C.A.M. Hermans

Reliability and Validity of a Dutch Translation of a Short Scale of Attitude toward Christianity

To facilitate cross-cultural research in the psychology of religion, the reliability and validity of a Dutch translation of a seven-item short-form of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was examined among a sample 980 young people attending Catholic secondary schools within the state-maintained sector in the Netherlands. The data support the reliability and validity of the scale and commend it for further use among young people in the Netherlands.

INTERPRETING RELIGIOUS PLURALISM: COMPARATIVE RESEARCH AMONG CHRISTIAN, MUSLIM AND HINDU STUDENTS IN TAMIL NADU, INDIA

How do Christians, Muslims and Hindus interpret religions other than their own? The theoretical framework of the research is models of religious pluralism developed by scholars in the field of theology of religions, especially Knitter. The authors pay special attention to pluralistic models, which have so far remained rather unclear. Special attention is paid to gender as a factor influencing levels of agreement with models of religious pluralism. Empirical research undertaken among Christian, Muslim and Hindu college students in Tamil Nadu in 2003 reveals three common models of religious pluralism that can be found among the adherents of these traditions: monism, commonality pluralism, and differential pluralism. Christian and Muslim students have much the same approach to religious pluralism, measured according to these three models; Hindu students differ from both Christian and Muslim students. Especially among Muslim students gender influences the level of agreement with the monism and commonality models. The article concludes with a discussion of the fruitfulness of comparative research (among members of different religious traditions) based on models derived from Christian theology.

Citizenship education in religious schools: An analysis of tolerance in Catholic schools from a virtue ethical point of view

The question explored in this article is whether religious schools can contribute to the formation of the civic virtues in pupils by means of citizenship education. It is commonly agreed that civic virtues are needed in pluriform Western societies to promote social cohesion and reduce hostile attitudes. However, some argue that religious schools cannot further this process: in such schools pupils do not learn to deal with people from other religious or cultural backgrounds, which is necessary for the development of civic virtues. In this article we investigate this supposition from a virtue ethical perspective. Using the example of a specific civic virtue (tolerance) and a specific religious educational context (Catholic schools), we argue that religious schools can make a positive and valuable contribution to citizenship education of pupils. We conclude with four implications for religious schools that wish to make such a contribution: (1) creating a moral community, (2) setting a moral example, (3) arranging moral practices, and (4) organising moral conversations.

Students’ perceptions and teachers’ self-ratings of modelling civic virtues: an exploratory empirical study in Dutch primary schools

This is a study of teachers’ modelling of civic virtues in the classroom. It focusses on three virtues of good citizenship: justice, tolerance and solidarity. The aim is to explore the extent to which teachers can be regarded as models of these virtues. Questionnaires were developed for both students and teachers. Factor analyses showed that the three virtues could be empirically distinguished in teachers’ behaviour. The students rated their teachers higher on the justice and solidarity scales than on the tolerance scale. The teachers rated themselves as less just, but more tolerant than they were rated by their students. Furthermore, the correspondence between students’ perceptions and teachers’ self-ratings was not high: correlations were only found between ratings of teachers’ level of justice. The results of the study indicate that teachers need to become more aware of their exemplary function and the way they are perceived by their students.

Beliefs in Action: Teachers' Identity Influences School's Identity?

The personal beliefs of teachers represent the voices of social-cultural groups. Four different personal beliefs about the identity of Catholic schools are identified. Only two of these are relevant in the minds of teachers in Catholic schools in the Netherlands. The first is a pluralistic conception, which emphasizes openness to other religious traditions. The other, the dialogic idea, emphasizes introduction into the Catholic community as well as openness to other religious traditions. The first conception represents the voice of persons who have little affiliation with the Catholic community. The second conception embodies the voice of persons who are strongly affiliated to the Catholic community.

Towards a Model of Influence of Spirituality on Leadership: Empirical Research of School Leaders on Catholic Schools in the Netherlands.

