Religion and Worldviews: The Way Forward? Considerations from the study of religion, non-religion and classroom practice

This article builds on Worldview-A Multidisciplinary Report (Benoit, Hutchings and Shillitoe, 2020), a publication commissioned by the RE Council of England and Wales to outline the academic history of the study of worldviews. We focus on three particularly significant questions for the future of Religious Education (RE) / Religion and Worldviews (R&W) arising from our report. First, what is the relationship between worldview and religion? Second, does worldview present a valuable approach to the study of non-religion? And third, can worldview be deployed effectively in the classroom? We conclude with a call for greater attention to the voices of teachers and pupils in curriculum design in RE

Response to Consultation on Curriculum for Wales - Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE) guidance

From a sociological perspective, Religious Education (RE) has often been criticised for presenting ‘world religions’ as “discrete, self-contained, clearly defined traditions” that could be studied in isolation from one another (Cooling, Bowie and Panjwani, 2020: 24). As a result, RE has regularly been accused of failing to reflect the lived experiences of religious (and non-religious) communities (Benoit,2020; CoRE, 2018). The interdisciplinary approach taken to the Humanities is welcomed, and the contribution of RVE to the Humanities Area is not only relevant but also important. However, the proposed RVE guidance fails to give pupils the opportunity to learn what religion really is, how it is understood in the modern world, or how it can be taught as a challenging, exciting and intellectually stimulating subject. We recommend that a sociological approach be also adopted in RVE to study the phenomenon of religion and non-religion. We are also concerned that the RVE guidance does not take the opportunity to explicitly adopt a decolonised and anti-racist curriculum

Prayer Spaces in Schools: A Subversion of Policy Implementation?

Based on a major evaluation project, this article presents an emerging theme from research on the activities supported by Prayer Spaces in Schools, an organisation supporting ‘pop-up’ prayer spaces in schools across the UK and internationally. Evaluating the activities primarily in terms of their possible contribution to spiritual development, a number of important issues arose relating to policy on education and religion. This article focuses on how some engage with these prayer spaces as a way of reimagining and renegotiating educational policy. Based on data gathered from interviews with staff and students (aged 7-16) across seven schools in England, questionnaire responses from 555 students across fifteen schools and feedback from two prayer spaces conferences, a hermeneutic approach is used to compare the interpretations of staff with those of students and the implicit positions of policy documents. This article explores various forms of policy implementation and how staff engagement with prayer spaces can be seen as a form of subversion, with staff tactically subverting policy implementation sometimes in order to promote the very intention of those policies – a form of what we refer to as subversive obedience

The Experiences of Non-religious Children in Religious Education

There is growing recognition of the need for pupils to have the opportunity to engage with both religious and non-religious worldviews in religious education. This recognition is bound up with issues of social justice and equality, underpinned by a desire to ensure that all young people should have the opportunity ‘to understand the worldviews of others and reflect on their own’ (Commission on Religious Education 2018: 26). In thinking about how best to provide non-religious pupils with opportunities to reflect on their own worldviews, beliefs, and moral commitments, we should take into account their current experiences in RE. This article therefore offers original insight into the experiences and perspectives of non-religious primary school children in relation to RE. We draw on data from a qualitative study exploring what it means to be ‘non-religious’ for primary school children in three different areas of England. Through presenting how these children reflect on RE, we see that they care about social justice but also that their own experiences of RE can be seen as perpetuating a ‘hermeneutic injustice’ (Fricker 2007) as they are not being given interpretive resources to make sense of their own experiences and worldviews. We argue that giving children the opportunity to explore the kind of ‘emerging worldview’ (Beaman 2017) that they themselves express might be one way to overcome this inequality and provide them with a language to reflect on their beliefs and values and enter into meaningful conversation with others

Becoming Humanist : Worldview Formation and the Emergence of Atheist Britain

It is widely accepted that the growth of “non-religious” identification and “non-belief” in God(s) in many societies is linked to changing religious socialization. However, existing research mapping these intergenerational changes has largely focused on religious decline or the loss of belief –“push” factors – rather than exploring the distinctive non-religious forms of life into which children are growing up, which may operate as “pull” factors. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted with children, their parents, and teachers in England, we demonstrate how children come to inhabit a “humanist condition” through socialization processes in which “pull” factors towards humanism play a significant role and even shape the nature of “push” factors. The significance of new worldviews also helps explain how participants combine humanism with diverse religious and non-religious beliefs and practices. We argue that socialization processes at home and at school are interwoven and can be hard to distinguish in practice

The Stickiness of Non-Religion? : Intergenerational Transmission and the Formation of Non-Religious Identities in Childhood

The rapid rise of those identifying as ‘non-religious’ across many countries has prompted growing interest in the ‘religious nones’. A now burgeoning literature has emerged, challenging the idea that ‘non-religion’ is the mere absence of religion and exploring the substantive beliefs, practices and identities that are associated with so-called unbelief. Yet we know little about the micro-processes through which this cultural shift towards non-religion is taking place. Drawing on data from an ethnographic study, this article examines how, when, where, and with whom children learn to be non-religious, and considers the different factors that are implicated in the formation of non-religious identities. While research on religious transmission has demonstrated the importance of the family, our multi-sited approach reveals the important role also played by both school context and children’s own reflections in shaping their formation as non-religious, suggesting a complex pattern of how non-religious socialization is occurring in Britain today

The Social Imaginary of Science and Nonreligion:Narrating the Connection in the Anglophone West

Previous sociological research on science and religion, and secularity and nonreligion, has highlighted a consistent connection between science and nonreligious identities. Yet, the dynamics of this association have not been explored in depth. Building upon a growing body of work, this article adopts a relational approach to science and nonreligion to analyze nonreligious life scientists and members of the public in Canada and the UK’s narratives around science and religion. Across a variety of nonreligious identities, they tend to presume religion is irrational and consequently incompatible with science, idealize science, and refer to religious people as a less scientific outgroup. Upbringing, friendships, workspaces, and education all contribute to beliefs about science, (non)religion, and society. The social imaginary that to be modern is to be secular and scientific has enduring cultural power within these Western contexts, affecting daily life. Whether this is the case in other countries is a question for future research

Prospective UK undergraduate attitudes towards Theology and Religious Studies

The survey instrument was designed by Paul Ashby and Jeremy Kidwell at the University of Birmingham, with input from Amy Daughton, Jagbir Jhutti-Johal, Carissa Sharp, Rachael Shillitoe, and Karen Wenell. Survey data was collected via online survey by TSR Insight delivered to members of the online platform "The Student Room" which was open from 21st June and 4th July 2021. The resulting dataset is a random sample of 933 complete survey results from UK students (aged 16-18) in years 11, 12 and 13