Policy Perceptions of Headteachers and Governors in Catholic Schooling

The initial focus of this research centred on a study of the extent to which government legislation and action since 1965 has threatened or eroded the Catholic Church's influence over its schools within the maintained sector [1]. However, it became clear that this focus was based on the assumption that the Catholic Church in England and Wales had a clear set of educational principles which were not only distinct from those of the state but involved different policy outcomes. Moreover, during the course of the study, evidence emerged which indicated that the Church had not given as much attention to the principles underlying its educational policy as it had to the maintenance and numerical expansion of the schools themselves. It was also realised that the nature of Catholic education cannot be determined solely by examining the Church's official documents. Whilst official Church pronouncements indicate what Catholic education ought to be, they may not correspond to a reality of what a particular Catholic community has made of Catholic education. Therefore, this paper examines some of the beliefs and attitudes of a sample of Catholics involved in Catholic schooling.     

Catholic women educators’ discourse and educational measurement in the early twentieth century in the United States

ABSTRACT

In the early twentieth century in the United States, Roman Catholic schools grew in number and became increasingly regulated by state departments of education. This led to the increased influence of public school reform movements in Catholic schools. Some Catholic educators questioned these movements, while others embraced them. Educational measurement strategies, such as IQ and standardised testing, gained support from women religious orders and congregations, who made up the majority of the Catholic teaching force. For pragmatic reasons, they saw some value in the promises of modern educational science for teaching and learning. This practice, however, put them at odds with some of the beliefs and values of their Church. This study demonstrates how Catholic sister teachers attempted to shape the debate on the introduction and use of reform strategies like IQ and standardised testing. It also examines how Catholic sister teachers made use of Catholic beliefs and values to make arguments in favour of IQ and standardised testing in Catholic schools. Using agreed upon Catholic religious tenets and working within their gendered reality, Catholic sister teachers demonstrated how they tried to convince their colleagues, male and female, to come to an understanding around the use of educational measurement.     

Return to the crossroads: Maritain fifty years on

Abstract:

Writing a little over a decade ago of developments in educational philosophy, R. F. Dearden remarked on the dearth of alternative approaches to that of conceptual analysis which predominated, at least in Anglophone cultures, at that time. One possible avenue of enquiry which he identified as conspicuously absent in this respect was the development of a distinctively Catholic approach to problems of educational philosophy, observing that a work of the mid‐war years, Maritain's Education at the Crossroads (1943), appeared to be well nigh the only modem effort in this direction. More than a decade on from this, in a climate no longer exclusively dominated by conceptual analysis – indeed, in which there is unprecedented interest in a wealth of different schools, traditions and approaches to philosophy of education – Dearden's remarks about the absence of a distinctively Catholic perspective still apply. In the following essay, therefore, the authors have undertaken, via a critical analysis of Maritain's educational speculations of half a century ago, to try to discern some of the principal issues and considerations which would need to be addressed in the interests of identifying a distinctively Catholic educational philosophy.     

'First and foremost the church Offers Its educational service to the poor': Class,inequality and Catholic schooling in contemporary contexts

This article is based upon the assumption that a comprehensive construct of sociological enquiry in education must include engagement with specific faith-based educational systems in various settings. The analysis presented here attempts to advance that process of engagement by examining, both theoretically and empirically, the role of contemporary Catholic schooling and its relations with class, inequality and social reproduction from an international perspective. The article outlines some critical perspectives on traditional Catholic culture and education using concepts drawn from the work of Gramsci and of Bourdieu. The transformative potential of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is then discussed, followed by a consideration of contemporary empirical studies of Catholic schooling. Throughout the analysis, Gramsci's concept of an ideological 'war of position' is applied to the internal relations of the Catholic Church and of Catholic education internationally. The need for further research into the power relations of the Catholic Church is indicated.     

The State and Catholic Schooling in England and Wales: Politics,ideology and mission integrity

Changing relations between the English State and the Roman Catholic Church in the sphere of education policy are examined in two historical periods. Between the 1870s and the 1970s, despite initial anti-Catholic prejudice, the Catholic hierarchy was able to negotiate a favourable educational settlement in which substantial public funding was obtained without serious loss of autonomy and mission integrity for the Catholic schooling system. The existence of a liberal State, a voluntarist tradition in schooling and the relative social and political unity of the Catholic community all contributed towards this settlement. The inauguration of an ideologically 'Strong State' in the 1980s and 1990s, pursuing an interventionist strategy in education driven by New Right market doctrines, threatened the whole basis of this settlement. The Catholic hierarchy had to develop new strategies to respond to this situation, complicated by the fact that the Catholic community was now more socially differentiated and more divided on key education policy questions.     

