ECSI - The Guide

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

THE GUIDE to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

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This Guide, along with the complementary workbook, will be of assistance as you engage with the ECSI Standard Report of your school. Reading and interpreting your Standard Report is only the first step in planning for an enhanced Catholic school identity. The second and critical step is the translation of the data into action.

First published November 2018 Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd James Goold House 228 Victoria Parade East Melbourne VIC 3002 www.cecv.catholic.edu.au Correspondence to: The Company Secretary Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd PO Box 3 EAST MELBOURNE VIC 8002 Email: secretary@cecv.catholic.edu.au ACN 119 459 853 ABN 92 119 459 853 Š Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd 2018 Licensed under NEALS The NEALS License permits Australian schools and educational bodies to copy digital and print materials for educational use in schools free of charge.

Acknowledgments This Guide has been developed with input from the four Victorian dioceses, the support of the Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project Steering Committee of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd, and the endorsement of the Directors of Catholic Education across Victoria.

Foreword It is my pleasure to introduce The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School (The Guide). This Guide is the outcome of significant collaboration across the four Victorian dioceses.

Our world is increasingly complex and diverse and so it is that a central role of the Catholic school is to offer to the whole community a faithful and authentic expression of the Catholic tradition. Catholic schools today are called to do this in ways that are culturally plausible for the community, meaningful to each member and relevant to the context in which they find themselves.

The Guide provides an introduction to the ECSI Standard Report, both practically – in terms of how to read the data – and theologically – in supporting a religious interpretation of that data. The Guide is accompanied by The Workbook, a web-based resource designed to assist users as they analyse and pay attention to the Standard Report. I encourage members of leadership teams to engage with all three resources – the Standard Report, The Guide and The Workbook – and with each other, in order to come to a still deeper understanding of how the Catholic school can continue to grow as a Catholic community, and as integral to the life of the broader Church.

Most importantly, The Guide and The Workbook are designed to support school leadership teams and other interested persons in the school community to move beyond profiling and data collection into the critical space of strategic action for an enhanced Catholic school identity.

I am especially grateful to the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Enhancing Catholic School Identity Steering Committee for their support of this inter-diocesan effort to produce a single guide that will support all Victorian schools in an informed reading and interpretation of their ECSI data.

I am pleased to commend this Guide and the accompanying Workbook to you.

Stephen Elder Executive Director Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd

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Contents

PART 1 Introduction

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Foreword

1

nhancing Catholic School Identity E (ECSI) Project

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Identity in Catholic Schools

40 Bibliography

2 The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School 2 The Present Context and the Suggested Responses 6

Brief Overview of the ECSI Survey

8 The Factual, Normative and Dual-level Measurement 9 Understanding the Two Types of Graphs in the Standard Report

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2

PART 3

The Three Attitudinal Scales

Structure of the Standard Report

13 T he Post-Critical Belief (PCB) Scale

31 A : Evaluation of the Research Sample

14 Overview of the PCB Scale

31 School Respondent Groups – Adults and Students

15 Interpreting the Post-Critical Belief (PCB) Scale 15 Insights for Consideration 17 Post-Critical Belief Scale – Sample Sets 18 The Melbourne Scale

31 Survey Participation 33 B : Identity and Diversity Among School Members 33 Diversity of Religions and Philosophies of Life

19 Overview of the Melbourne Scale

34 Country of Origin

20 Interpreting the Melbourne Scale

35 C : Personal Identity and School Identity According to Students and School Staff

21 Insights for Consideration 23 The Risks of Christian Values Education 24 Melbourne Scale – Sample Sets 26 The Victoria Scale 26 Overview of the Victoria Scale 27 Interpreting the Victoria Scale 28 Insights for Consideration 29 Victoria Scale – Sample Sets

35 Overview of Personal and School Identity Data – Current Survey Round 35 Range Overview of Personal and School Identity – Current and Previous Survey Round 36 D : Subpopulations Among Students and School Staff 38 E: Features of Catholic Education

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PART 1

Introduction

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Project The Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Project is a research project conducted under the auspices of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) and carried out by the Centre for Academic Teacher Training of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. The ECSI research was initiated in 2006 and is promoted

by Professor Dr Didier Pollefeyt. The chief scientific researcher is Drs Jan Bouwens.

The aim of the project is to enable Catholic schools to understand themselves more completely and to reflect on and enhance their Catholic identity.

To this end, KU Leuven developed three theoretical models that allow a Catholic school’s identity to be quantified in a statistically accurate way. These are the attitudinal scales: • the Post-Critical Belief Scale: Understanding styles of religious belief (Hutsebaut 1996, pp 48–66 and Wulff 1991 & 1997) • the Melbourne Scale: Understanding ways Catholic schools give shape to their identity theologically • the Victoria Scale: Understanding how Catholic schools perceive themselves pedagogically.

View three brief video clips to find out more about these three attitudinal scales (six minutes each), available on the website of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV), under About Us / Projects / Enhancing Catholic School identity / Project Website / ECSIP Introduction.

In addition, there are two questionnaires: • Profile Questionnaire: targeting the religious profile of the individual respondent • Doyle Questionnaire: enquiring into the religious profile of the school.

These three scales and two questionnaires form the ECSI survey. Integral to the ECSI research is the completion of the survey by students, parents and staff of school communities (Pollefeyt & Bouwens 2014, pp. 10–24.

From the data obtained from the survey, the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven develops the ECSI Standard Report for each participating school for their reflection and action. It is the ECSI Standard Report to which this Guide makes reference.

A more detailed Annotated Report is available for purchase via the ECSI website at www.schoolidentity.net.

We see then that the task of evangelisation operates with the limits of language and of circumstances.

It constantly seeks to communicate more effectively the truth of the Gospel in a specific context, without renouncing the truth, the goodness and the light which it can bring, whenever perfection is not possible.

A missionary heart is aware of these limits and makes itself ‘weak with the weak ... everything for everyone’ (1 Cor 9: 22). It never closes itself off, never retreats into its own security, never opts for rigidity and defensiveness.

It realises that it has to grow in its own understanding of the Gospel and in discerning the paths of the Spirit, and so it always does what good it can, even if in the process, its shoes get soiled by the mud of the street (Pope Francis 2013, n. 45).

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Identity in Catholic Schools Catholic identity manifests itself in a range of ways and serves to inform a school’s vision, policies, priorities and practices. This identity is central to all aspects of life in a Catholic school and all members of the community contribute to it. This Catholic identity can be visible in school leadership, through people’s relationships with one another, in high-quality classroom programs, through the pedagogical choices that are made, in how we respond in times of crisis, in prayer, liturgies, servicelearning, the environment. These features of the Catholic school and others are listed in the graph in Figure 18, p. 35.

The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School In this Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School (The Guide) you will find information on, and explanations of, the three attitudinal scales, along with questions designed to stimulate conversation and engagement about what it means to be a Catholic school today. These questions will also assist schools in three important actions: 1. analysing the survey data 2. reflecting on their current reality 3. setting future directions.

In addition, there are sample sets of data with interpretation, which will assist schools to understand their Standard Report.

You are encouraged to use this Guide in conjunction with the ECSI Standard Report and the Workbook, and to use processes common to school improvement – assessment, reflection, planning, implementation and evaluation – as you work through these three resources. In understanding the Standard Report more deeply, you will be able to move confidently and strategically into action that strengthens your school’s explicit Catholic identity.

The Present Context and the Suggested Responses In the Christian West today, a significant challenge is to find relevant and plausible ways for the Christian faith to relate to a dramatically shifting context. The present context, one in which the Christian tradition is no longer automatically or unquestioningly passed on, presents an urgent need that is made evident whenever the ‘missiological imperative’ of Catholic schools is no longer understood; when its reason for existing is brought into question, from within and beyond; when those who attend there no longer find support in their ongoing identity construction; and when those who lead the learning no longer search for a place for God (D’Orsa & D’Orsa 2010).

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Our current context is no longer marked by a dominant Christian world view; instead, a plurality of religious and non-religious world views present themselves. In this context, the Christian person has to choose to be Christian rather than to be Christian ‘by default’. Fr Frank O’Loughlin, in his book This Time of the Church, identifies this change as a transition from Christendom to pluralism (O’Loughlin 2012, Chapter 1). In so many of our school communities there is increasing diversity of culture and religion alongside a decreasing familiarity with the Catholic tradition.

How might Catholic schools respond to this changed and still changing context?

The ECSI research findings indicate three necessary responses to this context – or three shifts: 1. a move away from secularising tendencies and towards a strengthened Catholic identity.

2. the move from a literal faith position to a faith position that opens itself to interpretation, difference and otherness (post critical belief).

3. a move away from a harmonising approach in pedagogical practices where Christian values are emptied of their Christian particularity (Christian Values Education). This third shift attends faithfully to the Christian narrative, situating the Christian tradition right in the middle of the plural cultural context and there making new meaning through the process of recontextualisation.

Together, these three critical responses constitute the theological normative.

The Theological Normative Founded in the ECSI research, the theological normative describes the essential characteristics and ambitions of a contemporary Catholic school.

Processes that support identity formation, cultural plausibility, meaning-making and relevance, alongside a theologically legitimate presentation of the Catholic heritage are enabled by the development of post-critical belief and happen through the process of recontextualised dialogue with otherness in a pluralising context. This is the theological normative and can be expressed in different ways. However, three elements or stances are always present: 1. The attitude towards belief is post-critical: that is, belief continues, not in fixed ways but in ways that are responsive to the contemporary context.

2. The school opts to recontextualise as its way of being in the world: it creates a bridge between absolute closed-ness and openness, choosing to maintain both cultural plausibility and theological legitimacy.

