey and commentary on GCSE and A level RS specifications and examiner’s reports past and present, focusing on religion and the media; partly a document analysis of different newspapers’ coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks; and partly a set of suggestions on how teachers might engage students with issues of media representation of religions in a balanced, critical and intelligent way.

Main findings and outputs

  • Examiner’s reports show how in the former generation of exam specifications, options on religion and the media were neither favoured by teachers nor answered well by students. This may be because the area is difficult, media angles on religion shifting constantly.
  • It is nevertheless found regrettable that coverage of the media and religion is more or less absent from the new specifications.
  • In order to be responsible citizens and often without ‘insider’ knowledge of religion, young people will have to learn to manage the depiction of religion in the media in a critically informed way – sometimes, media portrayals of religion can be simplistic and misleading.
  • Firstly, religions should not be studied in isolation from their wider social contexts.
  • Secondly, wider societies should also be studied from a ‘religious’ perspective, asking about what is held to be sacred, what is worshipped and so on.
  • Thirdly, there are different questions to ask –
    Where does this material come from?
    Who created this material, and why?
    How do different media reports reflect particular interpretations of events with religious significance and what meanings are constructed in these depictions?
    How does media coverage reveal competing value systems and convictions concerning what is sacred?
    For example, in different English newspapers’ coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, there were different outlooks on religious minorities, blasphemy and what the core values of Western civilisation are.

Relevance to RE

The research is directly relevant to RE teaching, demonstrating the necessity of analysing media representations of religion as part of the subject and offering teachers a suggested framework and set of questions to use to do so.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The RE teaching framework and questions have wide generalisability – they could be applied in a very wide range of cases. Some of the language of the questions may need to be adapted to the learning needs of pupils of different ages and abilities, e.g. rather than ‘How do different media reports reflect particular interpretations of events with religious significance and what meanings are constructed in these depictions?’, it might be asked ‘How do different media reports show different attitudes to religions or events involving religions? What messages are passed on?’.

Find out more

The full article is: David G. Horrell, Karen O’Donnell & David Tollerton (2018) Religion and the media in GCSE and A-level syllabuses: a regrettable gap and proposals to fill it, British Journal of Religious Education, 40:2, 114-123.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2016.1190686?journalCode=cbre20

What does the shift to worldview mean for teachers?

Research Summary: What does the shift to worldview mean for teachers?

The notion of worldview is prominent in recent discussions of RE, following the publication of the CORE report. This research reflects on this development. It gives a nuanced understanding of the notion of worldview. It explores the pedagogical implications of the shift to worldview, drawing on the work of Robert Jackson, Michael Grimmitt and Anthony Thiselton.

Researchers

Professor Trevor Cooling

Research Institution

Canterbury Christ Church University

What is this about?

  • Current discussions of RE, specifically, the shift to a focus on worldview, following the publication of the CORE report.
  • The meaning of the concept of worldview.
  • What a move to worldview means for teachers of RE / R&W, in practice.

What was done?

The researcher considered the impact of the concept of worldview on his own work, in an autobiographical manner. He then analysed the treatment of worldview in the CORE report and subsequent discussions, including points made by critics of CORE or of the worldview concept. He then identified the pedagogical implications of CORE, arguing that R&W teaching will need to take a hermeneutical approach (explained further below) if the proposed changes are to take effect.

Main findings and outputs

  • R&W is not simply a matter of adding extra content to RE – when religions are viewed as fluid, complex, diverse worldviews, the subject changes.
  • A key focus is on the lived experience of people and communities identifying with a particular institutional worldview: CORE, here, draws heavily on Robert Jackson’s interpretive approach to RE.
  • A second key focus is on personal worldview – a concern to pick up positive elements of Michael Grimmitt’s ‘learning from religion’; pupils should understand the varied influences on them as they form their own worldviews.
  • Anthony Thiselton’s ‘responsible hermeneutics’ provides the disciplinary knowledge needed in R&W. It gives teachers three responsibilities:
  1. Promote rigorous knowledge of what is being taught.
  2. Ensure rigorous reflection on the contemporary context and how it may influence both teacher’s and pupils’ perspectives.
  3. Ensure rigorous reflection on the potential interaction between 1 and 2, so that teacher and pupils benefit in their own self-understanding.

Relevance to RE

The research is of high relevance to teachers who are concerned to understand the meaning of the CORE report and the shift to worldviews as far as their own professional practice is concerned. As the researcher concludes, it is not yet a workable curriculum or resources. This needs to come next, but the researcher has outlined a basis for it.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This research does not present a set of generalisable data from a survey or other instrument. Rather, it is a detailed, balanced discussion of the worldview concept, based on reading, analysis and reflection. It offers teachers and other professionals an account of what the CORE report and the move from RE to R&W mean in practice, though (as yet) without details of curriculum or resources.

Find out more

The original article is Trevor Cooling (2020) Worldview in religious education: autobiographical reflections on The Commission on Religious Education in England final report, British Journal of Religious Education, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2020.1764497

The article is available open-access at 10.1080/01416200.2020.1764497