276 Chapter 8 This partial conclusion receives more colour when the analysis is focused on how the code ‘mission’ functions in the whole of the minutes and transcripts. As mentioned in previous chapters, this code appears a total of 59 times and plays a major role in each of the main topics selected and considered by the conversational community. It also forms part of the broader code family surrounding ‘attitude formation’, and it co-occurs no less than 43 times with the code ‘espoused theology’. When approaching this co-occurrence specifically through the lens of the formation of a basic attitude in trainee teachers, the following motivational expressions can be noted: • PO1, meeting 2: Yes, we have freedom for Christian education in our country, not only for one’s own social pillar to be allowed to do what suits you, but also, I think, as an opportunity to reach those children with the gospel in whatever way we can. • PO2, meeting 2: If we have a discussion with the board, such as this weekend, then, yes, that is also mentioned—the wonderful message that we can give to children. So, yes, that is what is behind it. • PI1, meeting 2: It is perhaps also my belief that I really am there for that child, even though that child thinks very differently from me, and that I really pay attention to how he or she experiences things. • From the minutes, meeting 3: PI2 summarises that, on the one hand, this arose from the baptismal promise and need for Christian education in a protected atmosphere, while, on the other hand, there has always been the missionary aspect—Christian education wants to be a salting salt (3). • A mixed group of regular and invited participants, meeting 6: The vocation of Christian education is to bring children up to their own level. • From the minutes, meeting 6: St1 sees it as a calling for Christian education to truly see children and aim to achieve their happiness. • PO3, meeting 14: What right do we have to let the need for protection win out over the mission we have been given? • From the insider team, meeting 15: Some schools become missionary because they have that desire. All of the above quotations show how much importance the conversational community’s members assigned to a missionary attitude. It is central to their motivation to not dedicate their teaching skills and talents within their own social pillar, as the traditional Christian in-group, but to be active in a 3 ‘Salting salt’ is a common Dutch reference to Matthew 5:13 where Christ calls upon His disciples to be ‘salt of the earth’.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw