ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 outlines the 2018 Commission on Religious Education (CORE) report and its reception. The focus is on England and, initially, the CORE report’s accounts of the state of RE and recommendations, prominently that the subject move to Religion and Worldviews, an inclusive study of religious and non-religious worldviews at the organised and personal levels. Religion and Worldviews has been variously interpreted as a vehicle for hermeneutical, knowledge-based, and (briefly) post-colonial approaches to teaching about religious and non-religious worldviews in schools. It has been opposed for reasons including dilution of religious content, over-emphasis on understanding, vagueness of the worldview concept, and lack of a moral underpinning. Chapter 1 includes some assessment of these interpretations and oppositions, introducing arguments such as the needs for definition of worldview, and a democratic basis for Religion and Worldviews. It also comments on the UK government’s negative response to the CORE proposals and the consequent issues of implementation.
