Written by John Semmens @philosophyinKS2
The next session that really influenced the way I want to shape some of my units was Session C: C2 PRIMARY Worldviews within Islam – the Primary edition with Naila Missous. The video[i] shown at the beginning of the session was a great way to think about bias and personal lenses in the RE classroom. The knowledge that we all have biases, and that many are deeply ingrained is something I have been thinking about for a while now but not is such a usable way[ii]. This was a great way to think about the many worldviews within the classroom and then take that further by exploring the many worldviews to be found in Islam. There is a need to go deeper but also a need to step back and recognise the way that we teachers approach the teaching of Islam (and indeed any worldview) and that comes with accepting our biases. Naila readily accepting her own biases, encouraging us to accept ours, and then work towards not teaching any religion as a monolith really hit home. I think we all readily understand the huge diversity of worldviews in our own ‘in-groups’. Particularly within religious worldviews you can see the arguments, schisms, and smaller differences in interpretation. This can be hard to recognise from the outside and this very human instinct needs to be overcome. The huge diversity to be found in Islam was expanded upon by looking at Mosques from around the world. After Naila showed us a Google search for the word ‘Islam’ we recognised the male, Arab-centric images that came up. We teachers may look at Google as a simple tool, something quick to help us illustrate our points but there is a bias to be found here too. Examining biases that can blind us to those more meaningful learning experiences can mean our curriculums represent the world we are studying rather than a preconceived version of it. But the world is messy, full of things that are sometimes true and when creating a curriculum, you don’t want to overload it with half-truths and messy ideas. There is a tension between the sum and its parts to explore here as many have written about.
This brings me back to the first quote: “The mind is the bouncer of the heart”. The mind guides what we see, the world is a huge and bewildering place, and we can’t possibly know and understand it all. We consciously or unconsciously pick and choose what we see. We have to be selective but becoming conscious of that selection enables us to go some way to gaining a better understanding. With new information comes new familiarity and therefore, new understanding[iii]. No one has a perfectly detached worldview, indeed being detached may be just as inhibiting as we gain an understanding of the world by acknowledging our part in it[iv]. The mind lets us see what it wants us to see. Sometimes that means not seeing the whole picture and missing the ‘messiness’[v] of worldviews. We are increasingly polarised in our thinking and the notion of ‘othering’ has become a problem in politics, not just the RE curriculum. By curating our own experiences, we keep those that are unfamiliar from entering our hearts and so the mind acts as its ‘bouncer’.
Conclusions
To bring these two sessions together I will look at the second quote and the etymology of the word matter[vi]. From the word matr we get matrix, material, and mother (amongst other words). At the moment the philosophical ‘Hard Problem of Consciousness’ [vii] is said, by scientists (materialists), to be solved by stating that consciousness is an ‘emergent quality’ of matter. Kastrup describes this as a ‘metaphysical bias’ contained within the word ‘matter’. If consciousness is understood as something that emerges, like a baby from its mother, perhaps even this explanation of such a complex concept comes from a certain anthropomorphised view of the universe. This is, of course, one worldview within the scientific worldview. It would seem that there is a messiness to be found in every worldview and the words we use to describe them. Acknowledging this means we can examine how we understand the world and move towards a better, more complete understanding.
John Semmens is the Chair of Norfolk SACRE, a Primary RE teacher in Norwich and trains teachers to use philosophy in the classroom. Follow him on Twitter @philosophyinKS2 or view his website www.philosophyinks2.co.uk
[i] An Introduction to Unconscious Bias https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCgIRGKAbfc
[ii] Philosophy is About Thinking: Sedimentary My Dear Watson by John Semmens https://www.philosophyinks2.co.uk/post/philosophy-is-about-thinking-sedimentary-my-dear-watson
[iii] The Aim of Education: A Wondering Built on a Wondering by John Semmens https://reformingre.wordpress.com/2021/11/30/the-aim-of-education-a-wondering-built-on-a-wondering/
[iv] Based on the work of John Vervaeke in his series of lectures: Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Ep. 45 – Awakening from the Meaning Crisis – The Nature of Wisdom – Meaning Crisis Collection
[v] Based on the work of Rob Freathy & Helen C. John in Worldviews and Big Ideas: A Way Forward for Religious Education? https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1386095/FULLTEXT01.pdf
[vi] https://www.membean.com/rootcasts/matr-mother/
[vii] Hard Problem of Consciousness — David Chalmers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5DfnIjZPGw