Siebren Miedema

• PhD
• Professor Emeritus at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

In this contribution, we discuss criteria for the quality of qualitative research. We consider reliability and validity as specifications of the comprehensive requirement for ‘intersubjective replicability’, with which qualitative research should comply. In the data collection phase, ‘argumentative’ reliability generally must suffice; in the data a...

It is remarkable how the popularity of the concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ has increased during the last decade in academic circles and among politicians, too. This is especially the case when the issue of the place and function of knowledge in the curriculum is addressed. A strong impetus for the increased attention paid to this concept of knowled...

The concept of ‘worldview’ is widely used today in education and religious education, including the sub-concepts of ‘personal worldview’ and ‘organized worldview’. This leaves the door open for both further reception and elaboration and, of course, also for theoretical and empirically based criticism. In her Keynote Address at the 2022 Nordic Confe...

The author has earlier made a plea for educators acting as public intellectuals in society to counteract still influential neo-liberal tendencies in educational policies and practices. Against emphases on overstretched attention for measurable output and accountability in education, the aim of education in schools is formulated in terms of holistic...

In this postlude, I meta-reflect on the six articles of this special issue. All authors of the research collective have taken the methodology which Oddrun Bråten has developed for comparative studies as a kind of methodological starting point for their own research. My searchlight are two connected questions. Are the comparative methodologies used...

Internationalization of academic research and international knowledge transfer can contribute to making religious and worldview educational practices relevant. Thus, international endearvors of academic research are also to be valued as well as national endeavors. However, neo-liberal perverse stimuli have had the upper hand in academic research po...

Diverse societies face increasing racial tension, social divide, religious illiteracy, and secularism. What role can education play in confronting these challenges? Universities generate scientific knowledge but less so the search for meaning. Worldview studies encompasses both views of life and ways of life. Exploring various worldviews becomes a...

Religious diversity within Dutch schools has greatly increased. We carried out an empirical study to offer insights into how secondary school teachers (try to) relate to the formal Protestant Christian identity of their school, the challenges they experience in relation to their own personal worldview, and the recommendations they have to overcome...

Neo-liberal voices are still very strong in education broadly speaking and have a marginalizing impact on normative pedagogies like religious, worldview, moral and civic education. But there are clear and hopeful signs that pedagogy is coming back. After sketching the current situation and its antecedents, the author addresses the views and ideas h...

Zusammenfassung Ein Interesse an Bildung ist dringend notwendig, weil neoliberale Spuren in Politik und Praxis immer noch deutlich vorhanden sind. Rein kognitive Ansätze sind zu kritisieren, auch vor dem Hintergrund der immer stärkeren Stimme von Religionswissenschaftlern im öffentlichen Bereich. Die verschwiegene Normativität derartiger Herangehen...

Most western societies have become religiously diverse, and these differences are quite often an important aspect of tensions and conflicts regarding religious tolerance as well as intolerance (Schweitzer 2007, p. 89). How can we learn to live together in peace with people who hold opinions and beliefs which we personally and sometimes also collect...

In this chapter I will theoretically as well as conceptually reflect from a pedagogical perspective on the very concept and some of the different conceptions of interfaith education that are used in literature. I will also consider the so-called neighbour concepts like intercultural education, interreligious education and interworldview education a...

This article aims to argue that worldview is a useful concept in religious education because of its encompassing character. In the first part of the article three essential characteristics of “worldview” are distinguished: “worldview” includes religious and secular views; a distinction between organized and personal worldviews should be made; and e...

The central question in this article is whether teaching morality necessarily means paying attention to ‘worldview’. We investigate a conceptual and a justificatory relationship between these two. A distinction is made between organised and personal worldview and between narrow and broad morality. Some schools want to avoid influence on the student...

In this paper the authors briefly present what their theoretical reflections and empirical research has yielded in respect to citizenship education and religious education. The theoretical as well as political and practical questions of the relationship of global citizenship and worldview education are scrutinized. The main focus is on the issue wh...

This article researches whether approaches to moral education aim to influence the development of the personal worldview of students. An example of a Dutch moral education programme is presented and the findings are used to analyse various approaches to moral education. Our analysis demonstrates that every approach aims to influence the personal wo...

