Addressing diversity and individualism: The contribution of catholic religious education to the educational project of catholic schools in the netherlands

Abstract

Societal trends towards diversity and individualism call for a re-evaluation of Catholic Religious Education. However, in practice we see that Catholic schools have difficulty achieving this. This chapter reports about an educational design research to find out what Catholic schools take their educational project to be and the contribution of Catholic Religious Education to it. Two Catholic secondary schools in the Netherlands participated in the research. This qualitative study employed two research methods to ascertain the relevant data. It used semi-structured interviews with staff members as well as focus group discussions involving staff members, students and parents.