Schooling for Faith,Citizenship and Social Mobility: Catholic Secondary Education in New Zealand, 1924–1944

The increased demand for secondary schooling, which took place in New Zealand in the years after 1924, had important consequences for the Catholic educational mission. No longer was it sufficient to provide a comprehensive elementary system of education that transmitted a ‘simple faith to a simple people’, and a secondary schooling for the educational advancement and social mobility of the select few. Justified on the basis of the need to protect the faith of the growing number of pupils going on to secondary school, the expanded educational mission was also grounded in a new Catholic identity as ‘moral’ patriotic citizens committed to Catholic family values and successful participation in New Zealand society. Catholic secondary schools offered a utilitarian secondary education, which focussed on success in state‐mandated examinations, to the children of parents ambitious for their social and economic success in the world. Nevertheless, there were tensions in a Catholic educational mission that worked for the social and educational advancement of Catholic pupils while aiming for their ultimate salvation and the protection Catholic religious and cultural values.     

Church,State and Education: Catholic education in Hong Kong during the political transition

Roman Catholic schools represent an important sector in Hong Kong's education system, both in terms of number and historical significance. As in many colonies in other periods of history, the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to other Christian Churches, had a partnership relationship with the colonial government in the provision of education in Hong Kong. Was there any change in this relationship during the political transition to 1997? Did the prospective return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) affect Catholic educational policies? This article examines these two questions in relation to the experience of other places in the world and in relation to the special nature of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, namely its link with the Vatican and its relations with China where Church schools no longer exist.     

Education,employment and school religious denomination in Scotland in the 1950s

Newly available survey data allow the investigation of the educational and employment opportunities open to Roman Catholics in Scotland in the mid-20th century. Previous research has shown that Catholic disadvantage in education and the labour market in the early 20th century had weakened or vanished by the end of the century, and that the main change in that respect had come with the advent of comprehensive secondary schooling in the 1960s. However, the extension of Catholic secondary schooling started in the 1920s. The data used here allow an investigation of whether the Catholic disadvantage was mitigated by these earlier reforms, and thus allow an assessment of whether a selective school system was able to overcome an important dimension of social disadvantage. The data come from a cohort study of a representative sample of people born in 1936 (first surveyed in 1947 and followed up annually to 1963). Evidence is available on social background, on cognitive ability measured at age 11, on secondary school courses, on educational achievement after leaving school, and on social-class status at age 27. The conclusions are that the continued social disadvantage of Catholics was not due to any aspect of the school education which they had received.     

African Americans in Urban Catholic Schools: Faith, Leadership and Persistence in Pursuit of Educational Opportunity

A review of research on US Catholic education reveals that race is not treated as an important area of analysis like class and gender. Black Catholics are rarely studied in education let alone mainstream writings. This article examines the social and educational history of blacks in the US Catholic Church and the dual reality of inclusion and exclusion within a Church and its schools. This paper focuses on the intersection of the Church and Black Catholic schools as enduring institutions of opportunity for Black families and their communities. This paper unearths the shared values, assumptions and beliefs about African American Catholics quest for literacy. The article uses Black Theology as a frame to explain how the intersections of culture, history and religion influence meaning and educational decision-making. African Americans pursued Catholic education for two reasons. First, they sought to be educated which both advanced their individual freedom but vastly improved their community’s economic, social, and political standing. Second, they inserted their own unique cultural and social experiences into Catholic schools which espoused service and academic excellence. Black Catholic schools well-defined values and academic excellence is still viewed by African Americans as places of hope and opportunity for students of color.     

