Diocese of Haarlem

On behalf of the Diocese of Haarlem:

Three round table discussions in secondary education: “What is the Catholic identity of a school at the beginning of the 21st century?”

On behalf of the Diocese of Haarlem, Jaffar Consultancy organized three large discussion meetings with teachers, internal and external experts and stakeholders, parents and (some) students at Catholic secondary schools in Almere, Heemstede and Hoorn.

The reason was a letter from Bishop Punt of the Diocese of Haarlem about the need to learn to shape Catholic education based on Catholic tradition and inspiration in a “fundamentally new situation”. 

The new situation that Bishop Punt was referring to was the increasing heterogeneity in the field of philosophy in the Netherlands and the large influx of immigrant students into Catholic secondary education, especially in the metropolitan areas. The Diocese's own report provided a sharp and sobering picture of the social context in which Catholic schools in secondary education do their work, especially in the large cities. The preservation of Catholic identity within education was and is not up for discussion. But what is that Catholic identity at the beginning of the 21st century?

Jaffar Consultancy prepared the meetings in consultation with the Diocese and moderated them on site. The meetings used interactive scenes in which two actors from Jaffar Consultancy re-enacted scenes that were recognizable to teachers, which sometimes led to heated discussions. Jaffar Consultancy also provided extensive written reporting of the meetings for the Diocese.