Chapter 2 40 There were a total of seven participants in the focus groups with teacher educators, including four women and three men. The teacher educators came from the disciplines of geography, arts, history, and two participants each for religious education and Dutch language. The contribution of teacher educators was voluntary. 2.3 Data Collection and Research Instruments Data collection and research instrument of the individual interviews study Two interview moments with each participant were planned for the in-depth interviews. I expected that raising questions about religious diversity could evoke new reflections by the teachers in the meantime, which could be expressed during the second interview. The second interview also enabled asking more clarifying questions after transcribing the first interview. On average, the second interview followed 30 days after the first, with a minimum of 5 days and a maximum of 65 days in-between. I opted for semistructured interviews as I value a conversational style in which the interviewer can react to participants and participants feel comfortable. This can create a rapport and thus enhance the chances that participants will share rich information (cf. Evers & De Boer, 2012), plus can make the interviews more focused and comprehensive (Patton, 2015; Verschuren, 2009). Interview guide The interview guide consisted of open questions and was mainly based upon the conclusions of the theoretical exploration (Chapter 3) and composed of questions used earlier by other researchers (Afdal, 2006; Bertram-Troost, 2006; Bertram-Troost et al., 2015b; De Muynck, 2008; De Ruyter & Kole, 2001; De Wolff, 2000; Van de Koot-Dees, 2013; Versteegt, 2010). Every question in the interview guide was followed by some sub-questions or topics (cf. Patton, 2015). In the first interview, participants were asked to elaborate on their entire school career (family background, primary and secondary education, higher education, workplaces), their ideals in education, their motivation for a Christian education, the internal diversity of the school population, their personal experiences with religious others, pupils’ experiences with religious others, religious education, and briefly about religious tolerance as an educational goal (citizenship education). The second interview was used for further clarification of what was said in the first interview, and included questions to speak more thoroughly about religious tolerance, religious others and Christian values in education. The complete interview
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