TY - JOUR
T1 - What's in a worldview? On Trevor Cooling's 'Doing God in Education'
AU - Hand, M.
N1 - Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/10
Y1 - 2012/10
N2 - In 'Doing God in Education', Trevor Cooling aims to defeat what might be called the marginalising view of the place of religion in education. I am sympathetic to this aim; but I think Cooling conflates two different arguments, predicated on two different concepts marked by the term 'worldview', and that only one of the arguments is plausible. The first argument assumes that worldviews are theories of the meaning of life and contends that learning in all areas of the curriculum bears on the credibility of rival worldviews, including religious ones. Study in any discipline can prompt reflection on wider questions of meaning and purpose. It is therefore important to give explicit attention to worldviews in education. This seems broadly right. The second argument assumes that worldviews are conceptual schemes and contends that, without initiation into a worldview, 'children cannot think at all'. While it may be true that having a conceptual scheme is a condition of the possibility of experience, it is highly implausible to suppose that religions qualify as worldviews in this sense. So Cooling's second argument poses no threat to the marginalising view.
AB - In 'Doing God in Education', Trevor Cooling aims to defeat what might be called the marginalising view of the place of religion in education. I am sympathetic to this aim; but I think Cooling conflates two different arguments, predicated on two different concepts marked by the term 'worldview', and that only one of the arguments is plausible. The first argument assumes that worldviews are theories of the meaning of life and contends that learning in all areas of the curriculum bears on the credibility of rival worldviews, including religious ones. Study in any discipline can prompt reflection on wider questions of meaning and purpose. It is therefore important to give explicit attention to worldviews in education. This seems broadly right. The second argument assumes that worldviews are conceptual schemes and contends that, without initiation into a worldview, 'children cannot think at all'. While it may be true that having a conceptual scheme is a condition of the possibility of experience, it is highly implausible to suppose that religions qualify as worldviews in this sense. So Cooling's second argument poses no threat to the marginalising view.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=yv4JPVwI&eid=2-s2.0-84867850437&md5=4f00a0ab16be707d4e98628b99974581
U2 - 10.1080/03054985.2012.722862
DO - 10.1080/03054985.2012.722862
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84867850437
SN - 0305-4985
VL - 38
SP - 527
EP - 537
JO - Oxford Review of Education
JF - Oxford Review of Education
IS - 5
ER -