Macrotendencias del nuevo modelo de enseñanza

On the basis of our interviews and participant observations, we developed and conducted a survey (n=198). Like the interview guides, the survey consisted of questions about people’s experiences in relation to the death of a close relative, and the protracted process of death ritual formed the framework of the ques-tionnaire (appendix C). Here we will describe our sampling procedure, the so-cial location of our respondents, and some funeral characteristics. Remarks con-cerning the measurements and analysis will be given in the relevant sections throughout this book.

5.3.2.1 Sampling and data collection

The most important criterion used to include people in our sample was their in-volvement with the deceased and with the funerary practices. It is not our goal to make generalisations about ‘the Dutch’, but rather to explore dynamics in the process of death ritual as experienced by the dearest and nearest bereaved re-spondents. Therefore, we deliberately focused on people who had been directly, closely, and recently involved with a funeral. Respondents thus had been in-volved in the arrangements and decisions regarding the funerary practices, and had participated in the funerary practices themselves. To reach this specific group of respondents, people were approached in two ways: through a funeral company and via ministers. One-hundred and sixty-six usable questionnaires were collected using the first approach (response 69%). The original Roman

Catholic slant of the company resulted in the underrepresentation of Protestant respondents in this sample. After initial analysis it was therefore decided to draw a random sample (n=250) of congregations of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. The minsters of these municipalities were contacted, and 41 per-cent indicated that they could not cooperate in the research, mostly because they had not recently been involved in a funeral service. Others asked members of their congregation. Thirty-two more questionnaires were retrieved (response 13%).

5.3.2.2 Respondents’ social location

The respondents were intimately involved with the deceased (M=4.9, SD=.47).

Most of them had recently lost their parent (55%) or partner (29%). In the other cases a child (4%), sibling (3%), uncle/aunt (2%), friend (1%), or other family member such as grandparent or parent-in-law (6%) had passed away. Fifty-two percent of the respondents were female and 48 percent were male. The oldest participant was born in 1925, and the youngest in 1988 (Q1=1946, Q2=1955, Q3=1963). As for education, 35 percent of our respondents had a low level, 29 percent an average level, and 36 percent a high level. The geographical distribu-tion of the sample is illustrated in appendix D.

Regarding religious characteristics, we looked at religious affiliation and religiosity. Sixty percent of our respondents described themselves as being religiously affiliated (43% Roman Catholic, 16% Protestant, 1% Muslim).²⁴ We did not differentiate between various categories, such as being atheist or agnos-tic, in the group of religiously unaffiliated respondents. Although most respond-ents are religiously affiliated, they generally do not describe themselves as be-ing religious (M=2.5, SD=1.15). Takbe-ing frequencies into account, 49 percent of the respondents identified as not religious, 19 percent as religious, and 32 per-cent answered this question neutrally.

In view of the numbers of religious affiliation and religiosity, it is fun-damental to provide some context and give a few comments. First, it must be remarked, that questions of religious affiliation and religiosity in questionnaires pose difficulties in terms of validity, particularly within a context of secularisa-tion and individualisasecularisa-tion. Words like ‘religion’, ‘faith’, and ‘church’ have ac-quired multivocal meanings and connotations among respondents.²⁵ Therefore,

24 In view of our research question, we have excluded Muslim respondents from our sample.

25 A further elaboration upon these difficulties can be found in the work of Berghuijs, Pieper and Bakker (2013).

we also included an open question relating to people’s worldviews (levens-beschouwing), and used this in the examination of our results.²⁶ Moreover, in view of our analysis, these difficulties implied that the religious characteristics of respondents should be interpreted with care. In trying to categorise the reli-gious location of respondents, it was therefore important to look at relireli-gious af-filiation and religiosity, as well as at the characteristics of the funeral. Further-more, we most strongly looked at the items regarding ritual practice and ritual meaning in order to gain insight into the ways wherein people give meaning to the death of a loved one. Second, it must be noted that our sample does not re-semble the Dutch population in terms of religious affiliation and religiosity.²⁷ As our sample was used to explore relevant dynamics in the meaning-making practices of recently bereaved people in contemporary funerary practices, we emphasised the relationship between the bereaved and the deceased. In relation to the changing role of religion, our sample has been compiled in such a way as to allow us to create groups in terms of religious affiliation in the analysis, and to enable us to describe religious characteristics in relation to the type of funer-al.

