• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.61
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• pp.9-35
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• 2020

In the second half of the previous century the composition of the teacher population - and the composition of the pupil and parent population - in the Netherlands gives rise to the name change 'age of secularisation' to 'age of pluralisation'. In previous centuries the (religious or secular) worldview identity of the parents and the educational philosophy of the school were attuned to each other, and merged into a mono-cultural perspective on the identity development of pupils. The basis for both - the upbringing by the parents and the socialisation in the family on the one hand, and the teachers' efforts to enculturate the students at the school on the other - was a similar life orientation. The school choice of the parents was predetermined by their commitment to a particular (religious) worldview, very often inspired by Christianity. The religious identity of their children developed in a clear-cut context. However, in contemporary society plurality dominates, at home and at the school, both in case of the parents and the teachers. A direct relationship with a community of like-minded believers is no longer decisive for parents with varying cultural and religious backgrounds. Instead, a good feeling upon entering the schoolyard or the school building is a convincing argument in the process of school choice. The professional identity development of teachers and the religious identity development of children takes place in a plural context. Our question is: what does this mean for the normative professionalism of the teacher? To answer this research question we make use of the resources of the Dialogical Self Theory (DST) with its core concepts of 'voice' and 'positioning'. After presenting the Dutch dual education system (with public and denominational schools) we provide a lively description of a Dutch classroom situation occurring in a public school, as viewed from the perspective of the teacher. The focus in this description is on performative dialogue as a 'disruptive moment' and on its potential for the hyphenated religious identity development of teachers, which makes up a part of their normative professionalism.