Session 5: Formation of Staff to Support a Catholic Perspective

QCEC Colloquium 12-13 June 2014

Rev Dr Kevin LenehanCatholic Theological College, University

of Divinity

Professional Learning Conversations:•relevant evidence• inquiry habit of mind•knowledge and skills•relationships of respect and challenge

Teacher Support for Catholic EducationDo you consider yourself to have

STRONG/AVERAGE/NO faith in Christ?

Primary school teachers (n=1473) 48.2% strong faith in Christ 45.4% average faith in Christ 3.3% no faith in Christ

Secondary school teachers (n=917) 37.9 % strong faith in Christ 38.3% average faith in Christ 12.1% no faith in Christ

Source: CECV & KU Leuven, 2010, 2012

Teacher Support for Catholic EducationDo you support the Catholic faith?

Primary StudentsAdults(n=5492) (n=4203)

Full support 42.1% 31.2%Support but critical 38.8% 61.3%Neither positive nornegative 12.4% 5.7%Dislike Catholicfaith 1.6% 0.4%

Teacher Support for Catholic Education Do you support the Catholic faith?

Secondary StudentsAdults(n=5013) (n=1788)

Full support 18.8% 28.5%Support but critical 42.3% 57.8%Neither positive nornegative 27.5% 11.7%

Dislike Catholicfaith 5.3% 0.8%

Teacher Support for Catholic EducationDo you support the Catholic identity

of schools?Primary StudentsAdults(n=5235) (n=4112)

Strong support22.0% 33.6%Support 41.9% 52.5%It’s ok21.7% 9.1%Don’t care5.6% 1.4%

Teacher Support for Catholic Education Do you support the Catholic identity

of schools?Secondary StudentsAdults(n=4908) (n=1711)

Strong support7.7% 29.7%Support 30.7% 48.8%It’s ok30.6% 13.5%Don’t care21.4% 4.2%

Teacher Support for Catholic Education

How should schools respond to the increasing diversity and plurality of their communities?

Responses by adults (teachers, parents, leaders): Institutional secularisation

10% Reconfessionalisation 23% Recontextualisation 40% Christian Values Education 22%

Spirit Matters: How Making Sense of Life Affects Wellbeing. Peter Kaldor, Philip Hughes and Alan Black. Melbourne: Mosaic Press, 2010.

‘Practical secularity’ “For [the mostly secular] religion and

spirituality are not so much rejected as ignored. Life is lived in the present, in the world of the here and now... If religion and spirituality is there at all, it is there in the background...

“What is clear is that few Australians with little religion or spirituality have totally and explicitly rejected it. The major problem is not necessarily a philosophical one…[rather] the day-to-day world does not require that they engage with religion or spirituality. They are ‘practical’ secularists, rather than ideological secular.”

Spirit Matters, 57

Catholic Governance and Staff Formation

Principles of Catholic Social Teaching the dignity of the human person the common good of persons the universal destination of goods the principle of subsidiarity participation solidarity social values: truth, liberty, justice the way of love

The Common Good

the common good

“the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment fully and more easily”

GS 26; CCC 1905-1912; CSDC 164.

The Common Good

CSDC 165. .. No expression of social life — from the family to intermediate social groups, associations, enterprises of an economic nature, cities, regions, states, up to the community of peoples and nations — can escape the issue of its own common good, in that this is a constitutive element of its significance and the authentic reason for its very existence.

Participation

participation“a series of activities by means of

which the citizen… contributes to the cultural, economic, political and social life of the community…. Participation is a duty to be fulfilled consciously by all, with responsibility and with a view to the common good.”

CCC 1913-1914; CSDC 189-191; GS 75

Participation

CSDC 191:“The overcoming of cultural, juridical and social obstacles that often constitute real barriers to the shared participation of citizens in the destiny of their communities calls for work in the areas of education and information.”

The Mission of the School “Catholic schools are at

one and the same time places of evangelization, well-rounded education, inculturation and initiation to the dialogue of life among young people of different religions and social backgrounds.”

John Paul II, Ecclesia in Africa, n. 102, cited in Educating to Intercultural Dialogue, n.17.

The Mission of the School “… the prime

responsibility for creating this unique Christian school climate rests with the teachers, as individuals and as a community.”

The Religious Dimension of the Catholic School, n.26

The Mission of the School How do the principles of the common

good and participation relate to the mission of our school?

How can staff formation assist to increase participation of staff in the mission of the school?

Teacher Formation

QCEC Policy, Formation of Staff Members in Catholic Schools in Queensland (2010)

2.5 Continuing professional development includes both professional and religious formation

Professional Dimension of Staff Formation

Effective Profession

al Developm

ent

Student

Learning

Focus Embedded in

Practice

Research

Based

Collaborative

Evidence and Data

Ongoing and Suppo

rt

Individual and Team

Professional Dimension of Staff Formation Professional learning

is informed by principles of adult learning uses research on effective learning and teaching links pedagogy and discipline content content is aligned with actual curriculum

standards is given sufficient time, support and resources to

master new pedagogy and integrate into practice is collaborative, with reflection and feedback is intellectually engaging and recognizes the

complexity of learning

Professional Dimension of Staff Formation professional formation for presenting

the Catholic worldview in a post-critical, inquiry-based, pluralistic learning environment

3-fold approach apologetic in face of

opposition/contradiction hermeneutic in face of

misunderstanding dialogue in face of indifference or other

worldviews

Professional Dimension of Staff Formation

apologetic in face of

opposition/contradiction

EXPLAIN

hermeneutic

in face of misunderstandi

ng

INTERPRET

dialoguein face of

indifference or other

worldviews

ENGAGE

Religious Dimension of Staff Development

1) principles of religious freedomo right to religious liberty based in dignity of

persono truth communicates by its own power, not by

coerciono to seek and assent to truth is an act of

human freedom and consciouso is aided by teaching and dialogue with otherso faith is the free act of the whole human

person

Religious Dimension of Staff Development

2. dimensions of conversion (Lonergan) intellectual moral religious

3. the skills of discernment – personal and communal

Skills of Spiritual Practice

Be stillBe silentBe awareBe centred on JesusBe patientBe grateful.

The Daily Examen

1. Become aware of God’s presence 2. Review the day with gratitude 3. Pay attention to your emotions 4. Choose one feature of the day and

pray from it. 5. Look toward tomorrow

Promoting visible governance Ron Ritchhart (2002), 8 factors affecting

classroom/school culture expectations time allocation modelling routines opportunities relationships physical environment language and conversation

Promoting visible governance characteristics of effective routines:

explicit instrumental used over and over across a variety of contexts individual and group practices

Roles in support of Catholic perspective in curriculum Roles within the teaching staff

Witness▪ Catholic tradition is ‘confessionally constitutive’

for identity of religious educator Moderator▪ Religious educator, without compromising their

own confessional identity, moderates the interaction of student’s pluralised worldviews

Specialist▪ able to inform learning experiences with expert

knowledge and sound pedagogical approaches to the content of Christian revelation