‘Parents and teachers in elementary schools trust each other, but exchange little information about religious education.’ That is one of the conclusions drawn from a study conducted by our research centre, led by our former research centre lead Nico Broer.
The published article gives a detailed account of it. The study is not an isolated one. In previous years, the Identity and Personhood Formation knowledge group has conducted several studies on parent-teacher collaboration. For example, we looked at how introductory parent meetings in secondary education are perceived, how parental support in dyslexia can be promoted and what collaboration practices exist with regard to religious education.
Following that last study, we wanted to know more precisely what parents and schools expect from each other. We also had some indication of differences between Reformed and Protestant Christian schools. With his expertise in quantitative research, Nico Broer was able to design an online questionnaire, which was completed by 1346 respondents from both target groups.
The differences proved to be significant in several respects. Reformed parents and teachers value unity of approach to religious education more strongly, but also do not exchange as much about it. When there is greater diversity in student populations, there is more interaction about religious education.
The published article reports on the results. We are immensely grateful to Nico for the work he has done for this. He completed it after his retirement, in his own time. A public summary can be found here.