Page 56 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 2
school is accessible for all students and staff members, regardless of their religion or worldview. The data of the non-response confirm this conclusion.
We can conclude that the respondents indicate that values of public education correspond to those of their cooperation schools. Thus, there is no difference between a public school and a cooperation school. Although the research of Derriks et al. (2000) does not relate to values of public education, it also indicates that the respondents attach importance to shared values in Dutch society, especially concerning the contact with other people.
The adjustment to the Dutch Constitution concerning the receiving of public education “whether or not in a public school” can be seen as a grounded adjustment towards cooperation schools: a cooperation school can be seen as a school where the legal obligation to offer public education is observed.
The second conclusion concerns the restricted identity, especially the religious education at cooperation schools. We distinguish two points regarding this education: the first relates to its content and the second to its organization. Firstly,theresultsconfirmthatpubliceducation,inreligiouseducation,canbereceived at a cooperation school. Still, this education is quite diverse: its contents varies from education about religions to religiously affiliated education by an external teacher. Secondly, in contrast with a public school, the majority of the cooperation schools offer religious education in another way, and by the class teachers themselves; segregation of religious education according to the religious origins of the merged schools is a specific feature of most schools. This conclusion can also be recognized in the research of Derriks et al. (2000). In these cases, students (and/ or their parents) choose a specific identity of religious education. It seems striking that the non-response appear to show other results: collective religious education is more common at these schools.
As our third conclusion we see that the respondents feel that the religious identity of their schools is especially expressed by concrete activities such as the celebrations of especially religious feasts and religious education. This result also corresponds with the results of Derriks et al. (2000). Apparently, the respondents interpret the integrated identity of their schools as transferred to restricted identity.
54