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evaluation). In a first cycle, In Vivo Coding and Values Coding strategies (Saldaña 1 2009) were used. By using In Vivo Coding, we were able to detect values and
views on religious education as they were described by the participants themselves
(Saldaña 2009). Their concepts and terms were used to negotiate design
requirements of the celebration and again for the evaluation of the celebration. In the second cycle, categories were described following the process of Pattern Coding, summarizing the views and perceptions of the participants “into a more meaningful and parsimonious unit of analysis” (Saldaña 2009, 152). This enabled us to detect common threads in the participants’ vision and to relate the threads to theory about dialogue.
5.2.5. Phase 5
So far, we have investigated values of the cooperation school according to documents and the teachers and the coherence with religious education at these schools. We saw that practices of religious education showed a lack of consistency with the school values. Therefore, in our final stage, we incorporated Dewey’s perspective of democratic education (see section 4.3). This reflection can motivate teachers at cooperation schools to align their religious education to the values they cherish: encounter and equality. In section 4.3 we elaborate on our motives for choosing Dewey’s perspective.
5.3 Reliability and validity
To increase validity, all empirical instruments set up by the researcher were grounded in theoretical concepts. For the same purpose, the instruments were tested with respondents from cooperation schools or other stakeholders and discussed with the PhD supervisor and co-supervisor. After these discussions, the final versions of the instruments were realized. The instruments were tested to check correspondence to the research question for each specific phase. We recorded all interviews and practices by using video or audio recording equipment (Gray 2014). In the case studies in phases 2 through 4, we returned our interpretations of the data to the concerning principals and teachers for a member check. To check the data, a non-response inquiry took place at the end of phase 1. We conducted an internet analysis of the online documents of the remaining schools. To increase the reliability of the results, we used methodological triangulation, employing “varieties of data-gathering techniques” (Gray 2014, 185). We studied the research question from different angles in order to arrive at a varied scope
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
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