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values of the teachers in depth, looking at them as a homogenous group with 1 commonalities concerning their position at cooperation schools (Gray 2014).
In sections 5.2.1 to 5.2.4, we describe how the respondents in every phase were
selected in these sampling processes and the selection criteria that were used.
5.2 Phases and instruments
The field of religious education and the education of students at a cooperation school represent a complex reality. Different perceptions and research angles are necessary to provide a clear and balanced perspective of this field and a possible answer to the research question. Data triangulation helps us to reach this balanced perspective. The “collection of multiple sources of data” (Gray 2014, 267) needs to be focused by introducing a theoretical structure that helps to “direct the data collection and analysis process” (Gray 2014, 267). All our empirical instruments were structured by our understanding of theory about school identity (4.1), values concerning religious diversity (4.2), or religious education (4.3).
In order to prepare the qualitative study, we mapped the field by means of an online questionnaire in 2013. The results showed what school values and what practices of religious education could direct our follow-up. The online exploration also made it possible for us to describe some facts of cooperation schools in the Netherlands, such as the date on which the schools were founded, the merging partners, identity of the school board, and how religious education was organized. These facts of the cooperation schools provided necessary information for the qualitative in-depth exploration that followed. After the analysis of the questionnaire, we conducted five case studies from 2014 to 2016. The studies revealed underlying views, values and beliefs, their coherence (or lack thereof), and their relationship with the existing practice of religious education. The use of case studies is considered to be an effective approach to the “integration and contrasting of different perspectives (that) can build up rich and detailed understanding of a context” (Gray 2014, 163). We used both a single case study (phase 2, Chapter 3, see also: 5.2.2) as well as a multiple-case study (phase 3, Chapter 4, see also: 5.2.3). Using a single case study, we were able to explore the practice and the motives in depth, which helped us “to better understand a particular case” (Gray 2014, 274). When analyzing multiple case studies, we managed to compare data and to find an “underlying structure” (Stausberg and Engler 2011, 377).
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
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