ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 analyses the concepts of worldview and worldviews, including writing on what worldviews are, the relations between organisational and personal worldviews, the need for pupils and teachers to consider their own worldviews, and the place of organised religions in the school subject of Religion and Worldviews. It is suggested that definitions of worldview need to be used differently to those of religion, functioning less as resources than parameters on what counts as legitimate content for the subject. The analysis of Jacomijn van der Kooij and colleagues is found useful for clarity on the meaning of worldview, keeping religious traditions in focus, inviting pupil engagement, and distinguishing between levels of worldview. The concept of worldview, if analogous to that of religion, is also seen to reduce the divide between religious and non-religious, modelling both as diverse, reflexive, and fluid. Contrast appears between international sources’ orientation to the world and that of recent English reports on worldview to internal subject or related academic concerns.
