From birth, toddler, child, through adolescence and into adulthood you grow and experience the world. You witness relationships, you catalogue, and you distinguish and start to take a broad view about what you perceive. These experiences, memories and learnt ideas are what form your concept of a worldview. My worldview is that we are all products of our environment. My beliefs and attitudes have resulted from the process through which my education and learning has been obtained. The beliefs and attitudes that I have grown up with, to do with my education and learning, has been because of my parents and how I was raised. My experience of being raised in a military environment, living and travelling all over Australia and overseas, has also very much shaped and broadened my worldview.

Every person has a different way of seeing and understanding the world. Hobson (1996) defines a worldview as ‘the primary conceptual framework within which our beliefs, values, attitudes and assumptions about ourselves and others are held’. This interpretation and view can be constructed by many things, parents, close family and the culture, religion and community we live in. So then, a worldview can be personally internal, but be shaped by external manipulations? I relate this to education and learning in the school system where a teacher is the external manipulator who absolutely influences a person’s way of being educated and their learning, and therefore, their worldview. Only some of my educational experiences have manipulated my worldview, in addition to my beliefs and attitudes.

It was my parents who taught me to be independent, reliable, self-sufficient and disciplined. This was very significant and central in shaping me as a child, young woman and now an adult, and therefore, shaped my worldview. The attitudes and beliefs that were encouraged in me then are still very meaningful to me now, and inspire my knowledge and learning. However, my high school experience was different. I reflect back and found that this environment lacked rigidity and discipline. As a young woman of almost 14 and having just moved to yet another state I had to adapt to a school where the students had grown up with each other and most had gone through primary school and started high school together. Some were of a low socio-economic standing. Up to this point I had not encountered such negativity to someone or something that was foreign to these students. This move changed my worldview in an educational context as i was exposed to negative influences which then directly influenced the knowledge I gained and was exposed to.

A worldview is the outcome of an individual process, which produces a distinctive interpretation of the world. In a Modernist worldview Hobson (1996) cited BF Skinner saying that “human beings are behaviour and they can be modified and manipulated through different stimulus giving different responses”. This is my perception of many of my teachers in high school and my parents at times. Bad behaviour does not get rewarded. I learnt that to every action and reaction there are consequences. I study hard and receive a good grade; I do my chores and am rewarded with pocket money. Am I just guinea pig in a universal science project?

A questioning nature was instilled in me mainly by my mum and was also nurtured by teachers during my primary school years. Quite often my school reports will have comments “Elisabeth always has something to say”. They believed that it was important to enquire and ask questions about everything and anything. My enquiring personality has and will continue to instil the craving within me to continue learning. This upbringing allowed me to observe, recognise and understand other people’s worldviews. Having a broad mind and understanding of other cultures allows me to, according to Pennington as cited by Samovar and Porter (2004, p. 103) be reasonably accurate in predicting peoples behaviours and motivations. The ability to see where other people are coming from and why or how they got to a specific idea or viewpoint is valuable to my current and future education.

Worldviews develop as your language and literacy grows. Increasing and improving technology is also requiring us to learn new skills and capabilities. Behaviour can change accordingly. Marshall and Rowland (2006, p. 11) state that “what you believe and value directly affects your learning”. Therefore, my education and learning is both determined by and needs to be in harmony with my beliefs and attitudes. Suffering from depression my worldview is a foundation of strength for me. If I can understand my worldview, I can better understand my own beliefs and values. I live in a world that includes other people so introductions to people who have beliefs, values and/or a lifestyle that is very different from my own are important in both understanding myself and the community I live in. Making sense of other people’s attitudes requires understanding their worldview, something that may challenge my own attitudes and values. If others understand my worldview, they should be able to understand my beliefs and values.

To summarise, for the most part the worldview that i have developed during my life with regards to my learning and education have been due to my family and the atmosphere i was raised in. My worldview has also been an individual process in which I have produced a distinctive interpretation of the world. My many and varied experiences in the workplace have also broadened my beliefs and attitudes that have shaped my worldview. I have never encountered any issues with regards to my gender, age or community. We are very fortunate in Australia where your gender, age, religious stance and culture are not generally considered above who you are as a person. I believe that everyone in this country has the same opportunities with regards to education and learning, it is just a matter of being able to seize those opportunities.

References:

Hobson, J.1996. Concepts of the self: Different ways of knowing about the self. SSK12 lecture transcript in week 2. Murdoch University.

Samovar and Porter. 2004. World View. SSK12 reading in week 4. Murdoch University.

Marshall and Rowland. 2006. A guide to learning independently. 4th ed. NSW: Pearson Education Australia. Pp. 1-18.