Pluralizing Catholic Identity

One strand in the scholarship of Catholic school identity perceives that it has deteriorated since Vatican II (1962–1965) and therefore needs restoration. Unfortunately, this perception is based on an assumption that there is a singular Catholic identity. This article demonstrates a basis in theology, social theory, and educational thought to describe multiple Catholic identities, and then analyzes the work of two prominent Catholic educational theorists—Timothy Cook and Richard Rymarz—whose work follows a conception of Catholic identity in the singular. Finally, it considers the practical merits of acknowledging, coordinating, and promoting many kinds of Catholic identity in a school.     

Catholic women teachers and Scottish education in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Catholics remained outside the Scottish educational system until 1918. The Church preferred mixed‐sex infant schools and either single‐sex schools or separate departments. In small towns and rural areas the schools were mixed‐sex. Women were considered naturally best suited to teach infants and girls, but even in boys' schools, female assistants were increasingly employed in the later Victorian period. Female religious orders were crucial for developing Catholic education in larger urban centres, but by 1918 only 4% of Scotland's Catholic schoolteachers were members of religious orders. Lay women quickly became numerically predominant in elementary education and were key to implementing the Church's strategy to enhance the respectability of a largely immigrant community through separate schools. It is the contention here that the part played by lay women in Catholic schooling needs to be considered to reflect more widely on the place of women in Scottish education.     

Assessing the psychosocial environment of science classes in Catholic secondary schools

Much Catholic school and church rhetoric suggests that Catholic schools possess distinctive learning environments. Research into this aspect of Catholic schooling has been hampered by the lack of an appropriate assessment instrument. By drawing on contemporary church literature, the perceptions of personnel involved in Catholic education and existing classroom environment questionnaires, a new instrument was developed to assess student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment in Catholic schools. The use of this instrument in 64 classrooms in Catholic and Government schools indicated significant differences on some scales. The distinctive nature of Catholic schooling did not extend to all classroom environment dimensions deemed important to Catholic education. Specializations: Catholic education, learning environments. Specializations: conceptual change in students, science teacher professional development, scientific reasoning, learning environments. Specializations: learning environments, science education, educational evaluation, curriculum.     

The Politics of Catholic Education in Zambia: 1964-2001

In colonial Zambia, the school served as a key means of Christian conversion and Church growth. During this period, the provision of education was almost the total preserve of the missionaries. Even by the time of Zambia's Independence in 1964, sixty-six per cent of the primary schools were operated by missionaries and about thirty per cent were run by Catholics. After Zambia gained its national Independence, this changed. As in other African countries, the state desired to control the educational system, which in Zambia's case it achieved not by a direct take-over but through legislation. As a result of the 1966 Education Act, the system became so centralized and bureaucratic while restrictions were so numerous that the autonomy of Church-run institutions became very restricted. At first, Catholic authorities continued to work within the system by even retaining their primary schools, but after about six years during which government tended to marginalize the Catholic agents more and more, like many Protestant groups before them, they handed over their primary schools to central government in 1973. At the same time, however, they continued to open and operate a number of secondary schools and two teachers' colleges. Nonetheless, even here, regulations created difficulties for promoting and maintaining an acceptable post-Vatican II Catholic and Christian ethos because, in accord with the Education Act, they no longer controlled intake of students, employment of staff, or direction of the curriculum. Frequently, Catholic institutions had a preponderance of non-Catholic students and sometimes of non-Catholic staff. With attempts by government to impose what it termed "scientific socialism" in the late 1970s and early 1980s, sometimes by appointment of staff who had been to Soviet bloc countries and were trained in political education, even the maintenance of a religious ethos was threatened. This continued until a change in government came in 1991. One of the first actions of the new Movement for Multiparty Democracy government was to revise the regulations affecting Church-run schools to enable them to become more autonomous and to encourage them to extend their commitment even by taking back some of the primary schools that had been given over in 1973. It thus introduced a new Education Act in 1993 which allowed Church-sponsored institutions significantly greater freedom in terms of financing, student enrolment, appointment of staff, and curriculum development. This article traces the history of Catholic institutions in Zambia between 1964 and 1991, illustrating some of the difficulties which they encountered while operating in accord with their ideals, especially the promotion of justice which became more explicit and central to Catholic education after Vatican II. It argues that the Catholic Church cooperated closely with government in a state-controlled system in the years immediately after Independence, especially in its attempts to provide an educated labor force which was so much a priority for Zambia at that time. It also supported the government's efforts to create an egalitarian society through the educational system even if it may have produced a more relevant curriculum for school drop-outs if it had greater autonomy. Catholic secondary schools never numbered more than thirty, in a country that currently has 256, and with the rise of basic schools have become even less significant statistically. Yet, Catholic institutions' academic programs merited repeated acclaim from government, while they became much sought after by parents and students, both Catholic and non-Catholic. Even when government grants from the 1980s onward became less and less adequate, Catholic institutions maintained high academic and infrastructural standards. They had books and equipment which were frequently the envy of government institutions. What they have perhaps lost in terms of proportionate quantity, they greatly gained in quality. Even within a tightly government-regulated system they made a distinctive contribution. While the Church did not entirely endorse much of the Marxist approach of the early educational reform movement, it was in accord with the ideal of equity which the movement propounded. However, when government leaned too heavily on what it termed "Scientific Socialism" in the late 1970s, the Catholic and other Church authorities resisted not because of its egalitarian direction but because of its suspected atheism. When attempts were made to replace religious education with political education and when the government introduced atheistic literature into their schools, Church authorities made frequent protests with only moderate success. Nonetheless, religious education remained a core subject in the basic curriculum while political education continued to feature. In more recent times since the change of government in 1991, the ideal of equity has become more difficult for the government to pursue because of its debt servicing and Structural Adjustment Program. Fewer funds are available for social services like health and education and so the government had to adopt a policy of cost-sharing which has made education less available to the poor. At the same time, the society is becoming more clearly divided between haves and have-nots while the educational system itself is becoming more clearly a preserve of those who have means. The Catholic Church is thus confronted more than before with a choice because of the autonomy which has been granted through the 1993 Education Act. It can remain closely integrated within the system which is not only of poor quality but, because of the government's policy of cost-sharing, tends to exclude larger and larger numbers of the poor. Alternatively, it can step out and present a model of school that continues to maintain the highest academic standards but which at the same time ensures that an acceptable Catholic, though ecumenical, ethos is recreated where the promotion of justice is pivotal. Thus, not only those who have means, but the poorest of the poor, will be accorded a fair opportunity to benefit from the educational system which has been at the heart of the Catholic endeavour in Zambia, certainly since 1964 but probably from the outset.     