From (inter)national research we know about parents’ priorities in the school selection process. In this research the authors focus on parents’ motivations underpinning these priorities. The question is: “What motivates parents to send their child to a Christian primary school?” In the Dutch plural and secularized society this question is of high i...

What is the pedagogical aim of a school being an educational institution? In my view, the answer to this question is crucial and decisive. For me that aim is embracing the identity formation of students, their personhood, and that is why we should be aware of fostering and hindering factors with respect to teachers as persons and professionals, the...

In this Presidential Address 2013 the author's plea is threefold. First, to strive for a legitimate place of religions and worldviews in the public square within the playing field of liberal-democratic societies. Second, to foster the religious or worldview identity formation of students as an inclusive part of the embracing personhood formation fo...

In this article the authors outline a core concern regarding the importance of intertwining the three forms of education: citizenship education, worldview education, and human rights education. Secondly, they take a transformative view within a critical-pragmatic pedagogy with the aim of strengthening the potential for social engagement, solidarity...

A core concept in Cornelia Roux's writings is the term 'paradigm shift'. We can for example notice pleas for paradigm shifts in teaching religion, in dealing with the multicultural situation, in concretizing citizenship education, and finally her plea for a paradigm shift towards human rights education. In this essay I will first elaborate on some...

The ways schools shape their (religious) identity may change over time. Because of developments in society and individualization of religion, the formal identity of schools in the pillarized educational system of the Netherlands is not completely representing the religious identity of teachers anymore, nor of pupils and their parents. Religious sch...

Samenvatting Worden tegen de achtergrond van het inleidende artikel op dit themanummer in retrospectief ook een aantal trends zichtbaar in de verschillende bijdragen vanuit een nationaal en internationaal perspectief op levensbeschouwelijke vorming anno 2013? Met die vraag als insteek worden in deze afsluitende bijdrage vergelijkenderwijs een aanta...

Samenvatting In dit inleidende artikel wordt de leidende vraag voor dit themanummer gepresenteerd: Wat is de situatie van religie/ levensbeschouwing en religieuze/levensbeschouwelijke opvoeding anno 2013? Om zicht te krijgen op de actuele ontwikkelingen die momenteel gaande zijn wordt in dit themanummer een actuele kaart gepresenteerd van levensbes...

In this article we deal with the impact of the declining number of church members on so-called open Protestant primary schools in the Netherlands. Such schools are characterized by an open admittance policy in respect to pupils from different religious or worldview backgrounds as long as their parents respect the particular identity of the schools....

The article analyzes the concept of “worldview” in religious education. A distinction is introduced between organized worldviews, more or less established systems with a group of believers, and personal worldviews, individuals’ views on life and humanity. The focus of the first section is on presenting a more precise description of these concepts b...

Taking personhood education (‘Bildung’) of students as the aim of schools, the author argues that worldview education should form an integral part of this education in all schools. It is shown that such a conceptualisation of worldview education is adequately combinable with citizenship education. In worldview-citizenship education the emphasis is...

This contribution is focusing on the question: ‘In what way is the issue of religious education in general and Islamic religious education in particular articulated in Europe and in Turkey, and what can be learned from the respective articulations for the interreligious dialogue?’ In the first section, the historical context is presented that makes...

Brains and gender, separately and in their interrelatedness, are hot items today in popular journals and academic literature. It is in particular the complexity of the interdependence of physical-, psychological-, and contextual-related developments of feminization in education that we focus on these contributions. We argue that a combination of re...

In this paper we present in the first section the historical antecedents of the Turkish and Dutch educational system regarding religion(s) in education. In the second section we will outline the different approaches in religious education in both countries. In the third section the focus is on the relationship between state and church. In the fourt...

In the secular age religious education and citizenship education could and should be fruitfully combined. That is the present authors’ view on current developments in schools aiming at the strengthening and the flourishing of students’ personal religious identity. Presupposition is that religious identity needs to be interpreted as an integral part...

When we decided to invite colleagues to contribute to a liber amicorum to celebrate the academic career and profound works of Jan Steutel at the time of his retirement, we did not have to search for the topic of the book. In the past thirty years, Jan Steutel has dedicated most of his academic efforts to moral education. Not only his research, but...

Worries about the moral standard of younger generations are of all ages. The older generation tends to believe that the moral education of young people deserves special attention, because their moral development does not reach the level adults hope for. This observation does not mean that the older generation is necessarily wrong, but what it indis...

