The Religion and Worldviews Project is a project set up by the RE Council of England and Wales to investigate what a religion and worldviews (RW) approach might look like in the classroom. Each of the three teams working on this project used the curriculum guidance produced by the RE Council, which included the national statement of entitlement.
Our team was made up of teachers and teaching assistants located across England. This includes colleagues working in primary and secondary settings across community schools, schools of religious character and academies. Some hold roles across multi-academy trusts and others work as RE advisers and consultants. Each of us works in a different context, and our research needed to reflect that fact. Our driving purpose was to empower teachers to be confident curriculum thinkers.
We began with two key principles. The first is that worldviews start with people. That may be people as objects of study in the classroom, but it can also be understood as people who are interpreters of the world around them. This does not preclude the study of ontological concepts such as God, but it does recognise that it is people who are engaging with and interpreting these concepts. Our second key principle is that pupils’ ability to make sense of what they learn is a necessary part of the curriculum.
We carried out an initial literature review, which focused on three key areas: the definition of a religion and worldviews approach, the forms of knowledge in RE and the significance of questions about purpose, power and authority. We used this to support the development of the first version of our curriculum framework, which was trialed across our schools. We evaluated our work and refined the framework, using it for a second time with colleagues who were not part of our initial project team.
Our framework was constructed of four key areas: personal reflexivity, curricular framing, knowledge selection and person development. The first three relate to the Position, Engagement and Content elements of the national statement of entitlement. The fourth was included to recognise the ways in which our subject might contribute to a pupil’s life more generally. Each area included a series of questions for teachers to consider as they were reviewing either their whole curriculum or an individual unit of study. Addressing these questions supports teachers to move their curriculum towards a religion and worldviews approach.
We carefully reviewed the impact of using our framework. We noted that it gave the curriculum a sharper focus on context, helping pupils understand how this might impact people’s worldviews. This also helped us avoid abstraction and essentialism in the classroom, which impacted positively on pupil engagement. Our second key finding was that an emphasis on analysing the personal worldview of both the teacher and the pupil made learning more accessible for the pupils. Thirdly, increased clarity on the ways of knowing that were framing the learning enabled us to promote much deeper and richer engagement with the subject content in the classroom. We noted that pupils valued this highly.
A key outcome of our research is a resource intended for teachers reviewing their whole curriculum or an individual unit of study. The resource includes a series of short films in which our teacher researchers discuss developing and using our framework and its impact from early years to KS3. We hope you find it useful.
The resource can be found in the RE Council of England and Wales Religion and Worldviews in the Classroom Toolkit It is the Teacher-led Framework.
The PowerPoint presentation used in the video is available for download
Further reading
Benoit, Céline, Timothy Hutchings and Rachael Shillitoe (2020), Worldview: A Multidisciplinary Report
Chater, Mark, Reforming RE: Power and Knowledge in a Worldviews Curriculum (John Catt Educational Ltd, 2020)
Commission on Religious Education (2018), Religion and Worldviews: The Way Forward
Council of Europe (2020), Signposts Teaching Training Module: Teaching about Religious and Non-Religious World Views in Intercultural Education
Counsell, Christine, ‘Taking Curriculum Seriously’, Impact, 4 (2018)
The Faith and Belief Forum, The Open University and Inform (2022), Promoting the Exploration of Religion and Worldviews in Schools: Fostering Coherency and Diversity
Flanagan, Ruth, ‘Teachers’ Personal Worldviews and RE in England: A Way Forward?’, British Journal of Religious Education 43:3 (2021)
Fraser-Pearce, Jo and Alexis Stones (2023), Knowing Well in Religious Education
Hannam, Patricia and Gert Biesta, ‘Religious Education, A Matter of Understanding? Reflections on the Final Report of the Commission on Religious Education’, Journal of Beliefs and Values 40:28 (2019)
Jackson, Robert, Signposts: Policy and Practice for Teaching about Religious and Non-Religious World Views in Intercultural Education (Council of Europe, 2004)
Klafki, Wolfgang, ‘Didactic analysis as the core of preparation for instruction (Didaktische Analyse als Kern der Unterrichtungsvorbereitung)’, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 27:1 (1995)
Lewin, David et al, ‘Reframing curriculum for religious education’, Journal of Curriculum Studies 55:4 (2023)
Ofsted (2021), RE Research Review
Ofsted (2024), Deep and Meaningful? The Religious Education Subject Report
O’Grady, Kevin, Conceptualising Religion and Worldviews for the School (London: Routledge, 2022)
Pett, Stephen (2022), Religion and Worldviews in the Classroom: Developing a Worldviews Approach (A Draft Resource for Curriculum Developers)
RE Council of England and Wales (2013), A Review of Religious Education in England
RE Council of England and Wales (2023), National Content Standard for Religious Education
Tharani, Amira (2020), The Worldviews Project: Discussion Papers
Wintersgill, Barbara (ed.) (2017), Big Ideas for Religious Education
Young, Michael, et al, Knowledge and the Future School: Curriculum and Social Justice (London: Bloomsbury, 2014)