ERIC Number: EJ1101495
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-May
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2164-0246
EISSN: N/A
Bearers of Diverse Ecclesiologies: Imagining Catholic School Students as Informing a Broader Articulation of Catholic School Aims
McDonough, Graham P.
Journal of Catholic Education, v19 n3 Article 5 May 2016
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive--although not exhaustive--picture of the kinds of real concerns and concurrently inferred ecclesiological perspectives practicing Catholic students have. It reports findings from an interview study with 16 students at a private Catholic high school in Canada who self-identify as Catholic. With these findings, I seek to demonstrate that it is in a Catholic school's best interest not to rely on narrow or singular definitions of Catholic identity, especially insofar as these are tied to minimal and external markers of institutional affiliation. While the sample's size and particularity do not generalize to a larger population of Catholic adolescents or to all Catholic schools, they nonetheless validly contribute to a modest theoretical claim about the unity and diversity of student experiences, and how they conceptually inform a Catholic school's aims. In the conclusion, I hypothesize that student spirituality will be optimized if it is conceptualized and discussed in explicit, pluralistic terms.
Descriptors: Catholic Schools, Private Schools, High School Students, Semi Structured Interviews, Foreign Countries, Identification, Definitions, Catholics, Student Experience, Educational Objectives, Religious Factors, Student Attitudes, Educational Attitudes
Loyola Marymount University. School of Education 1 LMU Drive, University Hall Suite 1760, Los Angles, CA 90045. e-mail: catholicedjournal@lmu.edu; Web site: http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ce
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A