Because we are Catholic: Catholic identity in Catholic schools with predominantly non-Catholic student populations.

摘要

Catholic school identity is best defined as a school culture that gives strong evidence that the school is clearly a part of the institutional Catholic Church; evidence that the school is clearly Catholic. This study explored the question of Catholic school identity in Catholic schools that serve a significant number of students and parents who are not Catholic, potentially challenging the assumption that Catholic identity is dependent on strong Catholicity of a school's stakeholders. The topic is of growing importance in the Catholic education community because of trends over the last 2 decades, which show a marked increase in non-Catholic students attending Catholic schools, particularly in urban/inner city areas and in rural areas. Four domains were identified for this study that contain components of Catholic identity: (a) school mission and policy, (b) faith development, (c) school climate and environment, and (d) curriculum and instruction.;The study utilized a mixed methodology of qualitative data from interviews, observation, and school document analysis and quantitative data from surveys and school documents. The sites of the study were two Catholic schools whose student populations were majority non-Catholic. Analysis of the data revealed the characteristics of the schools' respective Catholic identities. The identities were then constructed, compared to national measures of Catholic identity, and finally examined for elements of identity unique to each school.;Results of the study determined that the two schools had some similar characteristics of identity as well as some unique characteristics in each school.