社会关怀与史学旨趣：陈垣的教育实践

追溯陈垣自1898年教蒙学至1929年开始担任辅仁大学校长这30年闻各种教育实践之历程,发现至少有两条线索贯穿其中,一是他的社会关怀和责任感,一是他的史学旨趣。两条线索或平行或相交,最终相交于国学研究,这是陈垣执掌辅仁大学、开始后半生教育生涯的深层原因。     

HYGIENE IN SUNDAY SCHOOLS

In the Netherlands, the relation between Catholic schools and the Catholic Church was apparent during the pillarized educational system and culture of the first decades of the 20th century. In the post-pillarized decennia afterward, their connection transformed and became less recognizable. At first glance, their contemporary relation sometimes seems only superficial. This article argues that Catholic schools are connected with the Catholic religious tradition in an embodied way and in their orientation toward the common good. Furthermore, the embodied religiosity expressed in daily school life is more than both schools and church realize, intertwined with ecclesiastical reflections on Catholic education.     

Evaluating Cultures: The Instrumentalism,Pluralist Perfectionism,and Particularism of John Gray

In this article, Matthew Johnson examines the possibility of using elements of John Gray's work to advance a means of evaluating cultures, in order to inform the development of pluralist perfectionist forms of public policy and, in particular, educational programs. Johnson engages critically with elements of Gray's value pluralism, such as his understanding of the objectivity and universality in human values, needs, and well‐being; determinacy of circumstance; and particularity with regard to the selection of values. These elements support an instrumental account of culture in which a group's choice of values is assessed according to their contribution to well‐being. Johnson then considers the potential conflict between pluralism and perfectionism in the development of education systems in heterogeneous societies, highlighting the harms inflicted on the identity, meaning, and security of particular groups by attempts to promote well‐being. Johnson concludes the article with an exploration of possible means of minimizing harm through pragmatic engagement with identity and circumstance.     

