Ten Dimensions of Inclusion: Non-Catholic Students in Catholic Schools

This article addresses the inclusion of non-Catholic students in Catholic schools. It provides a brief review of the literature on inclusion and the results of a study of inclusion from the perspectives of Catholic students and Catholic teachers in four Western Canadian urban Catholic high schools. The study employed grounded theory as its methodology and focus groups as well as documentary analysis as its methods. The results of the qualitative study indicate, among other things, that there are at least 10 dimensions to inclusion: pedagogical, social, psychological, racial, cultural, spiritual, political, financial, legal, and philosophical. Moreover, the dimensions form an interactive matrix which is of great importance to Catholic schools

Catholic Schools: The Inclusion of Non-Catholic Students

In this article, I examine the adequacy of a Catholic school district's written documents dealing with the inclusion of non-Catholic students. I first describe, in communitarian terms, the nature of a Catholic school community; then I use a contractarian analysis of the school district's written inclusionary policy to better understand its implications. The analysis illuminates several policy deficiencies for protecting the contractual and constitutional rights of both non-Catholic students and their parents. Suggestions are offered, pointing towards the creation of a new, meaningful inclusionary policy. Keywords: Catholic education, religious education, inclusion, non-Catholic schools Dans cet article, j’examine la pertinence des documents écrits d’une commission scolaire catholique au sujet de l’inclusion des élèves non catholiques. Je commence par décrire, en termes communitariens, la nature de la communauté que forme l’école catholique ; j’utilise ensuite une analyse contractualiste de la politique d’inclusion de la commission scolaire afin de mieux en comprendre les implications. L’analyse fait ressortir plusieurs lacunes de cette politique quant à la protection des droits contractuels et constitutionnels des élèves non catholiques et de leurs parents. Je formule des suggestions en vue d’une nouvelle politique inclusive digne de ce nom. Mots clés : Éducation catholique, éducation religieuse, inclusion, élèves non catholiques

The remediation and dismissal of Catholic teachers in Saskatchewan's Catholic separate schools for denominational nonconformity

It was the purpose of this study to investigate the remediation and dismissal of Catholic teachers in Saskatchewan's Catholic schools for reasons of denominational nonconformity. Saskatchewan had, at the time of this study, in November of 1993, twelve Catholic school systems directed by Catholic directors of education. Eight participated fully in this study while two others provided some oral information. The remaining two declined involvement. With the group of eight directors, a descriptive survey approach combined with interviews was employed. The survey data was collected by the use of the Nonconformity Questionnaire (NCQ). The questionnaire was composed of two parts: Part I, demographic data; Part II; questions focusing on actual cases of denominational nonconformity in the areas of Evidence, Procedures, Parties, Sanctions and, Threshold. All eight directors were asked to respond to Part I and the Threshold section but only two of the directors with experience in actual cases were asked to respond to the Evidence, Procedures, Parties and Sanctioning sections. All eight of the directors were interviewed by the writer. The interview of the two directors experienced with actual cases focused on triangulating their oral and NCQ responses and delving into their reasons for their responses. The other six directors, of the group of eight, were interviewed seeking responses to certain questions in order to understand their underlying assumptions and motivations in the area of denominational nonconformity. The study revealed vis-a-vis policies and practices that: 1. Saskatchewan's Catholic directors deal with informal and formal complaints of nonconformity. Both types of complaints were usually lodged by a school administrator or fellow teacher. Informal complaints were investigated and dealt with in an ad hoc manner. Formal complaints were generally dealt with by means of a generic administrative policy. In almost all instances, investigations were carried out by the director of education. The teacher was always confronted with the allegation and given an attempt to deny or confirm the truthfulness of the complaint. If the complaint is denied the matter is closed. If confirmed, the teacher is given an opportunity to recant or change the behaviour. 2. The civil rights of a nonconformist teacher in the procedural stages vary, depending upon the board, but are circumscribed by case law and The Education Act (Sask.). A nonconformist's Canonical procedural rights played little if any role in administrative procedure. 3. In the matter of sanctioning, there was a clear preference for addressing the situation with warnings, giving the nonconformist ample time to reconsider and alter his or her behaviour. The clergy's role in this matter was advisory. It is clear that a school board may make ongoing demands upon the teacher's personal life in order to ensure the teacher's committment to the remediation process. 4. The parties most involved with cases of denominational nonconformity were the teacher's parish priest, the director and school principal. 5. The director's personal threshold of nonconformity depends upon his own moral and religious rectitude as a Catholic and his interpretation of his responsibilities in the faith journey of one who has gone astray from the Church's teachings. 6. There was confusion in the Catholic community regarding objectively nonconformist behaviours in that they were perceived to be matters of conscience and thus subjectively acceptable and, at times, administratively tolerable. The religious or denominational threshold was perceived by some respondents to vary according to the norms within the local Catholic community, the composition of the school board, and the opinion of the local parish priest. 7. The administrative threshold of nonconformity appears to be governed by the frequency, seriousness, and publicity of the nonconformist behaviour circumscribed by the Faith Witness concept. The findings of this research have both positive and negative implications. The unanimous agreement among Saskatchewan's Catholic directors that their treatment of Catholic nonconformist teachers must at least to some degree be governed by a pastoral model of administration bodes well for the considerate treatment of those teachers. On the other hand, the ad hoc manner in which many informal cases are treated and, with one exception, the nonspecific policies in place to deal with cases of nonconformity leave much to be desired in the protection of the legal and canonical rights of the teacher and, perhaps, the protection of the Catholic school boards' power to sanction for denominational nonconformity

