Page 87 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND CELEBRATIONS IN DUTCH COOPERATION SCHOOL
development of the students. This way students are encouraged to relate to a
variety of perceptions which fosters the substance of dialogue (Wardekker and
Miedema 2001b). This also means that we enhance the possibility for students
to identify with a source or view. This identification stimulates the dialogue in
religious education by which students are involved personally. This means that
the objective of religious education is no longer the transmission of one specific 4 tradition or religious source: “In order to truly take account of plurality as a basis
for integrative RE, any attempts to make particular religious traditions the general framework of integrative RE have to be avoided” (Alberts 2007, 357). Similarly, Sutinen et al. relate their disapproval of educating students in one specific religion to their critical view on separated classes which “is not very suitable for societies where one of the main problems is increasing social cohesion” (Sutinen, Kallioniemi and Pihlström 2015, 330).
3.3. Students’ life experiences
There is a correlation between student participation in plural religious education and the exploration of students’ personal experiences and views. The dialogue and encounter between students from different backgrounds are particularly enhanced when this exploration is encouraged: “Pedagogically, the more aware teachers are of beliefs and values embedded in the experience of students, the more they can take account of pupils’ concerns and can provide teaching and learning situations which are designed to foster communication between students from different backgrounds” (Jackson 2004, 108).
Indeed, plurality in classrooms can only be visible when due attention is paid to students’ personal views, beliefs, and life experiences. This is an important condition for addressing a plurality of views and for enhancing encounters. Encounter in plural settings is fostered when students meet in the dialogue about experiences that are recognizable for them all. No student is excluded as can be the case when attention is only paid to a religious tradition that is not identifiable for all students (Ghiloni 2011). This inclusion of life experiences is a central mission of schools in general: to enable students to develop as it comes to “their individual and social awareness, experiences, emotions, will, aptitudes, beliefs, values” (Schreiner 2006b, 38).
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