Learning Who Belongs: Media Framing and Legitimacy Construction of Religious Schools in the Netherlands

Sammanfattning

Religious schools in the Netherlands have long been a source of democratic tension. Religious education is protected in the constitution under Article 23, which means that schools can teach based on their own beliefs while receiving funding from the government. However, while some consider Article 23 as contributing to a diverse society, others argue that religious schools do not benefit social cohesion and teach discriminatory ideas. Public discourse on religious schools makes visible a particular tension between different democratic principles. Religious schools, different values, and the role of the government can be framed differently to either problematize or legitimize them. These framings construct the interpretive resources through which citizens encounter and evaluate the debate, raising questions of who and what are considered to have a rightful place in a democratic society. The thesis aims to analyse media framings of legitimacy surrounding religious schools, studying what this means for the interpretive resources available to citizens. It draws on an understanding of civic education as a lifelong and communicative process. After finishing school, we spend most of our lives being educated through the media. Therefore, how legitimacy is constructed has implications for how citizens encounter and evaluate democratic issues. By conducting a longitudinal constructionist framing analysis of three Dutch newspapers – De Volkskrant, Trouw, and De Telegraaf – shifts in legitimacy constructions over time and across outlets are studied. The research suggests that the newspaper coverage has become more polarized over time, with deliberative frames appearing less often in recent years. This narrows the interpretive resources available to citizens, which has implications for civic learning opportunities through media. Moreover, Islamic and Christian schools seem to be structurally framed differently, with Islamic schools facing more delegitimization. Lastly, the newspapers construct legitimacy differently, meaning that the outlet a citizen engages with shapes the environment through which they encounter and evaluate issues. The thesis illustrates that media framing does not just report on democratic tensions but actively shape how democratic life is constructed and contested.