Page 78 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 3
respondents do not consider these to be exclusive religious material. This view of the respondents underlines the policy of the cooperation school, which stresses equality of convictions. Here we must add that, although biblical content in the moment of contemplation is valued by the respondents, a minority of them mention Christian tradition or the Bible as a significant source for their personal values. Our last conclusion is also related to the substantive perspective: the school guide mentions “other religious and societal convictions” (school guide 2012, 8) as the source on which school activities are founded. There seems to be a discrepancy between this principle and the practice of the moment of contemplation or any other education at this cooperation school. In the video recordings, no other religious or societal convictions than the Christian ones are presented. This absence is confirmed by the respondents: they would value more attention being paid to a variety of convictions. In the interviews, again, the selection of the lesson guide is seen as an important factor.
The analysis of the empirical data from this case study demonstrates that the social and the substantive perspective are helpful for examining the relationship between key values of cooperation schools and religious education. Through this approach, teachers and principals of cooperation schools may reflect on this relationship and the motives and possibilities for stimulating dialogue in the practice of religious diversity.
6. Discussion
6.1. Questions for religious education
Our conclusions raise new questions.
1. Theories of religious education (Jackson 1997; Roebben 2002) as well as
the values expressed by respondents and outlined in school documents emphasise the importance of mutual understanding, collaboration and dialogue in the classroom. This empirical finding underlines results of our previous research, in which principals of these schools mention equality and mutual understanding as important values of their school identity (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2016). However, in video analysis of practices of religious education, these objectives are not visible in didactics that focus on religious dialogue. The religious diversity of the student population of a Dutch cooperation school can offer the challenge to implement good practices of
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