3. The school chooses a dialogical approach: this affirms an openness to all others through solidarity with them. Like post-critical belief and recontextualisation, dialogue is deeply and necessarily theological.

Ideally, the data collected from the respondents to the survey (the empirical normative) will coincide with the theological normative of the Catholic identity project

Post-Critical Belief The movement to second naivetÊ or Post-Critical Belief involves the deconstruction of naive Literal Belief and the development of a reconstructed believing stance. This is marked by an awareness that God (the Other, the Transcendent) is a mysterious, unseen reality mediated through stories, rituals and communities of faith (a person’s relationship with God can only grow within a community, whether that be expressed in family, school, parish or more broadly). The person of faith in this position can acknowledge that non-belief or rejection of belief is a real option, one taken by many people today. The post-critical believer lives a vulnerable faith journey, remaining steadfast in the face of doubt and critical reasons not to believe.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Recontextualisation ‘Every shift in context constitutes a challenge to the Christian tradition to reformulate itself in dialogue with the relevant context’ (Boeve 2002, p. 22). This is Recontextualisation. While this may appear challenging, it is important to understand that Christianity has been recontextualising itself from the very beginning. Consider the first Council of Jerusalem deliberating the question of how Gentiles could be accommodated within the Church (Acts 15), or St Paul preaching in Athens seeking a new and culturally plausible way to speak about what God had done in Jesus Christ (Acts 17).

These, and so many other examples demonstrate time and again that each new generation of Christians must experience the tradition in ways that are meaningful, plausible and relevant. The reception of the Christian heritage by the young, and perhaps not-so-young people in our schools depends on this. All those who make up our Catholic school communities are provided with the opportunity to experience and reflect on Christianity’s offer of meaning. They are encouraged to reinterpret the Christian heritage in response to the questions of their time in ways that are meaningful to their generation and their context, while all the time maintaining theological legitimacy, in short, to keep the Christian faith tradition alive and living (Boeve 2002, p. 24).

The process of Recontextualisation requires the believer to undertake a conscious critique of their context, and to develop a contextually-anchored understanding of their Christian faith, a ‘theology for today’ (Boeve 2002, pp. 108–109). Faith in God ‘remains an act of the will, a surrender that (especially today) is often accompanied by recurring doubt’ (Boeve 2002, pp. 110–111). This points to the development of what Paul Ricoeur calls ‘second naiveté’ (Ricoeur 1967, p. 351).

Dialogue Post-Critical Belief opens up to an ongoing dialogue with both the Catholic faith tradition and the surrounding context. In a school environment this kind of dialogue becomes a pedagogical imperative, and a school engaged in these processes is called a Recontextualising Catholic Dialogue School.

To be a Recontextualising Catholic Dialogue School demands intentionality. Adults in the school community commit to an articulation of the Catholic heritage of the school that is intentional and explicit, while at the same time remaining receptive to the diversity of cultures and faiths that exist within and beyond the school. The ECSI research indicates that the development of this school type is the best way forward if schools are to be truly Catholic and intent on the personal formation of all students.

Through dialogue, all members of the Recontextualising Catholic Dialogue School get to know themselves better, become more aware of their own philosophical choices, learn to take responsibility for those choices and so deepen their identity. This diversity of voices and perspectives enhances Recontextualisation in the school and facilitates a healthy, mature development of all learners in meaningful dialogue with the Catholic faith tradition.

Catholic schools facilitate the growth and identity formation of all members of the school community, asking questions such as: What do we stand for? What do we believe? How do we shape our lives? How can the Catholic tradition, which has inspired and motivated generations before us, continue to do so today?

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Brief Overview of the ECSI Survey The ECSI Survey, comprised of a number of evaluative tools, is completed once in every school improvement cycle, typically once every four or five years. The staff, students and parents in school communities complete the ECSI survey. The results form the basis of the ECSI Standard Report that is prepared for each school by our research partners at the Catholic University in Leuven.

The responses of individuals are always anonymous.

The survey assists schools to learn how the school community perceives the school both ‘now’ and as their ideal school, and allows the school to compare these views with the theological normative.

An overview of each survey tool is provided below. Each of these tools is described in more detail in Part 2 of this Guide.

More can be learnt by viewing the video and following the PowerPoint Presentation: Professor Pollefeyt’s Keynote Lecture, ‘Assessing and Enhancing Catholic School Identity’, given at the National Catholic Education Convention in Adelaide, 2011 (available on the website of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV), under About Us / Projects / Enhancing Catholic School identity / Project Website / ECSIP Introduction.

Overview of the ECSI Survey tools Identification Diagram (the individual’s role within the organisation) This diagram is designed to assess the respondent’s place and function within the organisation (i.e. student, teacher, school leader, parent, etc.).

Profile Questionnaire (of the individual respondent) This questionnaire is designed to collect background variables that determine the personal religious profile of the respondents (e.g. personal religion or philosophy of life, attitude to the Catholic faith, the Church and prayer life). Profile Questionnaire graphs have a white background.

Doyle Questionnaire (dual-level measurement: current practice + ideal school) (of the school community) This questionnaire is designed to collect background variables that determine the religious profile of the Catholic school to which the respondents belong. The questions focus on relevant aspects of Catholic identity in relation to increasing religious diversity (e.g. the school’s Catholicity, its relation to the Church, commitment to broader social issues, levels of diversity within the school community in relation to faith affiliation and practice). Doyle Questionnaire graphs have a pink background.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Post-Critical Belief (PCB) Scale (a measure of attitudes towards belief) The PCB Scale measures the faith attitudes or cognitive belief styles present among the respondents (i.e. it measures people’s attitudes towards religious belief, not whether people believe or not, nor the depth of their faith). The PCB Scale provides four ‘types’ of attitudes: Post-Critical Belief, Literal Belief, External Critique and Relativism; each of these types will be present in individuals and groups to varying degrees. While two of these ‘types’ support a believing attitude, Post-Critical Belief is the religious faith attitude that is seen as the building block for an enhanced Catholic identity at both the individual and institutional levels and the position that will allow for a strengthened Catholic identity.

Post-Critical Belief Scale graphs have a blue background.

Melbourne Scale (dual-level measurement: current practice + ideal school) (a measure of school identity in a pluralising context) The Melbourne Scale explores, from a theological perspective, ways in which Catholic schools can give shape to their identity in a pluralising cultural context. It provides four ‘types’ of school identity or ‘ways of operating’ in today’s culture: Reconfessionalisation, Christian Values Education, Recontextualisation and Secularisation. While the first three school types support a religious perspective, Recontextualisation is the preferred position. Melbourne Scale graphs have a beige background.

Victoria Scale (dual-level measurement: current practice + ideal school) (approaches to faith education) The Victoria Scale explores how Catholic schools perceive themselves pedagogically.

It provides four ‘types’ of pedagogical approaches to faith education in a pluralising cultural context: Dialogue, Monologue, Colourfulness, Colourlessness. While the first two of these school types support a religious perspective, Dialogue is the preferred position.

Victoria Scale graphs have a green background.

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The Factual, Normative and Dual-level Measurement Factual = Current Practice Data at the factual level reflect the current practice at your school – what respondents believe is currently happening in the school (i.e. empirical factual level).

Normative = Ideal School (at times, you will find this referred to as the empirical normative) Data at the normative level reflect your ideal school and a focus on the future – the ideal Catholic identity of a school, what respondents would prefer the school to become (i.e. empirical normative level).

Dual-level measurement ‘Dual-level measurement’ means data are provided on two levels: the factual (current practice) and the normative (ideal).

As indicated, three of the survey tools (the Doyle Questionnaire, the Melbourne Scale and the Victoria Scale) provide ‘dual-level measurement’, offering paired data at the current and ideal levels. In each pair, the left-hand column always represents the current situation and the right-hand column the ideal.

The purpose of dual measurement levels Dual-level measurement enables comparisons to be made between the factual (current) and normative (ideal) levels. This can be useful when reflecting and planning – for example when considering the: • support basis for current policy: Are survey respondents satisfied with the current situation? To what degree is the Catholic identity of the school supported/resisted? Why? • potential for change: In what direction would respondents like to see the Catholic identity change? To what degree? How significant is this desire for change?

• policy decisions: Based on the ideal measure, how would respondents like the school to grow? What’s the level of support for such growth? What associated challenges and opportunities could be present among the school population regarding the potential for change?

The empirical normative does not always correspond with the theological normative of ECSI. This raises significant questions for a leadership team. For example, “What kind of a Catholic school do we want to be?”

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

A Note on Language The manner in which changes in data are spoken about matters greatly. When the data for typologies that support a strengthened Catholic identity (especially Post-Critical Belief, Recontextualisation, Dialogue School) increase, the language of ‘increasing support’ is used.

Inversely, evidence of a weakening Catholic identity is referred to as ‘decreasing support’.

When the data for typologies that support secularising tendencies (especially Relativism, Institutional Secularisation, Colourful and Colourless) increase, the language of ‘decreasing resistance’ is used. Inversely, evidence of stronger resistance to secularising tendencies is referred to as ‘increasing resistance’.

Understanding the Types of Graphs in the Standard Report Four types of graphs are used to represent results in the PCB, Melbourne and Victoria Scales: • Column graphs • Traffic-light graphs • Range graphs • Pie graphs.

Column graphs and traffic-light graphs When you interpret results, each graph should be read separately and then in relation to the another – the column graph to see the general tendencies and the traffic-light graph to delve into greater detail.

Column graphs (representing mean scores) In column graphs, the survey results are always represented as the average (or mean). The annotations in Figure 1 below are intended to support the reading of the column graph.

