Turkish-Dutch Muslim and Orthodox reformed parents in the Netherlands: religious identity negotiations in contexts of children's education

Religious parents can be thoroughly involved in tensions in educational contexts in western,secular countries. This study explores the understudied religious parents’ processes of
religious identity negotiation in educational contexts in a western, secular country, the Netherlands. Compared to other western countries, the Netherlands is more strongly observed
in shifting away from collective religious freedoms, towards a focus on individual rights. It therefore forms a particularly relevant arena to explore these tensions.

Ten in-depth semi-structured interviews (N=16) were conducted. Participants are selected from two religious minority groups: Dutch-Turkish Muslim parents (N=6), attending Diyanet mosques, and Dutch Christian orthodox reformed parents (N=10), attending the Reformed Congregations in the Netherlands. The psychological and sociological perspective of identity theory and related theoretical aspects are used as an analytical framework in the abductive analysis of the interview data.

The findings highlight an individualised nature of parents’ religious identities, relevant across situations and strongly interwoven with their parenting identities. This interwovenness seems expressed through an identity concern towards their children’s identities. The parents’ experiences of frictions in educational contexts appear to be surprisingly diverse, in this study analysed in theoretical terms of macro and micro contexts. The findings indicate that parents’ identity negotiations move beyond social recognition, instead prioritising a relationship with God and religious transmission to children. Importantly, this seems to result in an avoidance of religious identity expressions and interactions in educational contexts, and in an involvement with children’s religious identities at home instead.

Thus, drawing on a limited number of interviews, this study deepens an understanding of religious parents’ religious thinking processes when confronted with tensions in educational contexts. The findings are relevant in debates in the field of religion and educational policy in western countries, and in debates concerning the Dutch approach to freedom of education in particular.