Page 62 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema
P. 62

CHAPTER 3
in a new school? In our study, we focus on this specific kind of diversity.
Hardly any research has been done on how teachers put this specific diversity into practice or how they substantiate their choices. This article answers the question that arises: how are the key values of a cooperation school and of its teachers exerted in the practice of religious education?
This feature of religious diversity in classrooms is not only identifiable in cooperation schools and in the Dutch context.
Other contemporary Western societies are also facing a rise in religious and cultural plurality, especially the plurality of religious and secular traditions. This plurality challenges schools in general and religious education in particular to deal with this feature (Skeie 2009).
Much research has been conducted on the question of how religious education can deal with the diversity of students from various religious traditions in the classroom (Weisse 2009). But what is done when a secular and a denominational perspective on school identity and on religious education are joined together in educational practice?
The first author conducted a single case study focusing on this practice of a cooperation school, concentrating on the ‘moment of contemplation’. During this daily time period, religious content is discussed and contemplated, revealing religious diversity in the classroom. In the school under review here, this moment is one of the two activities of religious education, besides celebrations at Christmas and Easter. There are no other regular activities involving religious education. This ‘moment of contemplation’ is a well-known phenomenon at Dutch non- government schools: at most of these denominational schools, this moment is based on one specific religious tradition. Most public schools are unfamiliar with these moments. In cooperation schools, both this familiarity and the absence of previous experience with these moments come together in educational practice. We regard the ‘moment of contemplation’ as an example of religious education that expresses the school identity: an identity marker.
Our results will show how teachers interpret school values and personal values in the context of the diversity of religious and secular students and how these values are exerted in the moment of contemplation. They provide points of interest for teachers and principals of primary schools who want to gain insight into everyday didactics and content in religious education and in school policy regarding
60


























































































   60   61   62   63   64