Figure 1 (21:options) Figure Key features of the column graph Figure 1: Key features of the column graph 7 = Strongly agree 6 = Strongly agree 5 = Somewhat agree 4 = Neither agree nor disagree

Average score form respondent group 4 = the turning point from rejection (less than 4) to approval (greater than 4)

3 = Somewhat disagree 2 = Disagree 1 = Strongly disagree

Perceived as the current reality – what the respondents see .

n = the number of respondents used to generate the graph The ideal school – what the respondents prefer to school to become

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Perceived as the current reality – What the respondents see

The ideal school – what the respondents prefer the school to become

Traffic-light Graphs (representing percentage scores) In traffic-light graphs, survey results are represented as percentages or numbers, enabling closer analysis of particular columns and comparison between the ‘current reality’ and the ‘ideal’.

Traffic-light graphs (representing percentage scores)

In traffic-light graphs, results are represented as percentages or numbers, enabling closer and The traffic-light graphssurvey for the Melbourne and Victoria Scales provide both factual/current analysis of particular columns and comparison between the ‘current reality’ and the ‘ideal’. normative/ideal data. Therefore, there are two columns of data for each typology.

The traffic-light graphs for the Melbourne and Victoria Scales provide both factual/current and Figure 1 (2 options) Figure 1 : Key features of Therefore, the column graph normative/ideal data. there are two columns of data for each typology.

Figure 2: Key features of the traffic-light graphs Figure 2: Key features of the traffic-light graphs 7 = Strongly agree

Average score form respondent group

6 = Strongly agree

4 = the turning point from rejection (less than of 4) to approval Shades green = agree (greater than 4)

5 = Somewhat agree 4 = Neither agree nor disagree 3 = Somewhat disagree 2 = Disagree

n = the number of respondents used to generate the graph

1 = Strongly disagree

Orange = neither agree Shades of red = disagree

Perceived as the current reality – what the respondents see .

The ideal school – what the respondents prefer to school to become

Range graphs

Range graphs

Range Graphs represent data-over-time, comparing the results of the current survey round with the resultsGraphs of the previous survey round. Dots (black, most recent survey) and triangles (grey, surveyround beforewith the Range represent data-over-time, comparing the results of the current survey the most recent one) are your school’s own data while the boxes and whiskers represent the wider results of the previous survey round. Dots (black, most recent survey) and triangles (grey, survey before diocesan primary or secondary data (since 2011) aggregated and respective to your school type.

Figure 3: Key features of range graphs (Victoria Scale only selected) Figure 3: Sample Range Graph. Blue = PCB Scale, Buff = Melbourne Scale and Green = Victoria Scale

Figure 4: The PCB Scale diagram

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Pie graphs Pie graphs appear in section D of the Standard Report. One pie graph represents the school’s own data and the other to the right of the stacked bar graphs, diocesan data for same school type, i.e. primary or secondary.

Reading the Graphs Comparisons between adult and student populations reveal important trends.

When you examine graphs for each of the four typologies (Literal Belief, External Critique, Relativism, Post-Critical Belief), it is important to remember that they should be interpreted in relation to one another (e.g. a significant Relativism score in and of itself may not necessarily be an issue, provided the Post-Critical Belief score is significantly higher still).

On-the-Fly Results On-the-Fly Results are immediately available to all survey respondents individually as each component is completed.

The aggregated responses of all survey respondents are also immediately available as On-The-Fly results, accessible to the survey administrator, using the principal access code (refer to the Principal Registration Manual for detailed instructions).

The spread of attitudes towards belief are shown diagrammatically in a ‘radar graph’, available in both the individual and the aggregated on-the-fly results.

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PART 2

The Three Attitudinal Scales

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

The Post-Critical Belief (PCB) Scale The Post-Critical Belief (PCB) Scale assists in understanding styles of religious belief or attitudes towards belief.

The PCB Scale is not so much concerned with the content of belief but rather with the ways in which people hold beliefs. It should be noted that these belief styles are ideal, meaning that they are theoretical, extreme positions in a continuum with many ‘in-between’ positions and mixed forms. Note that the full range of attitudes towards belief are evident in every community. Ideally, the attitude of post critical belief will be strongest.

Find out more about the four attitudes towards belief by viewing the PCB Scale video, available on the website of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV), under About Us / Projects / Enhancing Catholic School identity / Project Website / ECSIP Introduction.

Figure 4: The PCB Scale diagram

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Overview of the PCB Scale The PCB Scale explores how people believe. These patterns of belief affect the school’s Catholic identity: • Literal Belief and Post-Critical Belief are the building blocks for a strengthened Catholic school identity • External Critique and Relativism contribute to a diminishing Catholic school identity.

Literal Belief (Literal affirmation of belief content) Literal Belief entails an uncritical receiving of Catholic tradition as given by the Church (literal affirmation of the content of belief), belief in the possibility of direct access to a transcendent God and literal acceptance of doctrinal content. When Literal Belief is dominant, the Catholic faith tradition tends to become a closed narrative, a space in which meaning-making is discouraged.

Despite the above description, Literal Belief can be a positive and constructive guardian of the faith when combined with high levels of Post-Critical Belief.

External Critique (literal disaffirmation of belief content) External Critique entails a literal disaffirmation of belief contents. At its worst it is a destructive criticism of religion and faith from an external position: all religious faith is contrary to reason and therefore must be rejected. In its positive form (lowest scoring attitude) it provides the basis for critique. In general terms, a score for External Critique above any of the other three attitudes, constitutes a threat to Catholic school identity.

Relativism/Awareness of Contingency/Openness (Symbolic disaffirmation of belief content) Relativism/Awareness of Contingency/Openness has both positive and negative attributes. In the positive it indicates an openness to the Transcendent; it enables an attitude towards belief that recognises contingency with the understanding that people believe what they believe because of their context and where they are located in the world; there is an openness towards the potentially valuable impact of an encounter with people who differ. In the negative, relativism refers to an unbelieving attitude where the religious beliefs of all others are considered equal, with no belief more important than any other and where this unbelieving and uncommitted attitude with regard to belief is characterised by varying levels of indifference.

Post-Critical Belief (Symbolic affirmation of belief content) Post-Critical Belief is characterised by belief in a transcendent God and a religious interpretation of the world. In post-critical belief, the transcendent is always mediated by means of symbols. Only through these symbolic mediations and the work of ongoing interpretation can people enter into a relationship with a transcendent reality that we call God. Post-Critical Belief has a high correlation with Dialogue School (Victoria Scale) and with the Recontextualisation of Catholic school identity in a pluralising context (Melbourne Scale).

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

Interpreting the Post-Critical Belief (PCB) Scale In the PCB Scale, Post-Critical Belief is the preferred position. Together with Recontextualisation and Dialogue School, it best supports the strengthening of Catholic school identity.

Indicative Scoring Range To assist schools in deepening their understanding of the ECSI Standard Report, an indicative scoring range, reflective of the ECSI preferred position for the PCB Scale, has been provided in The Workbook.

Insights for Consideration The following insights are based on aggregated data from Victorian schools:

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Relativism/Awareness of Contingency can indicate an openness to otherness and diversity, which can be a hopeful sign, provided it is accompanied by an even stronger appreciation for Post-Critical Belief. This would indicate that people value an attitude of openness to and receptiveness of a diversity of cultural and religious commitments, appreciating the contribution they could make to the identity of the Catholic school.

When the score for Relativism is lower than the score for Post-Critical Belief, there is no need to worry. In line with the Catholic tradition, it is to be understood that people accept and value the identity and the input of other-believers in their school – an attitude that contributes to a truly Catholic ethos. As Vatican II teaches us: ‘The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in (other) religions … (which) often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all’ (Vatican II 1965, n. 2).

This is the general pattern in Victoria and holds for the adult groups and the majority of student populations.

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On the other hand, a strong tendency towards Relativism could potentially undermine a school’s Catholic identity, especially when it is not balanced by a significant tendency towards Post-Critical Belief, i.e. when Post-Critical Belief is stronger than Relativism.

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Typically, a positive correlation between Relativism and External Critique might point towards the danger that, as an unbelieving position, increasing Relativism might lead to an increased tendency toward External Critique.

Typically, Victorian students are divided regarding Relativism. This division is correlated to the students’ ages/year levels. On the whole, primary school students tend to dismiss Relativism in favour of a generally shared faith affiliation that hinges on Literal Belief and, perhaps to a lesser degree, Post-Critical Belief.

As students progress through schooling, their personal religious identities come under pressure, indicated by a score for the unbelieving positions of Relativism and/or External Critique that is greater than the score for Post-Critical Belief.

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It is important to stress that post-critical Catholic believers should demonstrate in words and deeds that a believing attitude acknowledges plurality and authentically appreciates the identity of other people, their values, beliefs and way of life.

For post-critical believers, the ongoing search for a Recontextualisation of Catholic identity requires encounter and dialogue with different peoples, for the sake of understanding, in order to promote the personal growth and identity formation of all involved.

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Primary school children in Victoria typically show high levels of both Literal Belief and Post-Critical Belief. These students are capable of believing symbolically (and are not to be sold short by a focus on their Literal Belief only). The Victorian PostCritical Belief data show that both believing attitudes (Literal and Post-Critical Belief) decrease in favour of both unbelieving attitudes (Relativism and External Critique) as students progress through secondary school. The data suggest that a strong (and initially seemingly successful) focus on Literal Belief when dealing with primary school children actually risks undermining the development of a more mature faith in many young people as they grow older.

A Post-Critical Believing attitude should be developed as early as possible, even in the early years of primary education. The message to primary teachers, seen in numerous ECSI reports to schools, is ‘Don’t teach the students something you don’t believe in yourself’. For example, teach students that, while the creation stories in Genesis are mythological in their structure, myths contain important religious truths.

Teachers in Catholic secondary schools also need to take on the challenge to withstand literal believing tendencies among teenagers and instead, guide them towards meaningmaking that seeks to understand the Christian/Catholic tradition in ways that are plausible in their cultural context.

