You Can Talk about Your Cat, but You Can Also Talk about Your God: Witnessing in Hermeneutical-Communicative Worldview Education

Abstract

This paper explores the function of teachers’ witnessing of faith in worldview education in the context of diversity in the classroom. Pollefeyt described three teaching roles for hermeneutical-communicative worldview education: moderator, specialist, and witness. These roles aim to support students in their personal worldview identity development. However, witnessing seems to be associated with the transmittal of a specific tradition. We explore Pollefeyt’s intentions with witnessing and his didactical application. We deepen his perspective with Ricoeur’s philosophical and biblical explorations of testimony which help to clarify witnessing and to position this didactical role in the interreligious educational space of vulnerability and hospitality. In closing, witnessing is related to the concepts of authenticity, moral agency, role model and self-disclosure to show its relationship to more general aspects of teaching.

Keywords:

• Witnessing
• hermeneutical-communicative learning
• diversity
• worldview education
• role model

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Didier Pollefeyt is a Belgian Catholic Professor of Pedagogics of Religion, Post-Holocaust Theology and Jewish-Christian Dialogue at the Catholic University of Leuven. He contributed tremendously to reflection on and construction of Catholic School identity, was co-creator of the concept of Catholic Dialogue School and is responsible for the Thomas website that presents creative didactical tools and sources for religious education. www.didierpollefeyt.be; https://www.kuleuven.be/thomas/page/.

2 We use the term worldview education for education in religious and non-religious worldviews. Most of the time Pollefeyt uses the term religious education, although he always incorporates the character of perspectivity of a single worldview or religion together with the relevance of plurality. Although using ‘religious education’ he often points to religion and philosophies of life. In this article we use the terms as synonyms in the awareness that in other contexts ‘religious education’ refers to education referring to one or more religions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

André Mulder

Dr. André Mulder is Professor of Theology and Worldview at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]