Page 154 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 7
and religious education in particular. Cooperation schools interpret themselves as schools that emphasize social values of community. This value of encounter determines the identity of these schools.
We connected this value of encounter to corresponding theory on values concerning religious diversity in education. By doing so we position ourselves as researchers who appreciate plurality in classes as a condition that fosters the development of students’ identity. Differences in ideas and beliefs are to be explored in order to create mutual understanding on the one hand and to provide enrichment for personal identity development on the other (Ipgrave 2004; Schreiner 2006a). Encounter serves the ultimate goal of educating young people in order to prepare them to live in a plural society (Miedema and Ter Avest 2011; Schreiner 2006a; Keaten and Soukup 2009; Leganger-Krogstad 2003). Different scholars state that, by practicing encounter with others, differing in views and convictions, the student reflects on his personal views and convictions (Roebben 2000; Elias 2010; Orteza Y Miranda 2010). Following the views of Jackson (1997) and Roebben (2002), we consider dialogue as an extremely important aspect of religious education that is based on the value of encounter in religiously diverse classes. This implies a teacher who is competent in facilitating dialogue and who underlines the conviction that the value of encounter can only be expressed when the personal views of the students are explored on an equal bases and that the teacher is one of the participants (Heimbrock 2009).
We regard the aspects of encounter and dialogue of the school as a community as the social perspective of the schools. Other values that are related to the social perspective include working together, respecting differences, mutual understanding, and interaction. We recognize the social perspective in values of the school identity as formulated in formal school documents and in the personal and professional views of the respondents when they indicated their values for educating. The social value of the cooperation school not only connect school documents and the respondents’ views. It is also a perspective on educating students that unites teachers who identify with or are responsible for secular worldview education with teachers who are responsible for Christian worldview education.
Our second finding concerns equality as another value for educating students at cooperation schools. In the context of the specific diversity of students from secular
152