5

The ideal would be a balanced combination of some levels of Literal Belief included in a predominantly Post-Critical Believing attitude. It is positive therefore that in Victoria, the high scores for Post-Critical Belief (combined with Relativism) are shown to prevail over Literal Belief.

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Still, a minority tendency towards a rather literal understanding of religious faith – albeit under pressure – continues to have heavy influence on the religious identity of Catholic schools in Victoria. Literal Belief reminds us that belief is not a human construction, that belief refers to a real presence, a reality greater than the reality we can observe, while Post-Critical Belief reminds us that God is always mediated to us and warns that trying to ‘possess’ God can lead to pretension and even violence.

It is neither unusual nor alarming to detect small minority tendencies towards External Critique in Catholic schools. On the whole, in Victoria, while adults and students reject External Critique, resistance to this unbelieving attitude decreases as students move through secondary school.

The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

Post-Critical Belief Scale – Sample Sets To assist with the reading and interpretation of the ECSI Standard Report, Sample Sets of graphs and explanations are provided. The PCB Scale Sample Set is approximated to represent tendencies pointing towards Post-Critical Belief. This sample set is a guide for interpreting the PCB Scale. This set provides the opportunity for principals, leadership teams and members of staff to deepen their knowledge of their ECSI Standard Report. The sample set should be considered a guide only.

Figure 5: PCB Scale Sample Set for Students (representing the theological normative) Figure PCB Scale Scale Sample Set and for Students (representing the theological normative) Interpretation of5:the Mean Percentage Graphs

Students in this sample set favour Belief Interpretation of the Post-Critical Scale Mean and Figure 5: PCB Scale Sample Set for Students (representing the theological normative) supported by Percentage Relativism (understood as Awareness Graphs of Contingency or Openness). should be noted thatBelief Interpretation ofItthe Mean and Students in this sample setScale favour Post-Critical supported Relativism (understood as Awareness Percentage Graphs there is a higher level ofbyLiteral Belief among students of Contingency or Openness). It should be noted that than adults (compare is worth notingBelief Studentswith in thisFigure sample6). set Itfavour Post-Critical there is a higher level of Literal Belief among supported by Relativism (understood as Awareness that high levels of Literal morewith common in It is students thanBelief adults are (compare Figure 6). of Contingency or Openness). It should be noted that worth noting that high levels of Literal Belief primary than secondary students. interpreter ofare there is a higher level ofThe Literal Belief among more common in primary than secondary students. students than adults (compare with Figure 6). It is the PCB ScaleThe should be aware of levels of tolerance/ interpreter of the PCB Scale should be aware of worth noting that high levels of Literal Belief are acceptance for External Critique. In this for sample, levels of tolerance/acceptance External Critique. more common in primary than secondary students.

In this of sample, for instance, 7.6% of the cohort for instance, 7.6% the cohort The interpreter of the(green), PCB Scaleagree should with be aware of (green), agree with External Critique outright, while levels of tolerance/acceptance for External Critique.

External Critique outright, while a further 9.5% remain a further 9.5% remain uncommitted or unsure. At In this sample, for instance, 7.6% of the cohort of the cohort, attention ought to be given to uncommitted 17.1% or unsure.

Atwith 17.1% of the cohort, (green), agree External Critique outright, while thetopotential (negative) impact of this group on the attention ought be given to theuncommitted potential (negative) a further 9.5% remain or unsure. At school community.

Some aspects of External Critique 17.1% of cohort, attention ought to Some be given to impact of this should group onthe the not per seschool be seen community. as negative, as they can the potential (negative) impact of this group on the indicate that believers have a critical attitude aspects of External should perofse be seen schoolCritique community.

Some not aspects External Critique regardingnot the misuse religion. se be of seen as believers negative, ashave they can as negative, asshould they canper indicate that a indicate that believers have a critical attitude critical attitude regarding the misuse of religion. regarding the misuse of religion.

Figure 6: PCB Scale set for adults the theological normative) Figure sample 6: PCB Scale sample set(representing for adults (representing the theological normative)

Interpretation of the Scale Mean and

Figure PCBScale Scale sample set for adults (representing the theological normative) Interpretation of 6:the Percentage GraphsMean and Percentage Graphs

Interpretation of the Scale Mean The overall ‘shape’ of the graph is similar thatand theof The overall ‘shape’ of the graph isto similar toofthat Percentage Graphs (refer to Figure 5). High Post-Critical students (referthe tostudents Figure 5).

High Post-Critical Belief is is supported The overall ‘shape’byofRelativism/Awareness the graph is similar to of that of supported by Belief Relativism/Awareness of Contingency, Contingency, symbolic but non-believing option the studentsa(refer to Figure 5). High Post-Critical a symbolic but(i.e. non-believing option (i.e. recognisesof recognises a multiplicity of religious Belief is supported

by Relativism/Awareness which should welcomed and a multiplicity ofcommitments religious commitments which should Contingency, a symbolic butbe non-believing option valued).

While there is a strong rejection of External (i.e. recognises a multiplicity be welcomed and valued). While thereofisreligious a strong Critique, there iswhich nonetheless a small element commitments should be welcomed and rejection of External there is nonetheless present (4.5%) supports thisrejection attitude.of Literal valued).Critique, Whilethat there is a strong External Belief is not so high asthat to suggest an unquestioning Critique, there is nonetheless a small element a small element present (4.5%) supports this believing attitude. The post-critical believerLiteral tries to present (4.5%) supports attitude. attitude. Literalbuild Belief is not that so high as this to suggest relationship accepting that they Beliefa is not so highwith as toGod, suggest an unquestioning an unquestioning believing attitude.

Thethat post-critical can never fully ‘claim’ and believing is anto believing attitude.

TheGod post-critical believer tries ongoing process of symbolic interpretation.

Again, build a relationship with God, accepting that they believer tries to build a relationship with God, accepting some aspects of‘claim’ External Critique should not per se can never fully God and that believing is an that they can be never ‘claim’ God and that believing seenfully asprocess negative. ongoing of symbolic interpretation. Again, is an ongoing process of symbolic some aspects of Externalinterpretation.

Critique should not per se be seen as Again, some aspects ofnegative.

External Critique should not per se be seen as negative.

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The Melbourne Scale The Melbourne Scale takes a historical perspective, looking at Christianity and culture over time.

In the simplest terms, this Scale assumes a close connection between Christianity and the culture of society generally in the 1960s, 1950s and earlier. At this time Christianity was the main paradigm in which, for example, laws were framed and people lived (consider, for example, societal practices regarding shopping and sport, or how commonplace parish dances were and the variety of Christian clubs and associations).

In subsequent decades the gap between Christianity and culture has widened. The possible Catholic education responses to this changing situation are expressed in the Melbourne Scale by different ‘theoretical types’ of school identity. Four of the five types – Confessionally Based Institutions, Christian Values Education, Institutional Reconfessionalisation, and Recontextualisation – seek to promote and support a religious education and formation. A fifth type, Institutional Secularisation, is prepared to let go of its religious past and secularise the school, either intentionally or through inattention to an explicitly Catholic identity.

As well as a widening gap between Christianity and culture over time (refer to the timeline on the right side of Melbourne Scale diagram), the Melbourne Scale assumes that the community and cultural context are shaped by a growing plurality of beliefs and world views. This is represented by the three-dimensional cone shape in Figure 7, suggesting not only numerous opportunities to make connections between culture and faith, but also a great variety of possible responses to faith questions and issues.

Find out more about how schools give shape to their identity by viewing the Melbourne Scale video, available on the website of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV), under About Us / Projects / Enhancing Catholic School identity / Project Website / ECSIP Introduction.

Figure Figure7:7The : TheMelbourne MelbourneScale Scale diagram diagram

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

Overview of the Melbourne Scale The Melbourne Scale explores, from a theological perspective, the ways in which Catholic schools can give shape to their identity in a pluralising cultural context. Five different models are evident: 1. the Confessionally Based Institution 2. Christian Values Education 3. Institutional Reconfessionalisation 4. Recontextualisation 5. Institutional Secularisation.

All but Institutional Secularisation are underpinned by a religious commitment.

Confessionally Based Institution (A Catholic school, unchanged since its establishment more than a half century ago) This is a traditional Catholic school, still largely unaffected by tendencies of detraditionalisation and Secularisation. Typical confessional elements and identity structures endure in a passive and unreflective way. A classic Catholic school identity is being continued un-problematically and unchallenged. This is a theoretical type and in reality, this school type no longer exists.

Values Education from a Christian Perspective (A reductionist approach that prefers harmonisation over and above the particularity of the Catholic tradition) This identity model is often adopted when the school population is gradually diversifying while most people are still rooted in the Christian culture. The school tries to link a generally shared awareness of ‘a good life’ to the Christian faith, perceived as the ultimate fulfilment of this school. Catholic school identity is mediated by a reductionist approach to Christian values and norms that have the potential to appeal to everyone.

It is hoped that by being taught values, the students can (still) recognise themselves in the Catholic lifestyle and faith. However, in reality this school type risks becoming a compromise model: in an attempt to reduce the gap between the Christian and the secular identities, harmonisation reduces the Christian faith to its ethical aspects, thereby ‘hollowing it out’.

As the gap between culture and faith widens, Christian Values Education tends to become predictable and reductive, hence ineffective, and even counterproductive, leading to further secularisation.

Institutional Secularisation (The Catholic school lets go of its religious inspiration) In daily school life, Catholic particularity fades away. Catholic signs and symbols disappear, rituals no longer take place and references to religion vanish from everyday discourse. Conscious and intentional care for the Catholic faith is replaced by a preference for neutrality, equality and relativism, without any reference to God. Often this is an implicit process rather than a conscious and guided option; nevertheless, the trend towards secularisation has the potential to take over the life of the school.

