Page 36 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 1
and performance of a collective celebration. This study focuses specifically on the expression of school values of encounter, equality of sources, and the focus on students’ life experiences in these rituals. We chose these schools because we had not investigated the practice of segregated religious education in relation to the school values so far. Segregation appeared as a dominant aspect of a majority of cooperation schools in our first stage. Because the attention for life experiences turned out to be an important objective of the respondents in phase 2, we intentionally adopted a theoretical and empirical perspective on this subject: Could the focus on life experiences contribute to the expression of school values? We noted, again, that the respondents emphasized the school value of encounter, in the segregated moments as well in the celebrations. We conclude that these cooperation schools also hardly practice dialogue between students: encounter is limited to divided groups in segregated religious education, and the didactics of a celebration do not show any dialogue. Our empirical data also show an emphasis on Christian tradition and a limited focus on life experiences in religious education.
In phases 1-3, we see a tension between, on the one hand, emphasizing school values and the appreciation of encounter and dialogue by respondents from cooperation schools, and religious education on the other hand. Because of this tension that threatens a praxis based on school values, we chose to learn more about the ritual practice of a cooperation school by means of a participatory action research study that was conducted with the teachers (Chapter 5). This study analyzed how the teachers construct a collective religious celebration for all students from the perspective of dialogue and encounter, and how they motivate their choices in the light of the school’s core values. The participatory action research study results in a celebration in which the participants recognize their values on education. We conclude that the teachers, both from secular and from Christian education, underline this new practice as an expression of the value of encounter and consequently of a key concept of their school identity. The teachers who created the celebration emphasize that this dialogical practice gives students the possibility to participate in the dialogue about their experiences with and their views on a general theme. We also conclude that a practice of dialogue can be organized in line with school values, but that this dialogue is, again, limited: there is no focus on any central existential theme that is explored by a variety of perspectives, and the dialogue is not moderated professionally.
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