In this article a comparison is drawn between the way in which the pragmatist philosopher and pedagogue John Dewey addressed religious issues and his view on Religious Education in his poetic narratives and in his scholarly writings, especially in his magnus opus on religion, A Common Faith. Do we gain deeper insight into Dewey's view on religion a...

From the perspective of early socialization processes, the field of the formation of young children in Kindergarten is a highly interesting field of research. Intercultural and interreligious education should start as soon as possible and can be adequately interpreted as the start of citizenship education (Miedema & Bertram-Troost, 2008). In this c...

Next to several other domains in philosophy, in his writings Professor Nicholas P. Wolterstorff has also dealt with issues belonging to the field of philosophy of education. In his own Christian, creative and open way he is striving to use the ties between education and character formation on the one hand, and his Christian theology on the other ha...

The question how (denominational) schools for secondary education influence the religious identity development of adolescents is central in this article. Quantitative empirical research focusing on the religious commitments and explorations (as indicators of religious identity development) of adolescents and on the relationship between these indica...

Culture and tradition are two highly contested concepts in religious education. Grounding their theoretical contribution in concrete practice, the authors begin with a report on a summer camp with young adults and analyze that experience in light of concepts of culture and tradition, focusing on participation and transformation as two core characte...

The last decade identity is often and very fruitfully conceptualized as “narrative identity.” Neither for individuals nor for groups is identity a given beforehand anymore. On the contrary, identity has to be constructed in an inductive way continuously. Three qualitative research methods are applied to explore in an inductive way the school's narr...

This article deals with the question what pedagogical and religious educational contributions have to offer to the debate on citizenship. Some historical background and theoretical conceptualisations of nowadays political focus on citizenship are described particularly focusing on the Dutch case. Explicit attention is given to the role of religion...

Within the framework of author's elaboration on a philosophy of religious education two topics greatly bother the author at the moment: the precise conceptualization of the concepts of ?culture' and ?tradition' in religious education. The embracing normative framework for such a conceptualization includes a non-foundationalist, non-relativist, and...

This study examines religious identity development of pupils at Dutch schools for secondary education (mean age 16.4). With the help of a theoretical conceptualization of "religious identity development" empirical research is carried out. Main question is whether differences in terms of religious commitment and exploration between pupils of the fou...

The first book of the EC-funded REDCo Project, published prior to a series of empirical research studies published in the same Waxmann series. The book sets the scene for the empirical research to follow. Published in the series Religious Diversity and Education in Europe, edited by Cok Bakker, Jenny Berglund, Gerdien Bertram-Troost, Hans-Günter H...

The question, how religious affiliated schools for secondary education shape religious education and what effects this education has on the religious identity development of pupils, is relevant in a time when the position of religious affiliated schools is highly disputable. In earlier empirical research on religious identity development of adolesc...

Inspired by Charles Taylor’s recent quest for the meaning of religion today, this article concentrates on the question of the meaning of religious education (RE) today. The focus is not so much on the ‘what’ but instead more on the ‘where’ (the locus) and the ‘how’ (the function) of RE. The view on what is held to be a pedagogically tenable positio...

This study tests a model of individual differences in God concepts among kindergarteners, based on social learning and projection theory. Relations among maternal education, religious denomination, God concepts, child-rearing practices, and young children's God concepts were examined. Subjects were 363 Dutch preschoolers (mean age = 66 months) and...

We both have been reading the work of Jacques Derrida for a while. Gert has especially been interested in the ethico-political potential of deconstruction. So, to paraphrase Derrida, analysing all the hidden assumptions implied in a variety of issues, including educational issues. It turns out that deconstruction is responsibility, and that deconst...

In the Netherlands 'identity of Christian schools' has become a standard expression in discussions about Christian schools. However, it is a rather abstract and general expression and it is reasonable to assume that a closer look at literature and practice will present us with a more diverse picture of its meaning and practical implications. This a...

This study examines denominational, age, and gender differences in young children's God concepts. Subjects were 198 Dutch preschoolers (mean age 68 months) whose mothers and schools belonged to six different religious denominations. The mothers were non-affiliated, pentecostal, catholic, Dutch reformed, orthodox reformed, or strictly orthodox refor...