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Institutional Reconfessionalisation (Searching for an identity that resembles the Confessionally Based Institution) This school type actively promotes a classic, confessional Catholic school identity, withstanding tendencies of detraditionalisation, pluralisation and secularisation. It deliberately tries to bring all aspects of the school’s culture closer to Catholicism again but without attention to the contemporary cultural context. There is little desire, therefore, to engage with diversity or to develop the Christian tradition in interaction with changing times.

The Catholic nature of the school is explicitly and publicly profiled. The school community may be composed of faithful and practising Catholics but wherever it is not, those who attend there see only a religious tradition that is no longer plausible, relevant and meaningful, even as it continues to be theologically legitimate in its adherence to the Catholic tradition.

Recontextualisation (Engaged in a common search for a renewed Catholic identity) This is a Catholic school, perhaps with a diverse school population, among whom there is at least a significant and recognisable group of Christian believers. The school is deliberately engaged in a common search for a renewed Catholic identity. Through an openness to plurality, it aims at a reinterpreted understanding of the Christian faith in the contemporary world.

Resisting a paradigm where everyone believes the same thing, Recontextualisation is driven by a focus on difference and ‘otherness’. The encounter and conversation that takes place between different views is moderated through conscious attention to the Catholic faith. Out of its own inherent strength and depth, Christianity’s voice is allowed to resonate amid a multiplicity of voices.

In Recontextualisation, the Catholic school maintains a theologically legitimate stance, at the same time as it seeks to understand the Catholic tradition in ways that are plausible, relevant and meaningful in the cultural context.

Interpreting the Melbourne Scale In the Melbourne Scale, Recontextualisation is the preferred position. Together with Post-Critical Belief and Dialogue School, it best supports the strengthening of Catholic identity.

The Melbourne Scale data are provided on two levels: the current and the ideal school (i.e. desired for the future).

Indicative Scoring Range To assist schools to further deepen their understanding of their ECSI report, an indicative scoring range which could be considered to be reflective of the ECSI preferred position for the Melbourne Scale has been provided in The Workbook.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

Insights for Consideration The following insights are based on aggregated data from Victorian schools:

1

All Catholic identity types gain in strength among the adults: more Christian Values Education, more Recontextualisation, with the intention of retaining the school’s confessional structures and, if necessary, reconfessionalising in order to establish what has been lost. Apart from diverging opinions about the extent and the methods of Institutional Reconfessionalisation, the adults show notable agreement in their desire to be and to remain a Catholic school with a strong identity.

2

The mean adult scores are positive for the three Catholic identity options of Recontextualisation, Christian Values Education and Institutional Reconfessionalisation, confirming the apparent Catholic identity of Victorian schools from an adult perspective.

3

Secularisation is strongly rejected overall; however, resistance is fading. The adults and students in secondary schools show less resistance to secularising tendencies than do their peers in primary schools.

4

All adults agree that many traditional Catholic identity markers are still in place today. This is also true for the majority of primary school children, who continue to recognise the Catholic identity markers present in the school. However, for some, mainly secondary students, Catholic ‘identity markers’ are not quite as self-evident as the adults believe. This may lead adults to overestimate the level of Confessionality among the students and mistakenly assume that the students are able to perceive what is Catholic.

5 6 7

In addition to the point above and regarding students, a low score or decline in Confessionality over time may be the result of a shift, not only in the visibility of Catholic identity markers but also in the cultural Catholic dimension of the school. Scores for Confessionality may decrease as the number of staff, brought up in a rich ‘Catholic world’, are no longer present in the school. On the factual level, students typically are able to perceive less of the ‘old style’ Confessionality, compared to adults. There is no issue here; in fact ‘cultural Catholic’ patterns are expected to slowly disappear further in the coming years and decades, with a consequential decline in the score for Confessionality. On the normative level, the desire for Recontextualisation, underscored

by Institutional Reconfessionalisation, is what matters when considering the theological normative.

Though most Catholic schools in Victoria cannot be identified as such, reconfessionalising tendencies do exist and both students and adults recognise these.

Many Victorian Catholic schools are strongly characterised by a Christian Values Education strategy. This popular approach is clearly recognised by all respondent groups.

Recontextualisation of Catholic school identity is confirmed by nearly all adults in primary schools and by a clear majority in secondary colleges. The students also agree with Recontextualisation though they are less convinced.

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8

The perceived inclinations toward Christian Values Education and Recontextualisation do not stand on their own. In daily school life they are combined and intertwined, resulting in mixed forms. Both school identity types correlate with each other, which indicate that when people promote or reject the one type, they are likely to promote or reject the other. Furthermore, both strategies also correlate with the tendency towards Institutional Reconfessionalisation. This is unsurprising as all three types are confessional types and in varying degrees support Catholic identity.

The key relationship in the Melbourne Scale is the relationship between Recontextualisation and Christian Values Education.

For more on Christian Values Education and its inherent risks, refer to the following section, ‘The Risks of Christian Values Education’.

9

The Victoria-wide data for students show a generally fading enthusiasm for any type of Catholic school identity, be it Recontextualisation, Institutional Reconfessionalisation or Christian Values Education, both in primary and in secondary schools. (An exception is the mean score for Christian Values Education that remains steady in primary schools.)

10

The identity option that stirs most disagreement among students as well as adults is Institutional Reconfessionalisation. Among young and old, it has advocates as well as opponents and a significant minority in between who are not sure. Opposition is higher among the students than among the adults and this increases as the students move into adolescence. Overall, the student population expresses a clear desire for a Catholic identity approach that does not impose itself too strongly.

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The data show that a continued push for Institutional Reconfessionalisation by the adults may have an unexpected, undesirable and antagonising effect for a significant number of the students. It seems more and more likely that the future of Victorian Catholic schools does not lie with Institutional Reconfessionalisation.

Nevertheless, the tendency towards Institutional Reconfessionalisation – albeit under pressure – may continue to have heavy influence on the religious identity of some Catholic schools in Victoria.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

The Risks of Christian Values Education The school model that loses least support on the normative level is Christian Values Education. School staff and parents continue to believe in a Christian Values Education approach: it is strongly perceived in the current practice and the adult respondents wish for it to be even stronger. Many students also agree that Christian Values Education is an important trait of Catholic schools today and say they will keep supporting it in the future.

However, there are some risks involved in this strategy, in particular when the foundation of the Catholic Tradition is decreasing.

Christian Values Education can only be effective and justified when it is backed up by reasonably high levels of Confessionality, which are recognised and accepted by all involved. Remember, however, that adults in Victorian schools tend to over-estimate the level of remaining Confessionality in schools (among the students). Consequently, they mistakenly believe that Christian Values Education is working and could keep working in the future, and even that they are reconfessionalising the school’s Catholic identity through this approach.

At the same time, most of the students see the situation quite differently. In their view, the school’s confessional structures are fading. The time has passed when all students are willing and able to go along with Christian Values Education and its attempt to link their everyday experience to a pre-defined, self-evident belief structure. The link is often made too easily, too quickly, too superficially. Often, through the link itself, the Christian message or Catholic Tradition can be trivialised.

Remembering that the students’ general resistance to Secularisation is dropping significantly and their support for the other Catholic school types is declining, we ought to critique the way the students engage with Christian Values Education. By skipping over those elements of the Catholic Tradition that cannot be harmonised with the cultural context, Christian Values Education tends to be reductive of the Catholic message.

Although students appreciate and accept the values they learn, they fail to see how they are necessarily Catholic. Students eventually take the values home with them and simply leave the Catholic ‘packaging’ behind at school. In other words, without a religious (Catholic) narrative to underpin it Christian Values Education becomes a reductionist approach. Christian Values Education too easily becomes Values Education.

The Melbourne Scale results suggest that a prolonged use of Christian Values Education in a pluralising and detraditionalising cultural context is a high-risk endeavour. The more young people outgrow traditional Catholic structures, the less they are able to identify the Catholic dimension in what remains as Values Education. The more pressure there is on the Confessionality of schools, the more difficult it will be to correlate experience and faith.

With Confessionality under pressure, Christian Values Education becomes less effective and more predictable. The result of Christian Values Education is a ‘hollowed-out’ version of the Catholic faith; it risks becoming counter-productive as it may represent a slide into Institutional Secularisation.

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The Melbourne Scale results suggest that a prolonged use of Christian Values Education in a pluralising and detraditionalising cultural context is a high-risk endeavour. The more young people outgrow traditional Catholic structures, the less they are able to identify the Catholic dimension in what remains as Values Education. The more pressure there is on the Confessionality of schools, the more difficult it will be to correlate experience and faith.

With Confessionality under pressure, Christian Values Education becomes less effective and more predictable. The result of Christian Values Education is a ‘hollowed-out’ version of the Catholic faith; it risks becoming counter-productive as it may represent a slide into Institutional Secularisation.

MelbourneScale Scale – Sample Sets Sets Melbourne – Sample To assist reading interpretation theECSI ECSI Standard Sample SetsSets of graphs and To assist withwith the the reading andand interpretation ofofthe StandardReport, Report, Sample of graphs explanations are and explanations areprovided. provided. The Melbourne Scale Sample Set is approximated to represent tendencies pointing towards Recontextualisation. It is a guide for interpreting the Melbourne Scale.

