Dissertation
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An examination of rationales and core practices of first-grade Worldview/Religious Education teachers focused on their students' philosophical identity development
- Author
- Jeannette den Ouden
- Date
- 09 September 2020
- Links
- Fulltext in Leiden University Scholarly Publications
Many religious education teachers and researchers see worldview identity development as one of the overarching goals of worldview/religious education (RE). But although didactic research into RE produced valuable theoretical insights into pupil’s worldview identity development, systematized descriptions of the teaching methods and underlying motivation of experienced RE teachers are still lacking. This study is meant to fill this gap. It examines the pedagogical-didactic views, didactic approaches, and goals of experienced first level qualified teachers in RE and, in particular, how they contribute to the worldview identity development of their students. Den Ouden studied two things: the rationale of experienced RE teachers and their relational and didactic core practices. She carried out three sub-studies in co-analysis with the teachers themselves. Theories on worldview identity development functioned as ‘search lights’ to elicit practice-based information from individual teachers and deduce systemic connections. In a fourth sub-study, using the Delphi technique, a different group of RE teachers reflected on the descriptions of the core practices in order to reach consensus about a shared set of core practices. This resulted in descriptions of a rationale and eleven core practices which form part of the pedagogical-didactic repertoire of experienced RE teachers.