Author: Dave Francis

Dave Francis describes the Network’s work in religious education: the rise of the ‘nones’, the Solarity materials for clubs and schools, the Big Ideas for RE programme, and contributions to BBC Bitesize.

Dave Francis and Denise Cush describe the neglect and structural problems of Religion and Worldviews Education in England and argue for an objective, critical and pluralist approach that students can find personally transformative.

A Worldviews Navigator column on the phrase ‘What I don’t understand is…’, suggesting it hides unwillingness to think through causes. It cites Cupitt on religious upheaval and the Air India ‘miracle’ survivor.

Describes a Big Ideas for RE unit marking a century since the Scopes trial, which combines religious education and science lessons on evolution, creationism, interpretation of texts and worldviews for ages 11 to 14.

David Rhodes considers how outsiders see the Network, including the charge of being ‘a bunch of atheists’, the Wessex group losing venues, and summarises a members’ survey on their involvement in other organisations.

A Worldviews Navigator column on learning German through the Easy German podcast, the rise of the AfD and the far right, and the need to resist authoritarianism, drawing on Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game.

Dave Francis looks back on the achievements of the network in its educational projects and their possible impact and considers the challenging question of ‘where next’?

Short biographies of the twelve members of the Network’s new Steering Group set up in 2024, including the Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and editor, with their backgrounds and routes into the Network.