Theprovides Melbourne Sample Set approximated to represent tendencies pointingoftowards This set theScale opportunity forisprincipals, leadership teams and members staff to deepen Recontextualisation. is a guide for interpreting thesample Melbourne This provides the opportunity their knowledge of their It ECSI Standard Report. The set Scale. should beset considered a guide only. for principals, leadership teams and members of staff to deepen their knowledge of their ECSI Standard The different typologies describe positions. individual will be at different positions on the Report. The sample set should extreme be considered a guideAn only. relevant diagram depending on the time, the issue at hand, etc. Schools, being composed of many individuals, will exhibit all possible to varying The different typologies describetypologies extreme positions.

An degrees. individual will be at different positions on the relevant diagram depending on the time, the issue at hand, etc. Schools, being composed of many individuals, will exhibit all possible typologies to varying degrees.

Figure 8: Melbourne Scale Sample Set Students (representing the theological normative)

Interpretation of theScale Scale Mean Percentage Graphs Figure 8: Melbourne Sample Setand Students (representing the theological normative) There is a debate going on among the students Interpretation of the Scale Mean and in relation to Confessionality, with 31.3% observing Percentage Graphs it, 38.2% not observing it and 30.5% unsure.

There is a debate going on among the students in Recontextualisation is clearly with observed is relation to Confessionality, 31.3%and observing it, preferred both the current ideal measures.

38.2%innot observing it andand 30.5% unsure.

Recontextualisation clearlysupport observedfrom and is Recontextualisation hasis some preferred in both the current and ideal Christian Values Education (CVE) and to measures. a lesser Recontextualisation has some support from Christian extent from Institutional Reconfessionalisation at Values Education (CVE) and to a lesser extent from the factual level.Reconfessionalisation Institutional Reconfessionalisation Institutional at the factual level. Institutional Reconfessionalisation is is decreasing at the ideal level, so too is support decreasing at the ideal too is support for for CVE. Importantly, CVElevel, is notsodisappearing, as it CVE. Importantly, CVE is not disappearing, as it still still has its perceived purpose. There is a significant has its perceived purpose. There is a significant relationship thatthat exists between Recontextualisation relationship exists between Recontextualisation and and CVECVE andand students preference studentsindicate indicateaastrong strong preference for more Recontextualisation and lessCVE CVE at at the for more Recontextualisation and less the (positive). It is important to note that a idealideal levellevel (positive).

It is important to note that debate is occurring at the ideal level in relation to a debate is occurring at the ideal level in relation Institutional Reconfessionalisation, with 32% to Institutional 32% indicating aReconfessionalisation, preference for it, 42.1% with against it and 25.9% auncommitted.

Secularisation is not strongly indicating preference for it, 42.1% against it and observed by these students and, pleasingly, there is 25.9% uncommitted.

Secularisation is not strongly diminishing support for it at the ideal level. observed by these students and, pleasingly, there is diminishing support for it at the ideal level.

Figure 9: Melbourne Scale sample set for adults representing the theological normative

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PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

Figure 9: Melbourne Scale sample set for adults representing the theological normative

Interpretation of the Scale Mean and Percentage Graphs In relation to the preferred a reasonable Interpretation of the position, Scale Mean and levelPercentage of Confessionality Graphsis observed by the adults.

At theto factual level, the adults arecognise In relation the preferred position, reasonable Recontextualisation and indicate a clear level of Confessionality is observed by the adults. At the factual theincrease adults recognise preference forlevel, this to in the ideal. At Recontextualisation and indicate a clear preference the factual level, Recontextualisation is seen for this to increase in the ideal. At the factual level, to be supported by Christian Values Education Recontextualisation is seen to be supported by (CVE) and Institutional Reconfessionalisation, Christian Values Education (CVE) and Institutional withReconfessionalisation, diminishing supportwith for CVE at the support ideal for diminishing CVE at the ideal level (4.15).

CVE is still being level (4.15). CVE is still being observed at the observed at the factual level, yet its support is factual level, yet its support is diminishing at diminishing at the ideal level where it is subject to the debate ideal level where it is(i.e. subject debate it, 32.7% among adults 42.3%to preferring among adults (i.e.

42.3% preferring rejecting it and 25% undecided). CVEit,is32.7% seen to be a less effective means to moving forward rejecting it and 25% undecided).

CVE is and seen therefore adults aremeans clearly to endorsing to be a less effective moving forward Recontextualisation as the vehicle to further develop and therefore adults are clearly endorsing their Catholic identity. In a positive way, Institutional Recontextualisation as the vehicleattoboth further Secularisation is clearly rejected factual and ideal levels. develop their Catholic identity. In a positive way, Institutional Secularisation is clearly rejected at both factual and ideal levels.

 

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The Victoria Scale The Victoria Scale explores a Catholic school’s pedagogical, moral and organisational choices concerning its Catholic identity and its solidarity or connectedness with otherness.

It is the combination of both identity and openness towards others that the Victoria Scale measures.

The Victoria Scale determines the identity profile of a certain school regarding its approach to faith education in a pluralising cultural context.

Find out more about how school make pedagogical choices by viewing the Victoria Scale video, available on the website of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV), under About Us / Projects / Enhancing Catholic School identity / Project Website / ECSIP Introduction.

Figure 10: The Victoria Scale diagram

Figure 18: Sample taken from Range Graph I’m afraid that I don’t have anything better! This is just a picture using the snipping tool

Overview of the Victoria Scale

The Victoria Scale is composed of four possibilities: the Monologue School and the Dialogue School are religious types, while the Colourful School and the Colourless School are both secular types.

The Monologue School (maximal Christian identity, minimal solidarity and openness to diversity) This is a traditional Catholic school led by Catholics for Catholics, putting strong focus on its religious identity. It has an emphasis on unity, security and pedagogical responsibility inside its own Catholic circle only. This school chooses to reject openness to and receptivity of other religions and life philosophies, which are considered to be untrue, undesirable and even threatening to the identity of the Monologue School. There is little solidarity with the non-Catholic outside world.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

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The Dialogue School (maximal Christian identity, maximal solidarity and openness to diversity) This is a Catholic school that places itself intentionally in the midst of cultural and religious plurality.

This school is steeped in the Catholic faith, while simultaneously taking seriously the pluralist world in which it exists.

The Dialogue School recognises a multiplicity of voices, views and perspectives and engages with them as contributors to dialogue. The school attends to its Catholic story and message in a conscious way, thereby setting the tone for the kind of dialogue that is to be preferred.

Receptivity and openness to what is different are a prerequisite to re-profiling the Catholic faith in the middle of a pluralising culture (Recontextualisation). In the midst of plurality, the search continues for what it means to be a Catholic school today.

The Colourful School (minimal Christian identity, maximal solidarity and openness to diversity) This is a secularising and pluralising school environment where people relate to each other in a social, engaged way in solidarity with one another. This school expends significant effort on genuine pedagogical responsibility. The internal plurality is taken seriously; there is an authentic desire to recognise the ‘otherness’ of fellow school members.

However, few students or staff members are still concerned about the school’s Catholic heritage.

Special attention towards Christianity, over and above other religions and life philosophies, is rejected. Such a move would be considered a hindrance to personal freedom and free interaction.

The Colourless School (minimal Christian identity, minimal solidarity and openness to diversity) This is a secularising and pluralising school environment where individuals are free of engagement with or obligations to one another. The school adopts a radically ‘neutral’ stand: philosophies of life or religions must never be imposed top-down; the school must never suggest what another person should or should not think or do.

Religion is a private matter: each individual makes up his/her own mind. Formation is a personal responsibility and not that of the school. There is little unity; people interact next to each other rather than with each other, doing so in a non-committed way. Formal tolerance risks ending up in indifference.

Interpreting the Victoria Scale In the Victoria Scale, the Dialogue School is the preferred position. Together with Post-Critical Belief and Recontextualisation, it best supports the strengthening of Catholic identity.

Indicative Scoring Range To assist schools to further deepen their understanding of their ECSI report, an indicative scoring range which could be considered as reflective of the ECSI preferred position for the Victoria Scale, has been provided in The Workbook.

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Insights for Consideration The following insights are based on aggregated data from Victorian schools:

1

Most students continue to prefer a Dialogue School environment, but their second choice – and rising in appreciation – is the Colourful School. As students grow older, the Colourful School receives even more support.

2

If the school leadership wishes to maintain a Catholic school identity, it would be advisable to keep a close eye on the emerging Colourful and Colourless School tendencies among the students.

3

While the Colourful School has some characteristics that are to be respected, from the perspective of strengthening Catholic school identity, the Colourful School is undesirable because it starts out from and is directed towards a position of minimal Christian identity.

4

The Colourful School typically ends in Colourlessness. It starts out celebrating everybody’s diversity but ends in celebrating nobody’s diversity, eventually resulting in a Colourless School model. According to the Colourless School pedagogy, a school should limit its responsibility only to teaching and refrain from moral or religious education of any kind.

5 6

The Colourless School identity is problematic in that it relegates Christian identity (and every identity) to the sidelines.

Despite its apparent attractiveness, its warmth and positive values, its solidarity, openness and readiness for dialogue, a Colourful School in principle does not support faithbased education of any kind. Instead, the Colourful School will opt for a ‘neutral’ and ‘relativistic’ stance, thereby ‘hollowing out’ Catholic school identity from the inside out.

7

A Catholic school is not only concerned with solidarity, with doing good things, but also with the motivation, inspiration, sources, etc. behind the practices that make them explicitly identifiable as Catholic. It is important, therefore, to distinguish the commitment to solidarity that comes from a Catholic conviction (Dialogue School), from solidarity that is a value on its own without being grounded in a believing option – such as the Colourful School.

8

While a Colourful School might appear to value diversity, it really does not; it is not capable of fully respecting the particularity of different traditions – both one’s own tradition and those of others. Students must learn that true dialogue respects the ‘otherness’ of the ‘other’ while simultaneously holding firm to its own particularity.

