Page 48 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 2
another way than in the case of the regular schools.
Based on this list and a web analysis of online documents of the selected schools 35 schools were found. These were all cooperation schools for primary education in February 2013: 0,51% of all primary schools.
The questionnaire was sent online to the principals of all these schools. It was divided into four categories. The first (facts of the school) provided us with information about the year of origin, the original merging identities and the identity of the board. The second category of vision/identity and the third category of policy/choices contained questions about the integrated school identity and, especially, tried to uncover what key values the respondents consider characteristic of their school identity. The fourth category focused on the restricted identity, and asked about the organization of religious education and in what ways this is offered according to values of public education. Regarding the adjustment in the Constitution, we especially tried to discover how the integrated and the restricted identity express public education. The questionnaire was semi-structured: the 25 questions contained eight open questions, five multiple choice questions and twelve questions with both specified answers and an empty field to add personal answers.
The provided data were collected and analyzed. To check the reliability of the data a non-response inquiry took place. We conducted a web analysis of the online documents of the remaining schools. These five themes were compared with the results of the online questionnaire: the origin of the identity of the merged schools, the board identity, key values, admittance policy and the organization of religious education.
4.2. Method
After the first deadline six principals completed the survey. The remaining principals were reminded by email and by telephone. Seventeen principals (48,6%) replied by answering the questions in May 2013. Six principals responded that they did not have the time and/or the priority to participate. There was no response from the remaining principals after the reminders.
In order to analyze the response we first used a quantitative approach: we counted the number of the several possible identities of the boards and of the original identities of the merged schools, and we made an overview of the date of origin of the schools.
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