The Religion and Worldviews Education (RWE) project aims to develop and evaluate a pilot religious education (RE) curriculum, designed on the basis of a religion and worldviews approach to RE, for the state of Victoria, Australia.

This pilot project led by Herbert Um of Faith Values, a non-profit in Australia, aims to provide students and teachers with a framework of practical tools to engage with big questions in the discovery of meaning, purpose and truth which builds on the religion and worldviews approach to religious education that was developed and is being rolled out in England. It will achieve this through the development of classroom resources for teachers and for pupils, which will help teachers facilitate learning to help students become wise interpreters of their own developing personal worldview and the worldviews around them.

The curriculum aims to include these topics: 

1) Worldviews 1: How do we see the world?

2) Worldviews 2: How do we see the world as Australians?

3) What is life all about?

4) What’s right and what’s wrong?

5) How do I right my wrongs?

6) What responsibilities do I have?

7) What do people believe about a spiritual world?

8) How do we get along well living in a diverse society? 

Topics 6 and 7 will engage with social and cognitive sciences, while topics 1 and 2 will also take modern scientific worldviews into account.

The long-term goal is for all teachers and pupils to have access to high quality religious education that enables them to engage in meaningful conversations around the role of faith and religion in public or private life.