9

Some students may be attracted by the neutrality offered by the Colourless School model, this however is illusory. By ignoring the differences between different traditions, the Colourless School does not do justice to the very real diversity and plurality present in the world and this is neither respectful nor neutral.

10

School communities should become aware that the only model that adequately respects both the self and ‘the other’ is the Dialogue School, because it celebrates and accepts diversity while daring to hold onto its own particularity and Christian identity.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 2: THE THREE ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS

Victoria Scale – Sample Sets To assist with the reading and interpretation of the ECSI Standard Report, Sample Sets of graphs and explanations are provided. The Victoria Scale Sample Set is approximated to represent some tendencies representative of the Dialogue School. This sample set is a guide for interpreting the Victoria Scale. This set provides the opportunity for principals, leadership teams and members of staff to deepen their knowledge of their ECSI Standard Report.

The sample set should be considered a guideline only. Hopefully by the time you have read through this manual you will be in a better position to attain a balanced overall perspective in understanding the Catholic identity of your school. Remember, too, that the different typologies describe extreme positions. An individual will be at different positions on the relevant diagram depending on the time, the issue at hand, etc. Schools, being composed of many individuals, will exhibit all possible typologies to varying hand,degrees. etc. Schools, being composed of many individuals, will exhibit all possible typologies to varying degrees.

Figure 11: Victoria Scale sample set for students (representing the theological normative)

Figure 11: Victoria Scale sample set for students (representing the theological normative)

the Scale Mean and Interpretation Interpretation of the ScaleofMean and Percentage Graphs Percentage Graphs

The student graphs are quite similar to the adult

The student graphs arefrom quite similar to the adult graphs; graphs; this, one could confidently say that the Dialogue School type is clearly supported at a factual from this, one could confidently say that the Dialogue and ideal level by a strong majority of this school School type is clearly supported at a factual and ideal community. Small but significant differences level by a strong however, majorityinclude of thisstrong school community. observation of a Colourful School from a minority group ofinclude 4.5% of students, Small but significant differences however, strong with an increased preference (7.5%) at the ideal observation of a level.

Colourful from athere minority group AmongSchool other students, is a slight increase in resistance to the preference Colourful School type at of 4.5% of students, with an increased (7.5%) the ideal level (i.e. from 59.6% factual to 63.2% at the ideal level.ideal) Among other students, there is a slight There is a small sub-group among the students increase in resistance to thesupport Colourful SchoolSchool typetype; at the who strongly a Colourless however, as with the adults, Monologue and ideal level (i.e. from 59.6% factual to 63.2% ideal) There Colourless School types are increasingly rejected at is a small sub-group among the ideal level. the students who strongly support a Colourless School type; however, as with the adults, Monologue and Colourless School types are increasingly rejected at the ideal level.

Figure 12: Victoria Scale sample set for adults (representing the theological normative)

Figure 12: Victoria Scale sample set for adults (representing the theological normative)

the Scale Mean and Interpretation Interpretation of the ScaleofMean and Percentage Graphs Percentage Graphs

Staff and parents (i.e. adults) observe this school to

Staff and parentsbe(i.e. adults) observe school tofactual mainly a Dialogue schoolthis at the current level and, evenat more at the ideal level. Generally be mainly a Dialogue school theso,current factual Dialogue School type is the clear choice of the level and, even more so,ofatthethe ideal level.

Generally majority respondents (82.4% factual; 92.1% Thethe Monologue, Colourful Dialogue School ideal). type is clear choice of and the Colourless majority school types are all rejected. If anything, there is a of the respondents (82.4% factual; 92.1% ideal).

The slight increase in support for a Colourful School type Monologue, Colourful and level, Colourless school types arethe all at the ideal which is acceptable because Dialogue School type continues to be strongly rejected. If anything, there is a slight increase in support supported. Pleasingly, there is further rejection of for a Colourful School type at and theColourless ideal level, which the Monologue school typesis at the ideal the level.Dialogue School type continues acceptable because to be strongly supported. Pleasingly, there is further rejection of the Monologue and Colourless school types at the ideal level.

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PART 3

Structure of the Standard Report

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

PART 3: STRUCTURE OF THE STANDARD REPORT

The following sections A–E reflect the structure of the ECSI Standard Report for your school.

A: Evaluation of the Research Sample When you read and interpret the survey results, it is essential that you understand the size of each respondent group. Figures 12–14 below make it clear who and how many have responded to the survey questions in a valid way.

School Respondent Groups – Adults and Students Each respondent ‘belongs’ to a particular group according to their place and role in the school.

Figure 13: All respondent groups

Single respondent groups in school contexts

General description

Primary school students, Years 5–6

Students 10–11 years old

Secondary college students, Years 7–8

Students 12–13 years old

Secondary college students, Years 9–10

Students 14–15 years old

Secondary college students, Years 11–12

Students 16–18 years old

School staff

Adults involved in teaching as well as those who attend to all other school matters

School leadership (including Canonical Administrators)

Adults involved in setting the policy and strategic direction of the school, as well as those who govern the school

Parents

Parents and guardians of students (only one per family to complete the survey)

NB: Single respondent groups are at times combined so that the profile of a larger group of people can be represented (e.g. parents and staff become the ‘adult’ group). Also, whenever the single group (less than 30) is too small to be truly representative, the combined respondent group provides a practical sample size.

Survey Participation Those assigned with the task of managing the ECSI survey round for the school are encouraged to aim for the highest possible survey participation rates and to ensure that these rates are maintained through all five parts of the survey; avoid a ‘drop off’ in the Victoria or Melbourne Scales for example, as can be seen in Figure 14. This avoidance of the ‘drop-off’ may be achieved by asking respondents to complete the survey in one extended sitting (e.g. a staff or parent meeting) or for students especially, by completing the survey over two or more sittings.

A successful completion rate of one hundred per cent is desirable as there is no doubt that such results are fully representative. However, one hundred per cent completion rates are not often easily attained; this is especially true for the parent group.

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A successful completion rate of one hundred per cent is desirable as there is no doubt that such results are fully representative. However, one hundred per cent completion rates are not often easily attained; this is especially true for the parent group.

With the proviso that a randomised survey sample successfully completes the survey, a sample as low as 20% of the group may provide representative data.

Withreliability the proviso a randomised surveyhowever, sample successfully the survey, sample as The of that the data is weakened, when only acompletes small percentage ofarespondents low as 20% of the group may provide representative data. successfully complete the survey. Small samples (less than 20%) are neither stable nor representative of the results are considered only, even when a randomised sample of the Thebroader reliabilitygroup of the and datasuch is weakened, however, whenindicative only a small percentage of respondents successfully complete the survey.

Small samples (less than 20%) are neither stable nor representative group successfully completes the survey. of the broader group and such results are considered indicative only, even when a randomised sample schools of the group successfully the are survey.

Smaller should note that,completes when there fewer than 30 respondents, raw numbers rather than

percentages are used to represent the data in the graph results.

Smaller schools should note that, when there are fewer than 30 respondents, raw numbers rather than percentages are used to represent the data in the graph results.

Figures 14 and 15 below show the two ways in which participation numbers are represented in the Figures 14Report. and 15 below show the two ways in which participation numbers are represented in the Standard Standard Report.

Figure 14: Survey participation in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the population.

Figure 14: Survey participation in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the population.

Figure numbers relative the population size of the research.

Figure 15: 15: Participant Participant numbers relative to theto population size at the timeatofthe the time research.

NB:InInthis this example, example, school have been combined andand labelled school staff.staff.

NB: school staff staffand andschool schoolleadership leadership have been combined labelled school

Identity and Diversity among School Members B:

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In addition to an evaluation of the research sample (Section A) it is helpful to have a clear understanding of the diversity inherent in the school and among those who complete the survey.

The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

Diversity of Religions and Philosophies of Life

PART 3: STRUCTURE OF THE STANDARD REPORT

B: Identity and Diversity among School Members In addition to an evaluation of the research sample (Section A) it is helpful to have a clear understanding of the diversity inherent in the school and among those who complete the survey.

Diversity of Religions and Philosophies of Life The first of the identity and diversity options deal with religious or other-than-religious life choices.

Survey respondents are asked to self-identify based on the four options below. Knowing not only who and how many but also the diversity of the survey respondents is a necessary step in preparing to read and interpret the survey results.

Survey participants who self-identify as ‘Catholic’ (black): For example, various Roman-Rite or Eastern-Rite Catholic denominations.

People who self-identify as ‘Christian’, but who are not Catholic (dark grey): For example, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Evangelical, Churches of Christ, Pentecostal. People who consider themselves ‘Christian believers’ without belonging to a particular church or denomination belong to this category as well.

People who are religious, but not Christian or Catholic (middle grey): For example, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Baha’i, Taoism. People who consider themselves otherwise ‘religious’ or believing in a transcendent reality without identifying with the Christian or Catholic faith belong to this category as well.

People whose philosophy of life is not religious in nature (light grey): For example, atheism, humanism, agnosticism, Wicca, New Age, ‘something-ism’, ‘spiritual but not religious’, indifferent, nihilistic, sports, evolution, science, ‘being kind’, ‘just living a good life’, ‘I don’t know’, ‘I never thought about it’.

Figure16: 16:Diversity Diversity of identity by religious or life philosophy Figure of identity shownshown by religious or life philosophy

Country of Origin The first of the identity and diversity options deals with the respondent’s country of origin.

Figure 17: Diversity of identity shown by country of origin.

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Country CountryofofOrigin Origin The ofthe theidentity identity and diversity options deals the respondent’s country of origin.

The first first of and diversity options deals withwith the respondent’s country of origin.

Figure 17:Diversity Diversity of identity shown by country Figure 17: of identity shown by country of origin.of origin.

The table above shows the main ethnic/cultural backgrounds of the students and the school staff.

