Page 95 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND CELEBRATIONS IN DUTCH COOPERATION SCHOOL
School 1 and 4 organize all celebrations with teachers from different religious backgrounds. This implies that teachers who teach Christian education as
well as teachers who teach public education contribute to the substantive
realization of the celebration. The organization committee at school 2 consists
of teachers who provide segregated Christian education. The choice is motivated
by referring to the dominant Christian tradition: “there are no teachers of 4 public education because it is primarily a Christian celebration” (respondent,
school 2). At school 3, the composition differs depending on the celebration. Our second finding corresponds to our analysis of the questionnaires: the celebration is interpreted as an activity expressing encounter and group identity. We see a strong relationship between the school value of encounter and the celebration. One key informant formulates this perspective as follows: “There is one activity one has to do together, which is the celebration, for there the encounter takes place and there interactional learning takes place” (respondent, school 1).
The third finding is closely related to the second. The aspect of dialogue in this being together, this encounter, during the celebration is marginal. The students present their contributions, individually or as a (small) group to each other. However, the dialogue about life experiences takes place in the preparatory lessons “prior to [the celebration, ER] in class and then we talk about a lot of things, including the Christian stories and then in class together with the children of the public identity, but there is no dialogue during the celebration” (respondent, school 1).
Our next finding concentrates on the attention for differences in the celebration. Although differences are hardly explored by dialogue, what perspective on differences is expressed in the interviews? For a better understanding of the student population participating, we first provide an overview in Table 6 (Appendix A).
The respondents from school 1, 3 and 4 value a celebration where “both identities” (respondent, school 1) are expressed. Apparently, in these schools, differences are interpreted as such according to supposed convictions of the segregated denominations: Christian education or public education. According to one of the team members, this interpretation results in a focus on secular sources alongside the Christian sources for the celebration: “when we would only use a biblical story, we would have no concern for the existing differences” (respondent, school 3). Another interpretation of differences and the focus on them is a pedagogical
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