Page 129 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema
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evaluation of the experimental celebration from a theoretical perspective, as well from the participants’ point of view.
Our first question regards the content of the new practice. Our data show that the
activity focuses strongly on listening “to others with both patience and tolerance”
(Elias 2010, 70). Students discuss their personal answers to given questions.
They express respect and equality, which the teachers state are core values of the
school. However, a variety of themes are discussed. In the evaluative session, the 5 participants also indicated that choosing religious content for this practice could
have enhanced dialogue about differences. However, they preferred a general rather than a religious or Christian theme in order to encourage all students to recognize themselves. It seems like this variety of themes and the absence of some content restricted the dialogue and the development of student’s personal identity as an aim of dialogue in religious education (Roebben 2000; Elias 2010; Orteza Y Miranda 2010). In this line, we assume that specific reference to religious perspectives (and in the case of this school, those perspectives were mostly Christian) fosters dialogue. Consequently, we ask: what contribution can the content of dialogue, and especially content of religious traditions, in collective religious education make when it comes to fostering the student’s religious identity?
Secondly, the participants assigned the oldest students to act as moderators in the small groups. The teachers walked around during the celebration and encouraged dialogue. These oldest students are neither accustomed to performing this task, nor have they been enabled to fulfill it. As a result, it was hardly possible to verify whether the content was put into dialogue or whether any issues that deal with identity development were discussed in the small groups. This leads us to the following question: what competences suit a moderator of dialogue in the context of plurality?
Our third question deals with the concept of a celebration. Teachers of the studied cooperation school interpret collective moments of religious education as ‘celebrations’. To connect to this perception, we also referred to the design of the new practice as a celebration. Especially the fact that students gather and contemplate existential themes is a similarity between the designed practice and a celebration. However, a celebration also has more elements, such as singing, making music and listening to music, and contemplative rituals like prayer. Although we
A PILOT STUDY
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