The table above shows the main ethnic/cultural backgrounds of the students and the school staff. It It provides an indication of the cultural diversity that exists among these two cohorts in the school. provides an indication of the cultural diversity that exists among these two cohorts in the school. In the In the Standard Report, this same information is also represented on a world map, not shown here.

Standard Report, this same information is also represented on a world map, not shown here.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

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PART 3: STRUCTURE OF THE STANDARD REPORT

C: Personal Identity and School Identity According to Students and School Staff Whereas the previous section described the theory underpinning the research and its findings, this next section deals with the data sets as they pertain to the three ECSI Scales.

Overview of Personal and School Identity Data – Current Survey Round Students (C.1) & Staff (C.3) The student overview (C.1) includes two rows of graphs. The PCB, Melbourne and Victoria Scales are each represented by the Scale Mean – Column Graphs in the top row and by the Percentage – Traffic-light Graphs in the bottom row (see pp. 11–12 for an Explanation of these graph types).

As noted elsewhere, it is important when reading ECSI data to read the three scales together.

Here, the side-by-side placement of the graphs for each of the three Scales allows for easy reading, interpretation and comparison.

In addition to the Scale Mean and Percentage Graphs, the school staff overview (C.3), includes a third row of data, the Disaggregated Scale Means. Here the responses of all survey respondents are disaggregated in order to assist further analysis.

Range Overview of Personal and School Identity – Current and Previous Survey Round Students (C.2) & Staff (C.4) The purpose of the Range Graphs is to represent data-over-time, comparing the results of the current survey round with the results of the previous survey round. Your school’s own data and the changes that have occurred over time may be helpful in assessing those strategies that you have used to enhance the Catholic identity of your school.

Figure 18: Sample taken from Range Graph Dots (black, most recent survey) and triangles (grey, survey before the most recent one) are your school’s own data while the box-andwhisker graphs represent the wider diocesan primary or secondary data (since 2011) aggregated and respective to your school type.

I’m afraid that I don’t have anything better! This is just a picture using the snipping tool Figure 18: Sample taken from Range Graph

It Is best to avoid being distracted by comparisons between your school data and that represented in the box and whisker. This may be interesting but it’s not always helpful!

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D: Subpopulations Among Students and School Staff Subpopulations among the Students (D.1) & Staff (D.2)and School Staff D: Subpopulations Among Students The subpopulations are a recent inclusion in the Standard Report and do not appear in reports compiled

Subpopulations among the Students (D.1) & Staff (D.2) prior to 2016.

The subpopulations are a recent inclusion in the Standard Report and do not appear in reports compiled prior to 2016.

The subpopulations for your school are displayed in two ways: on the left as a pie graph, and overlaid on the Melbourne Scale diagram on the right.

The subpopulations for your school are displayed in two ways: on the left as a pie graph, and overlaid on the Melbourne Scale diagram on the right.

Figure 19: Sample Subpopulations diagram Figure 19: Sample Subpopulations diagram

The relative distributions (percentages) shown for the four subgroups (Secularising, Reconfessionalising, Recontextualising and Christian Values Education) are derived from responses to a wide range of questions from across the survey. They should not be read as results of the Melbourne Scale questions.

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The background arrows indicate tendencies within the subgroups, showing common shifts from one subgroup into another. Respondents in Reconfessionalisation, Recontextualisation and Secularisation tend to go further into those subgroups, while those in Christian Values Education tend to shift to either Reconfessionalisation or Secularisation. The challenge for schools is to support the shift into The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic Recontextualisation.

School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

These tendencies have been identified in the extensive survey data gathered to date.

PART 3: STRUCTURE OF THE STANDARD REPORT

The relative distributions (percentages) shown for the four subgroups (Secularising, Reconfessionalising, Recontextualising and Christian Values Education) are derived from responses to a wide range of questions from across the survey. They should not be read as results of the Melbourne Scale questions.

The background arrows indicate tendencies within the subgroups, showing common shifts from one subgroup into another. Respondents in Reconfessionalisation, Recontextualisation and Secularisation tend to go further into those subgroups, while those in Christian Values Education tend to shift to either Reconfessionalisation or Secularisation. The challenge for schools is to support the shift into Recontextualisation.

These tendencies have been identified in the extensive survey data gathered to date.

The table in the middle of the page disaggregates the subpopulation data and, in a different way, again compares the current survey round with the previous survey round. The pie graphs in the table will represent diocesan primary or secondary school data since 2011, depending on which data are relevant to your school.

The ideal is for Recontextualisation to be the largest subgroup.

The Subpopulations data is helpful in a number of ways: 1. Comparisons between the current survey and the school’s previous survey are found in the table in the middle of the page.

2. Comparing past and present scores among the various respondent groups indicates change over time.

3. Subpopulations provide a glimpse of the current reality and are read in conjunction with the detailed data available in Sections C.1–C.4.

4. Examining which subgroups have decreased and which have increased provides information about the changes in attitude regarding Catholic school identity that have been taking place in the recent past and may help determine the direction the school could take in the future.

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E: Features of Catholic Education This graph represents the degree to which the students and adults (staff and parents) in the school would like to see more or less of the eleven selected features of Catholic schooling. The middle position is E: Features of Catholic Education ‘Okay’; bars to the right indicate a desire or openness to develop the feature further while bars extending to thegraph left indicate that wantthe lessstudents of this feature in their This represents therespondents degree to which and adults (staffschool. and parents) in the school would like to see more or less of the eleven selected features of Catholic schooling. The middle

When analysing of Catholic school leadership might consider whatwhile it is about a position is ‘Okay’;these bars features to the right indicate aeducation, desire or openness to develop the feature further given feature that makes it more that or less desirable want to particular cohorts of in respondents. bars extending to the left indicate respondents less of this feature their school. In this way, a desire for ‘less’ of any one feature might prompt a review that looks at different ways of communicating When analysing these features of Catholic education, school leadership might consider what it is all that is particular to the Catholic faith, while promoting relevance, plausibility and meaningfulness for about a given feature that makes it more or less desirable to particular cohorts of respondents. In all thislearners. way, a desire for ‘less’ of any one feature might prompt a review that looks at different ways of communicating all that is particular to the Catholic faith, while promoting relevance, plausibility and

Ameaningfulness note of caution: levels of support for features such as ‘involvement in social justice projects’, for high all learners. ‘openness to diversity’ and ‘ecological awareness’ may represent a more ethically orientated or universal A note of rather caution: higha levels of support for features suchWhile as ‘involvement social justice projects’, position, than specifically Catholic preference. importantinaspects of what it means to be a ‘openness to diversity’ and ‘ecological awareness’ may represent a more ethically orientated or typical Catholic school, these three features may at times reflect a more secular, Colourful School universal position, rather than a specifically Catholic preference. While important aspects of what tendency. Positive responses to ‘religious education and formation of students’, ‘celebrating faith it means to be a typical Catholic school, these three features may at times reflect a more secular, together’, ‘prayertendency. at school’Positive and ‘using the Scriptures at school’, however, may point to a position that Colourful School responses to ‘religious education and formation of students’, counters possible secularising tendencies. ‘celebrating faith together’, ‘prayer at school’ and ‘using the Scriptures at school’, however, may point to a position that counters possible secularising tendencies.

It is important that the Features of the Catholic School be read in conjunction with the data represented in It is important Sections C andthat D. the Features of the Catholic School be read in conjunction with the data represented in Sections C and D.

Figure 20:Features Featuresofof Catholic school Figure 20: thethe Catholic school

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School

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PART 3: STRUCTURE OF THE STANDARD REPORT

The following of of personal positions concerning fourfour characteristics.

More will will be The followingtable tablereflects reflectsthe theresults results personal positions concerning characteristics.

More be gained from analysis data comparing it withthe theeleven elevencharacteristics characteristicsof ofthe the Catholic Catholic school, gained from an an analysis of of thisthis data byby comparing it with school, as in Figure 20 above. as in Figure 18 above.

Both Church Praxis and and Personal Personal Prayer Prayer Life (personal) practice andand are rich Both Church Praxis Life refer referspecifically specificallytotoindividual individual (personal) practice are rich sources for dialogue. sources for dialogue.

Look for for significant significant percentages Look percentages in in green greenand and red, red,and and what whatthey theycould couldmean meanininthe thecontext contextofof your school. your school.

A strong prayer life is foundational to a strengthened Catholic identity.

A strong prayer life is foundational to a strengthened Catholic identity.

Figure 21: reflecting four four religious practices Figure 21:Personal Personalpositions positions reflecting religious practices

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Boeve, L 2002, Interrupting Tradition: An Essay on Christian Faith in a Postmodern Context, Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs 30, Peeters, Leuven.

D’Orsa, J & D’Orsa, T 2010, Explorers, Guides and Meaning Makers: Mission Theology for Catholic Educators, John Garratt Publishing, Melbourne.

Francis (Pope) 2013, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).

Hutsebaut, D 1996, ‘Post-Critical Belief a New Approach to the Religious Attitude Problem’, Journal of Empirical Theology, 9 (2), 48–66.

O’Loughlin, F 2012, This Time of the Church, Garratt Publishing, Mulgrave.

Pollefeyt D & Bouwens, J 2014, Identity in Dialogue: Assessing and enhancing Catholic school identity. Research methodology and research results in Catholic schools in Victoria, Australia, Christian Religious Education and School Identity 1, LIT-Verlag, Berlin.

Ricoeur, P 1967, The Symbolism of Evil, trans. Emerson Buchanan, Beacon, Boston.

Second Vatican Council 1965, Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions).

Wulff, DM 1991, Psychology of religion: Classic and contemporary views, Wiley, New York.

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The Guide to Reading and Interpreting the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Standard Report of Your School