Page 80 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 3
6.2. Questions for further research
This single case study explores motives and practices of religious education for students from diverse religious backgrounds. The study is of interest because of the specific situation of the cooperation school: a school that is a result of a merger between a neutral school and a school with a religious affiliation deals with the interesting question of how to deal with religious diversity in light of these original backgrounds.
The answer to our question cannot be based on this single case. Other cooperation schools organise religious education in a segregated way (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2016). What motives and practices concerning diversity can we see when we study religious education at these schools? This approach allows us to explore a wide variety of aspects and gain an overall impression of religious education and diversity at these cooperation schools. Therefore, the results of this study will later be compared to results from other schools in future research.
A second question that originates from this research addresses the extent of the religious diversity of students at this one cooperation school. It has become clear that students are non-affiliated or have a Christian orientation. There are hardly any students with another affiliation. Therefore, we ask whether our further research can show practices of religious education and the way these practices deal with increased diversity. It must be noted here that the social context in which schools merge and become a cooperation school is in most cases a rural one; this limits religious diversity in the Netherlands.
78