Methods 2 39 were approached via contact persons that had links to the research centre of Driestar Christian University. Both contact persons responded positively. After a phone call, an e-mail with information about the study was sent. In response, the contact persons at these schools assembled focus groups by inviting all their colleagues that were Driestar Christian University alumni. They were asked to invite those who had graduated less than five years ago, as it would be valuable to have participants who had recent experiences with the teacher education programme. The contact persons were not involved in any further communication with the participants, and the researchers and participants did not know each other before the interviews. The first focus group ended up having people who had been working for a longer time, including someone who had been working in another field before their teacher education. Both were Reformed primary schools with approximately 550 pupils, located in the Bible belt. The first school was located in a village of over 10,000 inhabitants, the second school in a larger village with a regional impact (over 25,000 inhabitants). A convenience sample was used for the focus groups with teacher educators of Driestar Christian University (cf. Evers & De Boer, 2012). An invitation to participate was posted twice on the online staff platform and all teacher educators were alerted by email. Eight teacher educators responded positively (11%; ultimately one was unable to participate). Most of themhad identifiable affinitieswith the topic, for example because of international duties or experience with multicultural education. The teacher educators were divided into two groups with as many different departments represented per group as possible. Description of participants A total of nine alumni participated in the focus groups, including seven women and two men. The first focus group (first school) consisted of five participants (3 female, 2 male), and the second group (second school) consisted of four participants (4 female). In the first focus group the average working experience was 6 years, in the second focus group it was 1 year. The first group involved one participant each from kindergarten, grade 3 and grade 6, and two participants from grade 4; the second focus group one participant from grade 2 and three participants from grade 4. In the second focus group two participants were still on their teacher-in training internship, the other two had been working in education for two years. The last two had taught the children of Dutch missionaries before they started working at the current school. The average age also seemed lower in the second focus group (23) than in the first, although exact ages are not known from the first focus group. All participated during their free time.
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