Catholic separate schools and the inclusion of non-Catholic students : qualitative findings and implications

This dissertation sought to discover the meanings behind the experiences of Catholic students and teachers in relationship with non-Catholic students in four urban Catholic high schools in Western Canada. By employing an interpretivist approach in conjunction with Strauss and Corbin's (1998) objectivist grounded theory, the study used focus groups composed of Catholic students from grades 10, 11, and 12 and one Catholic teacher group from each school as its primary source of data. The findings were emergent, disclosing four major student themes and five major teacher themes. The former themes were that inclusion impacted upon many of the participating students', a) sense of faith, b) understanding of religious diversity, c) sense of faith community within their school, and d) realization that their religious beliefs affect non-Catholic students. The five major teacher themes were, a) an uncertainty regarding whether their school was essentially Christian or Catholic in nature, b) ambiguity respecting the genesis of the Catholic school's mandate, c) the affective nature of their relationships with non-Catholic students as expressed in welcoming, empathizing, appreciating, and protecting, d) the effects of inclusion upon their sense of faith, and e) the effects of inclusion on their school as a faith community. The study generated and revealed that inclusion has at least ten dimensions which together form the matrix of the phenomenon of inclusion: philosophical, pedagogical, social, psychological, racial, cultural, spiritual, political, economic, and legal. The findings suggest directions for the development of meaningful inclusionary policies in the Catholic school faith community

An Adaptive Superintendent Induction Program

This study examined a recently established induction program for new superintendents in the Canadian province of Alberta over a three-year period. In keeping with principles of design-based research data were collected from a variety of sources from the 26 new superintendents and their 25 mentors to assess and adjust programming through three design research cycles. Data from surveys, focus groups, interviews, participant observations and participant reflections were analyzed at the end of each year, and the findings were used to adapt the next program iteration. Results from the study indicate that the transitions of educational leaders into new positions as superintendents are more likely to be successful though access to quality induction programs that feature the following five program components: (1) standards based design, (2) orientation, (3) trained mentorship, (4) like-group support, and (5) large-group support. Further, this research supports the development of such induction programs through reciprocal change processes characterized by informed design, dialogic adoption, implementation as learning, and meaningful outcomes

Ten Dimensions of Inclusion: Non-Catholic Students in Catholic Schools

This article addresses the inclusion of non-Catholic students in Catholic schools. It provides a brief review of the literature on inclusion and the results of a study of inclusion from the perspectives of Catholic students and Catholic teachers in four Western Canadian urban Catholic high schools. The study employed grounded theory as its methodology and focus groups as well as documentary analysis as its methods. The results of the qualitative study indicate, among other things, that there are at least 10 dimensions to inclusion: pedagogical, social, psychological, racial, cultural, spiritual, political, financial, legal, and philosophical. Moreover, the dimensions form an interactive matrix which is of great importance to Catholic schools

The Four Ethical Commitments in Educational Administration

This article follows from a previous article where the authors offered that a single school of ethical thought is not sufficient to produce the deep understanding necessary for an administrative decision-maker to arrive at an ethical decision which supports her or his personal and public integrity. In particular, this article applies an interactive ethical matrix composed of four commitments, personal conscience, relational reciprocity, common ethical principles, and professional convictions with constraints. The authors argue that these form a multi-frame analysis, and provide the facts and decision of a Canadian legal case to demonstrate how such an ethical analysis is best suited for the attainment of personal and professional integrity amongst educational decision-makers

Trinity Western University’s Law School: Quo Vadis?

This paper deals with the contentious juridical history involving Trinity Western University’s proposed law school the resistance of the law societies in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Ontario to accredit graduates from that proposed school. Issues involving the appropriate standard of legal review, in assessing the legality of the resistance by the three law societies, the balancing of section 2(a) and 15 rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Berlinian perspective of balancing positive and negative liberty in resolving the issue of balancing those Charter rights is addressed. The paper concludes that the resolution of past injustices to a particular class of Canadians, including the possible limiting of law school positions in Canada, ought not to ground a claim for provincial statutory bodies to act against Trinity Western University