Greater governmental control over the curriculum, an increasing emphasis only on formalized and decontextualized knowledge and on education as instruction towards pre-determined outcomes, have revitalized the interest in the question whether schools should only instruct or also have a pedagogical task. In this contribution we argue that schools do...

In the Netherlands of the mid-nineteenth century a political debate took place concerning the desirability of denominational schools. Roman-Catholics and Protestants opposed the current law of 1806, which defined the new state subsidized Dutch primary schools as denominationally neutral, but with an overall Christian identity. They wanted their own...

An attachment theoretical model of individual differences in God concepts among kindergarteners was tested. Subjects were 72 kindergarteners (mean age 63 months) from two elementary schools. Children’s concepts of self, other, and God were measured using structured questionnaires. A questionnaire and an incomplete doll story procedure were used to...

L'article propose une reflexion sur l'existence des ecoles confessionnelles aujourd'hui. Leur existence est-elle legitime dans un contexte culturel et religieux divers et dans les societes democratiques pluralistes actuelles ? Les auteurs s'interrogent sur l'identite des ecoles chretiennes et mettent en lumiere les defis et dilemmes specifiques aux...

Greater governmental control over the curriculum and an increasing emphasis on education as instruction towards pre-determined outcomes have generated new interest in the question whether schools should only instruct or also have a pedagogical task. In this paper, it is argued that schools do have a pedagogical task but that this task should not be...

This study extends prior research on antecedents of individual differences in God concepts in early childhood by examining relations of parents' and teachers' God concepts and religious denomination of schools with children's God concepts. Participants were 165 preschoolers (mean age 63 months), 107 of their parents and 16 teachers. These subjects...

This study extends prior research on antecedents of individual differences in God concepts in early childhood by examining relations of parents' and teachers' God concepts and religious denomination of schools with children's God concepts. Participants were 165 preschoolers (mean age 63 months), 107 of their parents and 16 teachers. These subjects...

How should we deal with the process of secularisation, the plurality of cultures, and the dominance of thinking about education in terms of transmission, when religious education has to foster the development of personal identity formation of pupils? In answering this question the authors present a transactional epistemology and transformative view...

Three important factors determine the institutional identity of denominational (Christian) schools: their interpretation of the religious truth claim, their conception of the nature of education, and their view of cultural differences as content of education. We investigate conceptually which of these interpretations of identity are consonant with...

This essay, in discussing religious education in the Netherlands, takes its starting point in the dual Dutch educational system of denominational private schools and public state schools. For several reasons, the stringent dividing line between religiously neutral state schools and religious or denominational schools is no longer defensible. On the...

This article addresses somemethodological questions that are at stake inassessing the influence of the ideas of John Dewey onthe renewal of European education in the twentiethcentury, using examples from the history of Dutcheducation. It is argued that in this kind of researchthe focus should not be on the process of influence assuch, but rather on...

Focuses on religious education in the Netherlands discussing the dual education system that consists of denominational private schools and public state schools. Argues for multi-religious schools that will provide a stable primary- and secondary-school culture and address the plurality of students. Includes references. (CMK)

The paper presents the results of a Delphi-research project on the ideal Protestant junior school (15 respondents participated). The group comprised head teachers, teachers, board members of Protestant junior schools and academics. Although consensus could not be achieved on many aspects, it is possible to describe ideals for the Protestant school...

Critical pedagogy, once the prominent new paradigm in educational discourse, is practically absent from it now. Many writers attribute this to its lack of practical consequences. In this article, however, the authors investigate its underlying model of personal identity as an aim of education. This model, with its emphasis on consistency and ration...

It is not easy to determine major themes and achievements of education and culture in the 1980s. The social mobilization of the 1960s resulted in strong ideas of change toward democracy. The 1970s pictured different theoretical traditions in pedagogy: empirical-analytical, hermeneutical, and critical-emancipatory. Each tradition has specific ideas...

This article concerns the turn-of-the-century educational reform in North America and Europe. It documents the influence of European educational thought and practice on the work of John Dewey and the influence of Dewey's ideas on European education in three different countries: Turkey, Russia, and the Netherlands. Dewey's case suggests that resembl...

Tested by a retrospective study the hypothesis that children in the 6-36 months age range in case of lengthy (> 3 days) or repeated (more than once) hospitalization are susceptible to persistent emotional disturbances. Families of children with such a "risky" hospitalization history were approached by mail, several years (M = 36 months, SD = 10) af...