Our mission is to support people to explore, exchange, and expand their worldviews, empowering them to enact a better world.
Worldviews refer to the ‘big stories’ through which humans make sense of their experience and world. As our worldviews define what we consider true, worthwhile, and moral, they shape our lives and world to a great extent. In the words of cultural historian Richard Tarnas: “worldviews create worlds.”
Worldviews are often seen as both root causes of our world’s crisis as well as deep leverage points for addressing it. Examining them may therefore offer potent pathways forward.
We develop transformative learning tools and trajectories that invite people to
- Explore the big, existential questions that worldviews give answers to;
- Exchange constructively with those who think differently;
- Expand their worldviews to include nature and the planet, and
- Enact their views in service of a better world for all.
Transformative learning is learning with potential for deep change in how one experiences, conceptualizes, and interacts with the world. Our intent here is not a change of worldview, but rather a change in worldview (i.e., in how people relate to it) ~ fostering qualities like awareness, listening, sense-making, and integrity.
Transformative learning is not just focused on the content (or object) of study but includes a critical exploration of the (subjective) perspectives from which one engages any object of study. It invites learners to reflect on how they perceive, value, interpret, and relate, thus shining light on the assumptions that frame their thinking.
We use methods that cultivate a spirit of inquiry & sense of connection
We use simple yet powerful learning methods like reflective journaling, conversation techniques, and visualisation to strengthen important human abilities:
- Perspective-taking is the ability to deliberately engage different perspectives to develop more truthful, complex, and inclusive understandings;
- Inquiry is the ability to draw on the power of questions to cultivate a mindset of curious exploration and embracing the unknown;
- Stream-of-consciousness is the practice of spontaneously giving voice or language to whatever arises in one’s experience with the aim of enhancing inner clarity and insight.
These practices empower learners to explore their interior world (i.e., what they think, feel, and sense), thereby cultivating their ‘inner researcher’ and supporting them to evolve their thinking, relating, and acting.
These practices also tend to generate a sense of connection, humanness, and understanding between people, thereby greatly benefitting collective endeavours.
Our work is research-based and designed to scale
Our learning tools and trajectories are designed in collaboration with multiple universities and tested with students and participants in diverse contexts. They are researched for their transformative impacts and designed with the intention to scale – so they can be used by educators and trainers everywhere.
The Worldview Test is also based on academic research, as well as the Big Questions that we use centrally in our learning approaches and the Worldview Cafe.
In 2024, we will offer our first teacher training for facilitating the Educational Worldview Journey, thus taking the first step towards scaling this innovative approach