| dc.description.abstract | Abstract: A significant challenge facing leaders of Catholic schools in Ireland today is to ensure
an appreciation for, and understanding of, the Catholic identity of the school among members of
staff. A first aim of this research project was to create a ‘vital idea’ to re-present Christian faith to
people working in Catholic schools, in a way that might resonate with the real world of teaching
and learning and with their own lives. Drawing from Fratelli Tutti), we used the phrase ‘A Love
that impels towards communion’ as the ‘vital idea’. A second aim was to present it to principals of
second-level Catholic schools and garner their responses to it. We did this with twelve principals,
using a focus group methodology. We first explained the thinking behind the ‘vital idea’, and then
gathered their responses to it. The reaction of the principals was favourable. It made sense to
them personally and chimed with much of what they are doing professionally. However, the word
‘communion’ was found not to be helpful. A further finding relates to values: while the values in
the ‘vital idea’ were embraced and talked about easily, there was little explicit reference to God, the
source of those values. | en_US |
