Normative Citizenship Education in Plural Societies: A Dialogical Approach to Possible Tensions Between Religious Identity and Citizenship

In the media there is a lot of miscommunication about Muslims and Islam, resulting in misconceptions circulating among the Dutch population. The Islamic religion and young Muslims are perceived as forming a threat to the democratic Dutch society. In this contribution we report on a pilot project that investigates the (religious) positionality of young Muslims in the context of the Dutch plural society. In our research we explore the relationship between the need for Citizenship Education for all young people and the freedom of education in the Netherlands that provides space for each young person’s authentic religious development. Twenty-one Dutch Muslim youths participated in a pilot project and completed a ‘questionnaire’ based on the Valuation Theory (VT) and the Dialogical Self Theory (DST). Preliminary findings show that the young respondents are well aware of their Muslimness. They like to explore their religious identity and positionality in the Dutch society and are open to expressing their experiences as Muslims in the Netherlands. Narrowmindedness is neither observed nor expressed. These insights contribute to the body of knowledge about the development of normative citizenship of ‘newcomers’ in host societies.