| dc.description.abstract | Teachers’ worldviews may impact their practice in terms of pedagogy, curriculum choices, and the value they assign to, and their enthusiasm for, a curriculum subject. Religious Education (RE), in England, involves the teaching of religious and non-religious worldviews. RE teachers often lack training, subject knowledge, confidence or even desire to teach the subject. Teachers may teach aspects of religion(s) and non-religious worldviews which adhere to their own worldviews but ignore aspects of religion(s) and non-religious worldviews with which they disagree. The claim in this thesis is that better understanding of their own worldviews might help teachers guard against these conscious or unconscious omissions of religion(s) and non-religious worldviews and the reinforcement of unexamined biases. To this end, I have developed a working definition of ‘worldview’ as an individual’s frame of reference, held consciously and subconsciously, that evolves due to life experiences that enables them to make sense of the world. I have designed hermeneutical tools for teachers to read themselves, to identify aspects of their worldviews and the narratives which have formed these. These tools have application to the self-examining of life stories, and have been tested, through semi-structured interviews with 10 Primary school teachers in the South West. The findings revealed variations between teachers’ worldview-consciousness and the impact of their worldviews on their teaching of RE: notions of ‘good life’ varied and determined their teaching of, choices within and rationale for RE alongside growing confidence. Depth of understanding was facilitated for some by overseas travel, working and living overseas or in a multicultural area. Greater self-understanding unlocked reflexivity for teachers with acknowledgement of the impact of their own worldviews on their teaching of RE. | en_GB |
