Baha'i
Buddhist worldview traditions
Christian worldview traditions
Contextualising the diversity of worldviews
Hindu worldview traditions
Humanist worldview traditions
Jain
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jewish worldview traditions
Muslim worldview traditions
Pagan
Rastafari
Sikhi worldview traditions
Soka Gakkai
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Zoroastrian
Research

Worldviews education in Finland and Australia

Tuuli Lipiäinen, Anna Halafoff, Fethi Mansouri & Gary Bouma

Research Summary

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

 

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