Page 94 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

CHAPTER 4
equality of sources are very much appreciated as core values of a cooperation school that deals with religious differences. However, when asked what value is attached to differences and to encounter, our third concept – attention for life experiences – is hardly presented in the questionnaire, or not at all.
5.2. Analysis of the interviews
5.2.1. Interviews with key informants
The first part of the interviews with the key informants focused on preparing for the school celebrations. Descriptive Coding of these interviews leads us to three findings. First, all respondents indicate that the organization committee consists exclusively of teachers: no students (or parents) are involved in the substantive reflection preceding the celebration. Or, as one of the respondents formulates: “they [the students, ER] have been involved in the performing, the preparation, but they were not asked how we are going to do things” (respondent, school 2).
Second: respondents appreciate the celebration being comprehensible for students. They also find it important for students to be actively involved during the celebration. Both items are discussed during the preparation sessions. They do not discuss a possible focus on the students’ life experiences in the celebration.
Third, respondents indicate that no limits are set for teachers participating in the organization committee. The respondent from school 2 indicates that the Christmas celebration is only organized by teachers who are responsible for Christian religious education: teachers of secular religious education are very much welcome, but do not participate. Values Coding revealed that all respondents appreciate the participation of teachers of all religious backgrounds because of the diversity and dialogue. Or, as the respondent from school 4 formulates: “I value that we thoroughly discuss opinions on one issue or another” (respondent, school 4).
5.2.2. Interviews with the organization committee
The analysis of the interviews with the teachers who were responsible for organizing a religious celebration provides five findings. First, conducting Descriptive Coding, we see that the composition of the organizing committee differs, as we saw in the analysis of the interviews with the key informants (see Table 5, Appendix A).
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