About RWE:
History of Project - A Community Response
Faith community leaders share concern
During Victoria’s COVID lockdowns (2020-2022), a series of virtual meetings was held between George Savvides (then Chair of Australia’s multicultural broadcaster, SBS), Dr Hass Dellal AO (Executive Director of the Australian Multicultural Foundation), Rev’d Tim Costello and several multicultural community leaders representing a wide range of faiths.
These discussions revealed a shared concern about students feeling that their religious identity was not understood and accepted within Victorian government schools and some non-government schools.
The result, particularly in multicultural classrooms, was that students with a religious heritage or community felt unseen—the faith aspect of their identity cautiously avoided in classroom learning and discussion. Religion had become that censored “R” word, despite the reality that multiculturalism is infused with multifaith for most communities.
Social cohesion faces generational challenge
These Victorian community leaders expressed their concern that this cautious avoidance of recognising religious identity would one day see the religious aspect of students’ cultural identity rejected for reasons of ignorance or fear.
The group of community faith leaders recognised this as a generational challenge for Australia, agreeing that meeting it was crucial to ensuring future Australians possessed the intercultural understanding and respect required for the nation’s future social cohesion.
Encouraged by the broad unity expressed by the community leaders, they began to meet regularly, eventually forming the MultiFaith Education Collaboration (MFEC). The group initially included representatives from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu communities.
Shared vision for change
Together, MFEC members began articulating a solution to the problem: creating educational resources for students under the Victorian curriculum—importantly, paired with teacher training that ensured educators were equipped to deliver the resources confidently.
A working team was assembled to execute this General Religious Education (GRE) project and identify organisations willing to partner and support the initiative.
Support broadens and partnerships form
In 2023, support for the GRE project broadened as three organisations became key partners:
- Faith Communities Council of Victoria (FCCV) – Victoria’s peak MultiFaith body.
- Faith Values – a Christian organisation with experience researching and developing Victorian school curriculum resources.
- Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) – focused on multicultural young people being connected, empowered and influential Australians.
In addition, specific organisations were consulted to ensure professional input guided the GRE Project:
- University of Melbourne Faculty of Education.
- Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).
- Victorian Department of Education.
The University of Melbourne agreed to be the professional education partner, ensuring resources and classroom experiences would be independently evaluated.
The VCAA and the Department of Education were invited to provide feedback to ensure materials met curriculum and educational standards.
Parents Victoria expressed strong support for addressing the issue intercultural understanding through the GRE project and gave valuable advice on engaging schools and parents.
The project attracted positive interest from Government ministers and advisory groups including the Minister for Education, Hon. Ben Carroll, and the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC).
Resource for the vision and Worldviews Education
MFEC, via Faith Values, successfully applied for a grant with the Collier Charitable Trust to research and develop GRE resources for students and teachers in Victorian schools.
A key aim was to find an engaging and representative educational framework that was appropriate for a culturally and religiously pluralistic society like contemporary Australia, where both religious and non-religious worldviews are held. After a global literature review by the University of Melbourne, MFEC adopted the Worldviews Education framework, which had been effectively used in UK public schools.
The inclusive approach of Worldviews Education allowed religious and non-religious students to share their perspectives—a significantly different approach to the traditional “World Religions” framework. This educational approach provided exciting potential for students to develop the skills and understanding needed to navigate differences with respect and understanding.
A Melbourne-based working group comprising teaching and academic expertise was formed. They worked voluntarily for 18 months to develop the Australian RWE (Religions & Worldviews Education) resources. The working group regularly engaged with the MFEC to ensure access to multifaith community input which helped to bridge the professional development of RWE resources with the Victorian communities represented in the teaching resources.
Religions and Worldviews Education Project
As the project grew, MFEC began operating under the auspices of the Faith Communities Council of Victoria.
In 2024, Faith Values applied for a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation to fund resource development and evaluation for the GRE project under the title Religions and Worldviews Education project.
The project aimed to give students and teachers practical tools to explore meaning, purpose, and truth, and to help students interpret their own and others’ worldviews.
The project outcomes included:
- Development of lesson plans for students
- Creation of a professional training module for teachers
- Trialling of lesson plans and training module in a small sample of schools
Project management was led by Herbert Um (Faith Values Executive Director), supported by Sandy Kouroupidis (FCCV Multifaith Officer).
The resources were authored by Worldviews expert Ruth Flanagan (University of Exeter) and Australian education consultants with support from Professor Trevor Cooling (Canterbury Christ Church University).
Roles are refined
In 2025, after two years as MFEC Chair, George Savvides stepped down, and Reverend Deacon Sandy Boyce (FCCV) was elected Chair. George became Chair of Faith Values, focusing on its governance and fundraising.
By this time the MFEC, which had begun as an informal collaboration of individual faith community members from across Victorian in 2022, had matured to become a MultiFaith education working group comprising the following multicultural organisations :
- Australian Multicultural Foundation
- Buddhist Council of Victoria
- Centre for Multicultural Youth
- Faith Communities Council of Victoria
- Faith Values (Christian)
- Hindu Council of Australia (Victoria)
- Islamic Council of Victoria
- Jewish Community Council of Victoria
- Sikh Interfaith Council of Victoria
- Victorian Council of Churches
The project continues to develop
The RWE Project, which began with funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation and some individual donations, has currently key development work underway, including:
- Eight lesson plans for Years 7 & 8, under Civics and Citizenship.
- A professional training module for Victorian teachers
- A pilot program to be run in 15 Victorian schools