REA Annual Meeting 2019

Witnessing in hermeneutical-communicative worldview education
André Mulder (Windesheim University of Applied Sciences)

Research Interest Group. [Paper] What is the function of teachers’ witnessing of faith in worldview education in the context of diversity? In hermeneutical-communicative learning on of the four teaching roles is model. While worldview education aims to support students in their personal worldview identity development, witnessing, which is an aspect of role modelling, seems to be aimed at the transmittal of a specific tradition. The concepts of witnessing, authenticity, moral agency, and self-disclosure are explored to shed light on witnessing in light of the generagoals of worldview education and connected hospitality


Toward ‘faith-adjacent’ pedagogies: ‘Repositioning’ the roles, spaces, and practices of religious education
Kyle Oliver (Teachers College, Columbia University)

Research Interest Group. [Paper] Social and religious change are posing significant challenges for religious institutions and giving rise to novel forms of religious and spiritual community. How learning happens in such communities, and how religious educators can help shape it, is sometimes difficult to understand and describe via traditional framings of our work. In this conceptual analysis, I draw on social and anthropological literature and ethnographic field data from several recent studies to theorize “faith-adjacent” spaces, and to illustrate the analytic benefits and pedagogical possibilities raised by this reframing.


The Teacher: Specialist in a Pedagogy of Difference
Erik Renkema (Windesheim University of Applied Science)

Research Interest Group. [Paper] We consider a hermeneutical-communicative perspective on worldview education as meaningful in diversity: students are encouraged to explore their personal existence, to encounter differences and to develop their worldview literacy. We focus on the role of Specialist concerning the interpretation of this role in diversity and what teachers need for implementing this perspective. We will add former views by theoretical insights related to the use of worldview sources on an equal bases and to schools that educate students in a particular faith tradition.



Keywords: audiences of religious education, authenticity, diversity, hermeneutical communicative perspective, hermeneutical-communicative worldview education, hospitality., match w/mulder, match w/renkema, moral agency, new religious communities, roles of religious educators, social change, spatial theory, teacher as cultural guide, teacher roles, witnessing, worldview literacy.