Citizenship education for a pluralistic world: the selection of children’s literature in Dutch Protestant primary schools

Abstract

The goals of citizenship education are often contested in Protestant schools with an ethnically heterogeneous population of pupils in multicultural European societies today. This is connected to the tension between the inclusive goal of citizenship for a pluralistic world and the exclusive goal of education in the Christian faith. This paper presents an explorative study on citizenship education. It describes the opinions of teachers and parents on the selection and use of children's literature in Dutch 'liberal' Protestant primary schools. The results show that most teachers favour the avoidance of books that might not fit in with the Protestant identity of the school or possibly raise objections from orthodox parents. There is considerable diversity in the positions parents take on the issue.

The Role of Temporary Education Centers on Syrian Refugee Students' Socio-cultural Adaptation

“…In the Netherlands, there is a comparable expectation in the language instruction process for refugees. People who resettle in the Netherlands for whatever reason must know the Dutch culture and the language at a level that allows them to express themselves, according to the Netherlands' education and integration regulations (Jansen et al, 2006;Veugelers, 2007;van Koeven & Leeman, 2011).…”