Religious education and worldview theory

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate surrounding the place of ‘worldviews’ in Religious Education. We examine the British Commission on Religious Education proposal that the subject be renamed ‘Religions and Worldviews’ from the perspective of Worldview Theory and Critical Religious Education and make the following suggestions: (a) the twin notion of ‘ultimate nature of reality’ and ‘our place in the ‘ultimate order-of things’ provides a substantial content for RE largely absent from the Commission’s vision; (b) worldviews are frequently implicit rather than explicitly affirmed in religious creeds and philosophical assertions; (c) worldviews are complex, interpersonal and take varying communal forms, surpassing the polarity of ‘personal’ and ‘institutional’; (d) the concept of ‘worldview’ has pedagogic and hermeneutical potential transcending content-driven curriculum development.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical religious education
• religion
• worldview
• worldview theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Wright

Andrew Wright is Visiting Professor at the World Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU), Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK. Having retired from at King’s College London and University College London, he now teaches part time at Bishop Grosseteste and Lincoln School of Theology.

Elina Wright

Elina Wright is Visiting Senior Fellow at the World Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU), Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK, where she leads the PGCE in Secondary Religious Education and teaches on the BA (Hons) Theology, Philosophy and Ethics programme. She is also a member of Regent’s Park, College, Oxford and The UNESCO Chair Forum for Teacher Education for Diversity and Development.