Contesting the Limond thesis on British influence in Irish education since 1922: a comparative perspective

This paper is a response to David Limond's exposition, “[An] historical culture … rapidly, universally, and thoroughly restored”? British influence on Irish education since 1922', which appeared in Comparative Education, Vol. 46, No. 4, November 2010, pp. 449–462. Limond's overall thesis is that ‘a post-colonial overhang affects Irish policy-makers and bureaucrats in their educational policies and practices’. This paper contests three main aspects of Limond's exposition. First, in his analysis of the period 1831–1922, he fails to place sufficient emphasis on the extent to which the educational system was favoured by the Catholic Church, which operated in a manner which served not only its own interests, but also those of the middle classes of Irish Catholic farmers, merchants and business people. Secondly, he does not sufficiently indicate the extent to which the structure of Irish education from the early years of independence until the mid-1960s, and associated curriculum changes, were very different from the situation in Britain at the time. Thirdly, while he is correct in stating that, since the 1960s, Ireland has imported certain ideas on educational policy and practice from Britain, he neglects to demonstrate that there were also other sources, and that they were probably more dominant than the British ones. Hopefully, as a rejoinder, the paper will be read in a positive light by indicating how the historical study of Irish education within a comparative context is a neglected area of scholarship, and thus stimulate researchers to address the situation.     

THE CHURCH AND THE COLLEGE STUDENT

Katharine Drexel was an important educator who taught profound lessons to the Roman Catholic Church and American society about the responsibility of privilege and the irresponsibility of prejudice. As a professed nun dedicated to the education of Black and Native Americans, she taught both intentionally and by example. Religious educators, seeking to educate for peace and justice, often point to Katharine's life work as an example of the application of Catholic social teaching. This article argues that Katharine's educational import in regards to Catholic social teaching goes much deeper than the concrete examples of her life's work. By studying Katharine's life, religious educators can illustrate the foundational attitudes and habits necessary for the principle of social justice to take root. This will be articulated in terms of underlying emphases found in aspects of Katharine's story: emphasis on totality, on clarity of vision and purpose, on evangelization, on family ethical formation, on moral education, and on Eucharistic spirituality. A corresponding action for religious educators will be suggested.     

Catechesis and Religious Education in Canadian Catholic Schools

A key concept in contemporary Catholic educational discourse makes a distinction between religious education and catechesis. This distinction is based on the assumptions of faith commitment on the part of catechesis and the focus on cognitive outcomes on the part of religious education. Many official documents on Canadian Catholic school education, however, reflect an understanding that closely associated catechesis with religious education or fail to sufficiently distinguish between the two. The article argues that changes in contemporary culture make catechetical models of religious education problematic and that Catholic schools in Canada would be well served by an approach that emphasizes the educational goals of religious education. This is not to say that catechesis has no place in religious education but this is best achieved by making use of cognitive and effective outcomes in lesson planning and realizing that the school as a whole has many opportunities to foster catechesis.     

‘A very pushy kind of folk’: Educational Reform 1944 and the Catholic Laity of England and Wales

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century control over their schools was central to the sense of a Catholic identity for English Catholics, and its defence was a priority of their bishops. The 1944 education act threatened the financial viability of these schools. Between 1942 and 1944 the divided and uncertain response of the Catholic Hierarchy of England and Wales to the state’s proposals for educational reform opened the way for the intervention of lay catholics into the education debate. The Sword of the Spirit movement is commonly remembered as the central organization for lay initiative in Church affairs. However, for Catholics and for participants in the education debate the organization known as the Catholic Parents’ and Electors’ Association (CPEA) was far more significant. From local initiatives in Ilford, south‐east London, and Bradford, in the north, between 1940 and 1942, the CPEA expanded, until by 1944 it could claim a nationwide membership running into tens of thousands, as well as the enthusiastic support of the Catholic press. It engaged in vigorous political activity, in most cases without the sanction of clerical authority. To some extent the movement troubled Catholic authority as much as the education issue itself. With the re‐establishment of authority, following the appointment of a new cardinal‐archbishop of Westminster the movement foundered but was by no means extinguished. It embodied the extending power within the Catholic community of an urban middle class, related to, but increasingly distinct from, the growing Catholic professional elite exemplified by the growth of the Newman Association. The CPEA could be harnessed by the clerical leaders of the Catholic community, but its history indicates the social, psychological and political stresses attendant on educational change in a minority community.