Page 91 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND CELEBRATIONS IN DUTCH COOPERATION SCHOOL
5.1 Analysis of the questionnaire
5.1.1. Inventory of facts in the questionnaire
24 respondents filled in the online questionnaire. The respondents self-identified as teachers who provide Christian religious education and as teachers who organize secular religious education.
We structured our main findings according to the following themes: diversity 4 of student population, segregated religious education, objectives of religious
education, and collective celebrations.
A. Diversity of student population
Religious plurality in the school population is recognized and interpreted in three ways: religious/non-religious, multiple religious traditions, and Protestant/non- Protestant. An overview of the answers is provided in Table 2 (Appendix A).
We must add that not all respondents interpreted the corresponding question the same way; some referred to their segregated religious education, others to the entire school population. As we see in Table 1, school 2 has a variety of religious traditions among their student population. It is this same school, the only of the four schools situated in an urban setting, where the respondents interpret plurality as a multitude of traditions. These respondents do not interpret this as a Protestant/non-Protestant dichotomy. All respondents value the openness and respect in addressing these religious differences between students and refer to one or more activities of religious education when asked in which activities these religious differences are expressed. The moment of contemplation as the start of the day (22 respondents) and the celebrations (17) are specifically mentioned.
B. Segregated religious education
Results concerning this topic are placed in the overview in Appendix B. Some distinctive findings are mentioned in Table 3 (Appendix A).
Clearly, parent preference is a dominant motivation for segregated religious education. Only the respondents from school 4 do not refer to this motivation. Respondents from 3 schools mention collective moments when students of Christian and of secular religious education meet. In the context of our concept of classroom encounter, this is an interesting finding;
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