5.3.2.3 Funeral characteristics

In addition to the social location of respondents, we will describe some charac-teristics of the funerals in which people participated in order to illustrate the context of our sample. Sixty-seven percent of our respondents had been in-volved in a non-ecclesial funeral, 63 percent of which were held in the hall of the crematorium and 4 percent in other locations. Thirty-three percent of our re-spondents had been involved in an ecclesial funeral, 25 percent of which were performed only in church, and 8 percent in church as well as in the hall of the crematorium.

To have a non-ecclesial funeral does not imply that people are reli-giously unaffiliated, nor does it simply reveal whether people identify with be-ing religious or not. The deceased is said to be religiously unaffiliated in 40 per-cent of the cases and 42 perper-cent of the bereaved respondents that participated in

26 Unfortunately, there is no room to analyse and elaborate upon the question of people’s worldviews in detail here.

27 Controlled for the age distribution of our sample, the numbers of religious affiliation in the Dutch popula-tion would be 31 percent in total, of which 15 percent are Roman Catholic, 16 percent Protestant, and 5 per-cent belonging to another Christian denomination (Bernts & Berghuijs 2016).

a non-ecclesial ceremony described themselves as religiously unaffiliated.²⁸ Six-ty percent of them did not identify as being religious, and only 10 percent did self-identify with religiosity. This evidences a high diversity in terms of reli-gious belonging and believing in non-ecclesial funerals.

To have an ecclesial ceremony, on the other hand, is more revealing in terms of religious affiliation and religiosity. Since there is a rich funeral market outside the different churches, having a church ceremony has become a specific choice, and religious belonging and religious belief often play a role in the deci-sion to have an ecclesial funeral (Roukema-Koning 2007, 162). Only in 3 per-cent of the ecclesial ceremonies, the deceased is said to have been religiously unaffiliated. Of the bereaved respondents, only 17 percent were religiously un-affiliated. Furthermore, 35 percent of the respondents identified as being strong-ly religious and onstrong-ly 27 percent did not identify with being religious. The larg-est group of 38 percent answered the qularg-estion of religious affiliation neutrally.

These numbers show that having an ecclesial funeral relates more strongly to religious belonging and religious belief, particularly in view of the lifestyle of the deceased. In terms of religiosity, we find a high diversity among the dearest and nearest bereaved, though it is more often identified with in comparison to the non-ecclesial ceremonies.

In our study we have focused on recently held funerals as we are inter-ested in the process of death ritual, that is, the ceremony including its prepara-tion and immediate aftermath. Seventy percent of the funerals had taken place three to eight weeks before their attendees participated in the survey. We aimed to ask people our research questions from three weeks onwards, as the dearest and nearest bereaved are most likely to receive a letter concerning the retrieval of the ashes at this time, as they are allowed to retrieve the ashes from the cre-mation after the waiting period of thirty days. It is during these moments, when people are confronted by the ashes, that questions and decisions often arise re-garding temporal and final disposal. Four percent of our respondents had organ-ised a funeral less than three weeks previous to receiving the questionnaire, and for 3 percent of the respondents, more than a year had elapsed.

Seventy percent of the funerals involved a cremation.²⁹ Taking religious affiliation into account, we see that 81 percent of the unaffiliated respondents were involved in a cremation, 75 percent of the Roman Catholics, and 28

28 This only applies to the dearest and nearest bereaved that filled in the questionnaire; it does not include the other funeral participants.

29 Nationally, the cremation number in 2015 was 63 percent (LVC 2016).

cent of the Protestants. We will further elaborate on funeral characteristics in relation to ritual practice and ritual meaning in the following two chapters.