Page 63 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

KEY VALUES OF DUTCH COOPERATION SCHOOL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
religious diversity. It can also provide scientific insight with regard to the balance between school values and religious diversity in the classroom.
2. Religious Education and Diversity 3
Like many other European societies (Jackson 2006), the Netherlands is a society that exhibits religious diversity. This diversity is also visible in classrooms because “children do not leave their values and deeply felt convictions outside when they enter the classroom” (Milot 2006, 15).
In our previous research on cooperation schools (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2016), principals of these primary schools mentioned the following key values as part of the school identity: equality, respect, encounter, dialogue and mutual understanding. These values try to provide a response to religious diversity in classrooms. However, we have not yet investigated the ways in which didactics in religious education reveal these values and address this diversity, and the motives for doing so. In this article, we will try to find a connection between these values, religious diversity and the everyday practice of religious education. We will do so by focusing on the expression of the institutional identity based on these values in the religious education.
2.1. Diversity in religious education
Religious diversity in classrooms presents both a challenge and an opportunity for teachers (Ipgrave 2004). In the context of our research on the diversity of students from either a secular or a denominational background, we elaborate on two important characteristics of religious education dealing with diversity.
First, education should stimulate “a reflective and sensitive encounter” (Schreiner 2006a). This encounter is focused on a free exchange of ideas and beliefs between students. This exchange is not subject to any restrictions: “In a safe classroom space, students are able to express their views openly, even if these might differ from those of their teacher or peers” (Sutinen, Kallioniemi and Pihlström 2015, 346). 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). This 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).
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