Page 97 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND CELEBRATIONS IN DUTCH COOPERATION SCHOOL
A. We see that encounter in religious education is highly valued by the
respondents. In segregated religious education as well as in the collective
celebration, they endorse this core value of a cooperation school. The
appreciation is a significant and common thread in this and our previous
research (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2016). The celebrations especially
are regarded as opportunities to realize encounter between students. The 4 appreciation matches the theoretical emphasis on encounter in religious
education (Jackson 2004). The emphasis on encounter as a key value of religious activities in education is in line with the definition of ritual as described in section 2. Moments of encounter between students from non- affiliated and Christian backgrounds meet the communal aspect of this definition, in our focus on this quality of generating and stimulating “a sense of belonging and relationships of trust” (Barnard and Wepener 2012, 4). Empirical data show that three of the four schools have this opportunity for encounter because of the maximum religious diversity in the student population during a celebration.
B. In spite of the appreciation of the social dimension, encounter and dialogue are mentioned by no more than fifty percent of the respondents in the questionnaire when asked to state objectives of religious education. This relatively low number is remarkable considering the endorsed school values of respect, mutual understanding and equality and the role of encounter in religious education according to theory.
C. In addition, hardly any dialogue is visible during the celebration. Like the moment of contemplation in our previous research (Renkema, Mulder and Barnard 2017), teachers do not practice any dialogical didactics to stimulate the encounter. The expression of the social quality of the celebration as a ritual by means of dialogue between students of different religious backgrounds is limited. The sense of belonging and the social cohesion in a ritual is expressed in other ways than by didactics of dialogue: for example by singing together or sharing performances on stage. This dialogue is also limited because no students are involved in the organizing committee. In the collective celebration, students present an aspect in line with the segregated denominations in order to get to know each other’s background. We conclude that in these cooperation schools dialogue between students is
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