176 Chapter 5 In the introduction to this thesis, DCU was presented as a typical faith-based institute for teacher training in the context of the Netherlands, a typical example of a modern, fragmented society. Located in the historic city of Gouda, DCU offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. During the years covered by this study almost 1000 students were engaged in teacher training for primary education. Due to DCU’s confessional allegiance to the Three Forms of Unity (Catechism of Heidelberg, Belgic Confession and Canons of Dordrecht) and its sociological relation to the so called Experientially Reformed churches in the Netherlands (Coster, 1998; Janse, 1985), the university attracts students from across the country. The majority of them wish to be prepared for teaching in Reformed Christian primary schools, while others want to be trained for the broader range of Protestant Christian schools or for schools with a less clearly pronounced confessional identity. As an institution for higher education, DCU has, by law, to have an open admissions policy. When combined with its clear public identity statement, however, this only leads to a very small minority of students not being specifically interested in DCU’s Christian identity but opting for DCU due to geographical or other reasons. This chapter elaborates on the premise that DCU can serve as an example for other faith-based initiatives for teacher training in a modern, fragmented world and society and, further, that its position in the Netherlands provides an adequate context for this case study. The chapter is composed of three main sections, of which the first concerns DCU in general (Section 1). It applies the topic of fragmentation and subjectification, as considered in Chapter 1, to the Dutch context and, specifically, to DCU’s position in it. Next, attention will be paid to the early reception of WCD, as presented and evaluated in Chapters 2 and 3, at DCU (2020–2021). This will be achieved through presenting the results of a baseline survey among junior and senior DCU students and their teacher trainers (Section 2) and through a summary of the work by six seniors who dedicated their graduate theses to WCD and a closing focus group interview with them (Section 3). The central lines of reasoning that emerge from these three sections will be brought together in this chapter’s conclusion and used as input for the conversational community’s deliberations that are analysed in the following few chapters. 5.1 DCU AMID SECULARISATION AND FRAGMENTATION DCU students mainly come from communities located in what is identified by sociologists as the Dutch Bible belt. In a time characterised by secularisation, church abandonment and the loss of political power by Christian parties,
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