Page 110 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 5
fully expressed due to two limitations (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2017, 2018):
First, almost all cooperation schools organize moments of contemplation as a practice of religious education (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2017). These are daily moments in which religious themes are presented. However, in a majority of these schools, the value of encounter seems to be defined to a very limited extent in this practice. Students are divided into denominational groups: a moment for students in line with Christian tradition, scheduled simultaneously with a moment that has non-affiliated, secular content. This form of segregation is based on the choice that the students or their parents make: do they want to receive religious education from a Christian point of view, or do they prefer non-affiliated education? Not all students from Christian education have a Christian background; similarly, not all students from non-affiliated education are secular. However, students are divided along the lines of their pre-merger schools, which limits the possibility of an encounter between children from different backgrounds. A majority of cooperation schools preserve the distinction between the (confessional and secular) divisions in both policy and practice of religious education. This retention counteracts the school value of encounter that is embraced by all participants: “Mutual recognition of each other’s existence among different groups is difficult if religious education is divided according to denominations and religions. Such a structure leads instead to a situation in which only one’s own rights and one’s own background are considered” (Weisse 2003, 205).
Second, dialogue shapes a practice that fosters encounter. Unfortunately, we found that dialogue is hardly practiced in religious education. We examined concrete moments of contemplation and found that students were not encouraged to exchange their views on religious subjects. Although some schools organize collective religious celebrations for larger groups of students, in which they are not divided into denominational groups, participants mention that they hardly organize any dialogical didactics in these celebrations (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2017, 2018). In the light of theory about encounter in religious education and of the views of participants, we see this discrepancy as a problem that cooperation schools need to respond to.
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