Preparing for the world of diverse worldviews: parental and school stakeholder views on integrative worldview education in a Finnish context

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore integrative worldview education as a platform for learning from worldviews in a diverse cultural context. This is done by exploring integrative worldview education in a Finnish secondary school context by examining the views of school stakeholders. The stakeholders examined in this article consist of 174 parents of the pupils and a total of six teachers and head teachers from two different lower secondary schools in Helsinki. We use the concept of learning from worldviews to examine the possibilities of the integrative classroom to facilitate learning from both personal and organised worldviews. The results indicate that the stakeholders view integrative worldview education as an important tool for widening the worldview of the pupil. Although the stakeholders view the sensitivity of the teacher as paramount in teaching an integrative classroom, integrative worldview education is also seen as important in offering tools for forging mutual understandings in an ever more complex world of worldviews.