Non-binary worldviews in education

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the potential of developing a kind of worldview education that has the purpose of enabling teachers and students to understand how worldviews are formed. I explore how suggestions of Ann Taves can be helpful towards such an aim and pay special attention to research into self-defined 'non-religious people. It seems their worldviews can defy the secular-religious divide and be categorised as nonbinary. Taves have suggested to use worldviews as an overarching rubric, that encompasses both religious, non-religious and non-binary views, which I see as corresponding with suggestions towards worldview education in schools. It signals a need for a new language for certain parts of human activity related to meaning-making. A kind of Worldview education is already a part of school subjects in Norway,

Religion og livssyn som begreper i LK20: Utforsking som strategi for å åpne begrepene

“…Livssyn (Et ikke-binaer t livssynsbeg re p) Begrepet «livssyn» brukes på ulike måter. Bråten kategoriserer den ulike bruken av livssynsbegrepet i det hun kaller supersmal, smal, vid eller supervid forstand (Bråten, 2018(Bråten, , 2021. Når «livssyn» brukes i betydningen «Human-Etisk Forbund», kaller Bråten det supersmal forstand, mens smal forstand er når det omfatter alle 1 Siden livssynsbegrepet i mindre grad har vaert tematisert i norsk religionsdidaktisk sammenheng (Bråten 2018), bruker vi en større andel av plassen på å behandle dette begrepet i denne delen.…”

Finnish teachers’ approaches to personal worldview expressions: A question of professional autonomy and ethics

“…Hence, it has been debated whether the use of a too general worldview concept is relativistic, individualistic and is linked to the concept of ideology (Ubani 2021). The concept is much debated especially in the religious and worldview education context (Cooling, Bowie, and Panjwani 2020;Lipiäinen, Halahoff, Mansouri, andBouma 2020), andBråten (2021) has recently placed the concept of worldviews in an educational context more broadly. A worldview is understood in this study following descriptions of it as 'a vision of life' and 'a way of life' (Valk and Tosun 2016), and it has been divided into organised/institutional, and personal/private dimensions.…”

“…The lived dimension, so-called 'lived religion', or 'lived worldview' (e.g. Åhs, Poulter, and Kallioniemi 2019;Bråten 2021) means the lived reality of worldviews, which becomes visible in everyday practices and the way people live their lives. A personal worldview can consist of very different aspects, and it is just one actor in a teacher's decision-making (Van der Kooij, de Ruyter, and Miedema 2013).…”

“…A personal worldview can consist of very different aspects, and it is just one actor in a teacher's decision-making (Van der Kooij, de Ruyter, and Miedema 2013). The concept of worldview resists the deep dichotomy between religious and non-religious views and it emphasises the dynamic and interactive nature of an individual worldview (Bråten 2021;Droogers and van Harskamp 2014). It also allows a personal worldview to include a variety of intersecting non-religious, religious or spiritual elements (Valk 2010).…”

Bokessay: The Forgotten Dimension of Religious Education?

“…Med [328] religioner får man en begrenset liste med 5/6 avgrensede størrelser «verdensreligioner» og ett livssyn (jf. Andersland og Bråten, under arbeid), mens med religion åpner man for utforsking av fenomenet, inkludert «levd» perspektiver; som gir fokus på det at folk faktisk lever med sekulaere, religiøse eller ikke-binaere livssyn (Bråten 2021a). Miller peker også på at forholdet mellom religion og livssyn trenger videre utforsking: «There is a developing ecology of spirituality from which religion and worldviews as a subject can draw."…”