During the second half of the twentieth century, faithful followers of non-Western religions immigrated into Western European countries. Their children were a challenge for the respective educational system in the host countries. In the Dutch context, the educational system consists of public and private schools in which religion is the most…

In the project "Learning for Life" we developed a hermeneutical--communicative model for worldview education that answers the European challenges of worldview diversity and worldview illiteracy. We implemented the model in a participatory action research project at nine schools for primary education in the Netherlands and monitored the…

Notwithstanding dramatically low levels of professed religiosity in Western Europe, the religious school sector continues to thrive. One explanation for this paradox is that nowadays parents choose religious schools primarily for their higher academic reputation. Empirical evidence for this presumed denominational advantage is mixed. We examine…

Asserts the Dutch educational systems' key feature is the principle that parents should be given the opportunity to organize and choose the kind of education they desire. Focuses on the role of the Dutch Social Democrats, the Groningen motion, and the outcome and intellectual foundation of publicly run Dutch schools. (KDR)

Maintains that issues of religion and the schools have surfaced again in the public forum. Discusses the controversy between public and private education in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in the 1800s. Concludes that public schools can never meet the needs of all and that the Utrecht compromise suggests that alternatives are possible. (CFR)