Chapter 5 94 purely teaching from the Bible and explaining: telling the stories and clarifying the parts that raise questions.” Third, when it comes to different pedagogical opportunities, teachers are seen as experts on how to connect with the level of children. Meanwhile, it was supposed that parents sometimes find this connection difficult and that the message in the church regularly is over the heads of children. In relation to the church, Luuk said the following: We [teachers] can make the difference for the children. ( … ) In our churches, we are hindering children because we expect them to understand archaic language. ( … ) Because there is no interaction and everything [in the church service] is done in a one-way approach. ( … ) This is what makes children disengage after ten minutes. Furthermore, teachers spend a great deal of time with the children and have a lot of opportunities during lessons to pay attention to religious upbringing. Anna put it this way: I know that parents find it very hard to talk about the Christian faith with their child and especially to talk about how they experience faith. ( … ) Instead, at school, we provide plenty of opportunities to do so because we have space and time for that. The fourth category of differences, “other relationships,” is determined by the degree of familiarity with the child. The fifth category is about the setting, such as an individual or group setting. However, teachers gave disparate explanations for both those differences, which is likely related to the different situations teachers were speaking about, such as the backgrounds of children. Emma said, “[I, as a teacher,] can create a safe environment, to talk with them about everything, also about their doubts and sorrows, which sometimes they cannot do with their parents.” Opposed to that, Anna highlighted that parents can have more confident conversations, for example, when they bring their children to bed. Another example of such opposite explanations can be seen between the ideas expressed by Ruben andNora. Ruben said that he can discuss things less in depth than parents can because some pupils will drop out of difficult group discussions, while Nora said that she can actually discuss things more in-depth than parents because she does not have actual parental responsibility. Inquisitiveness: Awareness of other perspectives Inquisitiveness came up as a recurring topic in the interviews, although it was not a theme in our interview guide. Several participants directly referred to it, while others mentioned related issues. It might be seen as exemplary for teachers’ role perceptions with regard
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