Page 42 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 2
Staten-Generaal 2011; Onderwijsraad 2000; Noorlander 2011). It is here that our first question surfaces: What is meant by the identity of a school and, in particular, the identity of public and non-government education?
2.1. Religious school identity
One of the fundamental values of the dual educational system concerns the religious dimension of the identity of schools. This dimension also plays a very large role in the arguments and in laws concerning cooperation schools.
School identity can be viewed in two ways: restricted and integrated. De Wolff defines ‘school identity’ as “that what makes a school this particular school, or, what are the typical or characteristic features of this school, what the members of the school have in common (...) and what can be characterized by a certain degree of durability or continuity throughout time” (2000, 53). She describes a multi-dimensional concept of school identity: identity is not only interpreted in a religious way, but also in a pedagogical, educational and sometimes organizational and social way. Ter Avest et al. call this an integrated way of looking at the identity of a school: in this way, the religious dimension (religious values and views) influences the other dimensions of identity (Ter Avest et al. 2007; Ter Avest 2003). Besides this integrated school identity, a restricted identity can be distinguished: the religious identity of the school is interpreted as and recognized in the religious activities in education (Ter Avest et al. 2007; Ter Avest 2003). We will discuss public and non-government education and cooperation schools according to these two perspectives of school identity: the integrated and the restricted.
2.2. Public education and religious identity
Regarding the integrated school identity, one of the main values of public education, and therefore guaranteed within the cooperation school, is its religious neutrality (Bakker 2012; Zoontjens 2003; Ter Avest 2003; Noorlander 2011; Ter Avest et al. 2007). This means that a public school cannot define or motivate its education from any religious point of view. Next to this fundamental value, another basis characteristic of public education is defined by the Dutch educational law: public education “must contribute to the development of its students by paying attention to religious, ideological and social values as they occur in Dutch society, and by recognizing the importance of the diversity of these values” (Law Primary Education, article 46; Bakker 2012; Glenn
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