Chapter 6 108 yielding twenty-three domains in total.61 Some domains were assigned following the topics in the interview guide (e.g., “[professional] ideals” and “religious others”), while others were inductively formed (e.g., “refugees” and “social media”) (Miles et al., 2014). In the next phase, we used descriptive coding of meaningful units within the domains of “religious others,” “faith,” and “religious tolerance” in order to answer our current research questions (Miles et al., 2014). In our search for similarities and regularities, we placed the codes in more abstract categories, which we could then interpret (Elliott & Timulak, 2005). The appendix [Appendix X] contains an overview of the relevant codes. We used the software program ATLAS.ti8 and performed the coding in Dutch (Van Nes et al., 2010). For the sake of reliability, the coding and further analyses were discussed several times within the research group and with other researchers. The participant statements used in this article were translated into intelligible English sentences by two authors (e.g. Van Nes et al., 2010).10 6.4 Results Our data can shed light on the central topics from various perspectives. As noted in the introduction, it is important to have an image of whether and how teachers interact with religious others. Therefore, we will first examine their concrete interactions with religious others. Afterwards, we will address their beliefs about religious others and the particularity and distinctiveness or truth of the Christian faith. We do so because it is the combination of these concepts that raises questions about whether and how strong religious schools can foster social cohesion and tolerance. Lastly, we relate the insights from the various perspectives to each other. Teachers’ interactions with religious others The teachers described several kinds of interactions with religious others, such as contact with the neighbors, family, and friends or others (e.g., the Muslim school cleaner or their parents’ friends), meeting people on the streets, during sports matches, during studies, at work (former jobs or summer jobs), or during missionary activities. These are interactions in daily life, and the teachers did not deliberately create interactions with religious others 61 We used the following domain headings (translated into English): Bible (44); citizenship (education) (84); Christian schools (67); school context (3); didactics (97); principal (5); questioning/inquisitiveness [Doorvragen] (15); faith (400); homogeneous population (2); religious education (95); (professional) ideals (258); interview (38); class/pupils (179); teacher (900); social media (11); religious others (463); parents (50); government (7); society (87); school (236); teacher team (101); tolerance (196); and refugees (21). The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of units within this domain; some units were assigned to more than one domain (counting performed on January 20, 2017). 10 This procedure is described in a similar way in Markus and colleagues (2019).
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