Page 152 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 7
Although the phenomenon of the cooperation school is one of great interest, it should be noted that diversity in cooperation schools in the Netherlands is limited. In most cases the schools are visited by students from non-affiliated or Christian (Protestant or Catholic) background. Cooperation schools hardly appear in cities where a large cultural and religious diversity is significant and of importance for education. Therefore we can only add to theory about encounter in plural classrooms by our unique focus on the plurality of classes with mainly Christian and non-affiliated students. We are aware that plurality with a bigger variety of traditions in the student population has similar but also other specific challenges.
2. Research findings
This research aimed at answering the following research question: What is the identity of Dutch cooperation schools, how do teachers express the identity in religious education, and how does the education meet the requirements of a democratic, plural society?
We discovered that the value of encounter determines the identity of the schools, that respondents and school documents mention equality as an important condition for handling diversity and that respondents see their educational values expressed in religious education. Regarding religious education we detected that the value of encounter is hardly expressed by practicing dialogue in moments of contemplation and celebrations, that respondents emphasize the discussing of themes from the student’s life experiences as a way of fostering encounter and dialogue between students from different backgrounds and that content of religious education explicitly focuses on the Christian tradition.
We described the practices of religious education and described and explained the values that ground the teachers’ organization of this education. By investigating both the religious education and its founding values we shed light on the coherence between the values and this education. Next to this we contributed to the development of the practice of religious education in the unique plural setting of cooperation schools. We did so by formulating conclusions and recommendations regarding this coherence and related these to theory about encounter and dialogue in religious education. The conclusions and recommendations can help schools that are faced with discrepancies
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