What is spirituality? What is leadership? And what is their relationship? The article presents the concept of ‘discernment’ (Latin: ‘discretion’) as the link (tertium comperationis) between spirituality and leadership. Spirituality is a way of life in (the growth of) discernment towards human fullness, which is grounded in a moral universe (God, nature). Three elements are employed in discernment: spiritual traits (Cloninger), spiritual capital (Bourdieu) and spiritual transformation (Waaijman). The influence of spirituality on leadership is empirically tested in research among 97 leaders (principals) of Catholic schools in the Netherlands. The findings show three types of leadership, namely trustworthy guiding leadership, empowering leadership and autocratic leadership. Our model with three predictors of a spiritual life growing in discernment (spiritual traits, capital and transformation) is partially confirmed, and looks promising for future research. In the discussion, the authors reflect on trustworthy-guiding leadership from the concept of attestation of Paul Ricoeur.

Spiritual Transformation: Concept and Measurement

AbstractSpiritual experiences are defined as experiences of ultimate meaning, which are existentially relevant, unexpected and sometimes (but not necessarily) objectively strange compared to normal experience. Two types of spiritual experiences can be distinguished: an orientation type and a transformation type. Spiritual transformation is defined as a process of self-awareness to unify the divided self. The ultimate (final, eternal, sublime) guides this process of change into a true self (wholeness, unification). We distinguish between five types of transformation, following the seminal work by Kees Waaijman, Spirituality: forms, foundations, methods (Dutch, 2000; English translation, 2003). They are labelled form-given, re-forming, con-forming, transparent-form and beyond-form. A measuring instrument was developed, based on this theoretical framework, and tested on a sample of school leaders in South Africa (n=132). Three types of transformation are confirmed (form-given, re-forming and beyond-form); two types clustered together (con-forming, transparent-form). The article concludes with a reflection on this result and suggestions for further development of the measuring instrument and the concept of spiritual transformation.

PARABLE UNDERSTANDING IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM: A SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND PARABLES

In recent decades parable understanding has been widely researched in the field of pedagogy of religion, mainly conducted in a Piagetian framework. This article presents an intervention study taking a socio-cultural perspective on learning to understand parables. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of curriculum interventions by way of both comprehensive and partial strategic learning tasks on the understanding of parables in the primary school classroom, as well as which aspects help to explain these effects.The study involved 484 primary school students in the fifth and sixth grades. It consists of an intervention study involving a quasi-experimental design with two experimental groups and a control group.Results reveal that the effect on the group which dealt with the partial strategic intervention is greater than that on the control group. The difference in effect between this experimental group and the control group is jointly attributable to the factors of age, gender and initial achievement level.The study shows that innovation of learning practices is only effective if it proceeds in successive steps. The partial strategic intervention may well be an appropriate first step in the innovation of parable understanding learning practices. Students should first master a limited number of strategies, which gradually increases. This need not wait until the child reaches the age of twelve; the first steps can be taken as early as the age of nine.

Pragmatic, ethical and moral: towards a refinement of the discourse approach

In this article we will address the issue of obtaining insight into the way in which teachers deal with the normative side of their profession. We outline the problem that forms the context of our question (the difference in the meaning of good teaching in the process–product model and in ethical models) and we discuss Osers discourse approach as a solution for that problem. His discourse approach appears to be a step forward, but at the same time leaves questions unanswered. As a contribution we introduce the concepts of pragmatic, ethical and moral. We show in what sense this conceptual framework provides a refinement of the discourse approach.

Towards a Typology of General Aims of Christian Adult Education

This article deals with the variety of general aims of Christian adult education in a pluralist society. The authors propose a theoretical framework of possible aims to Christian adult education. This framework consists of two dimensions: a formal dimension consisting of the goals or orientations of Christian adult education, and a material dimension that concerns the content of the (religious) identity formed by the education process. Based on these two dimensions a typology of aims to Christian adult education is presented. This typology proved to be very helpful in describing the mindset of Christian adult educators within the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. The empirical research shows that these educators have a positive attitude with regard to educational orientations of self-direction and transformation. Educational aims focussing on the supra-personal aspect of religious identity are largely rejected. This may give rise to tensions considering the institutional context in which Christian adult educators carry out their work.