241 Relational Epistemology and the Art of Living Together 7 created a world so beautiful. The minutes also present the trainee teacher’s reflection: ‘He feels in himself at such a moment, on the one hand, the urge to say something about the difference between Allah and the Christian God and, on the other hand, to do justice to the child and respect him’. A member of the outsider group pointed to the fact that many Islamic parents choose a Christian school because of its insistence on traditional norms and values, willingly accepting that explicit Christian references to the Biblical God and His Son Jesus Christ will be made. In the course of the meeting, this student asked concrete questions about how to present one’s own Christian convictions in a Christian school with religious and cultural diversity in the classroom. In the 14th meeting, a member of the outsider group reported that she had seen the same student almost overcompensating afterwards. The minutes show, from her perspective, what he had learned: ‘She gives the example that one of the students now emphasises over and over again towards the children what his religious beliefs are but also that they themselves will have to and can make their own choices’. The relating of Bible stories could be pinpointed as a specific area of practice to reconcile faithfulness and openness in a Christian school with religiously and culturally diverse classrooms. As observed by a member of the outsider group in the 14th meeting when looking back at the meeting with the students: ‘Students indicate that they, in their telling of Bible stories at our school, have to go all the way back to the very core’. A member of the insider group added: ‘Familiar terminology doesn’t work here’. The point at stake is not that students feel threatened by it, stressed another participant. The minutes reveal her feeling: ‘She hears from students that being forced to the core is, in fact, often experienced as refreshing and awakening’. On behalf of one of the discussion groups in the 13th meeting, it was suggested that it is not only good to testify to the Christian faith in diverse classes but also to challenge students to study their own faith basis, even if it is, for example, an Islamic basis. ‘It is good for a Muslim to read more in the Koran because, as you begin to discover more of your own faith, you can also ask more’. This observation was based on experiences with Islamic parents too. The subsequent part of the meeting’s transcript shows how the practical reference led to a reflection between three regular participants and one of the invited students: P1: Someone who is more convinced or conscious about something, if he deals, he deals completely (…) A lukewarm Muslim likes everything, but if he is totally into it and you engage in the conversation, then maybe such a person is more likely to be touched.
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