Page 43 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema
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MERGING IDENTITIES. EXPERIMENTS IN DUTCH PRIMARY EDUCATION
and De Groof 2012). Public schools actively engage religious backgrounds of their
students. This implies, for instance, that public education has an ‘open door’ policy; 2 admitting every student and staff member disregarding cultural, ethnic or religious
background or sexual preference (Bakker 2012; Zoontjens 2003; Ter Avest 2003).
This acknowledgement is called ‘active multiformity’ (Braster 1996;
Veugelers and De Kat 2005). Where active multiformity reflects the
integrated identity of a public school, restricted identity can also be
recognized. Clearly defined religious education is organized in different ways.
In the first place religious education in a public school can occur in the
form of educating students about different religions and life stances, “in an
informative and objective way” (Kuyk 2012, 136). The main objective, in this
case, is the spreading of knowledge of ideas, sources and practices of traditions
that play an important role in the Dutch society. Every school in the Dutch
educational system is required to integrate these contents into their curriculum
(Ter Avest et al. 2007; Ter Avest 2003; Veugelers and Oostdijk 2013). In our
empirical study this kind of education is called ‘education different religions’.
The second form is the obligation of a public school to enable students to
receive some kind of voluntarily denominational religious education. In The
Netherlands, there are teachers of the Protestant, the Catholic, the Islamic,
the Hindu and the humanistic tradition. This kind of education is provided by
religious groups and religiously affiliated teachers, who are not a part of the school
team and are sent by the religious group. The authorities of the public primary
school do not carry responsibility for this type of education (Zoontjens 2003;
Bakker 2011; Ter Avest 2003; Ter Avest et al. 2007; Glenn and De Groof 2012).
2.3. Non-government education and religious identity
Non-government schools can be established based on religious or philosophical orientation . This ‘freedom of orientation’ gives religious or philosophical orientated groups the possibility to express their values in an educational setting (Glenn and De Groof 2012; Noorlander and Zoontjens 2011; Zoontjens 2003). There is a difference between non-government schools and truly private schools: the first type has the constitutional right to receive public subsidy (Glenn and De Groof 2012) and is constitutionally settled.
Several religious and philosophical groups may found their own schools. These groups, however, are never ecclesiastical institutions as such (Glenn and De
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