177 Preliminary WCD Reception at Driestar Christian University 5 Reformed Christians in the Netherlands often feel threatened in terms of their religious identity (Kennedy & Zwemer, 2010). Lots of families, therefore, have moved from the big cities to rural areas, grouping together in the more homogenous and safe atmosphere of the Bible belt (Janse, 2005). As the ideological descendants of Groen van Prinsterer, students from these families grow up in a reality in which the isolation principle is, in their minds and experiences, closely connected to social and geographical isolation from the penetrating effects of cultural change (super-diversity and super-complexity), which are especially manifest in the big cities. Although they are well aware of the increasing calls from central government urging schools and teachers to foster active citizenship and social cohesion in their students, these calls are in the Reformed Christian faith community sometimes considered as a threat (1). The reason for this feeling could very well be a high reliance on the relative homogeneity within the Reformed Christian faith community as a means for the formation of children and youth. This reliance is first and foremost a reliance on socialising forces, which has been a common instrument in the typical Dutch system of pillarisation, from which Reformed schools and DCU as a Reformed Christian university are exponents. The exposure of students to high levels of diversity and processes of subjectification—as argued for in Chapter 1—is from that perspective intrinsically threatening, although it may be considered necessary at the same time. A plea for subjectifying education and a more adequate preparation of children and youth for the super-diverse, 1 In response to the gradual shift towards a post-Christian, pluralistic society, in 2006, the central government of the Netherlands required, by law, all schools to foster active citizenship and social cohesion in their students. Ten years later, international investigation showed that Dutch students were still not doing well in citizenship competences when compared with their peers in other European countries. Therefore, in 2021, a new bill was authorised by both chambers of the Dutch Parliament under the title ‘Wet verduidelijking burgerschapsopdracht in het funderend onderwijs’ [Act Clarifying Citizenship Task in Primary Education]. This bill sharpened the requirements for citizenship education. In both instances of lawgiving (2006 and 2021), the reactions from Reformed schools and communities were, at least, hesitant. Where some saw the legal requirements as a chance or a challenge, others viewed them as another threat to the Reformed Christian identity (Weggeman, 2006). Representing a large group of Reformed schools, Vereniging Gereformeerd Schoolonderwijs (VGS) asked during the internet consultation prior to the sharpened bill whether or not it generated tension concerning the pedagogical freedom of schools and teachers (Ministerie van Onderwijs, 2018). At the same time, secular politicians and thinkers blamed Reformed Christian schools for their relatively closed admissions policies and posited that the very existence of homogenous schools increased social segregation (2017).
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