... 1v 4mm}. . . ‘ . ‘ .s.>.u....w.ru.1 i . . , ‘ . w.“ 2%,. . . ”um? lo . v v... . D4 4 in H .. ,7 P .. fimfifim, , mfiammv 1.... 1.3% , 5.9.2.. . , ,. ‘ uh ‘. were . l . ,h firgfiimfi . .2 .99.: rd... i.) Hagan. A... c§vllu18 {1!}..va .11 w! .Iu“.( .‘vt‘uvax .»v\..~ .1...‘ 41“}. 2.01.»..21 iv...vi.r. t that n 4. ; ‘ PM. 2.3.1.4. .. .L‘ I .10; , .nl. ‘ 1 . ._ V .¢.....:.u.ll .Y .. . y: . A \‘ V .. ., .. :93?! l}. .7. 9... ¢.. ‘3 5.3 n L0“ \ IV ._; IQHKTQCfi Mrcnlgan State University This is to certify that the dissertation entitled A STUDY TO EXAMINE CATHOLIC CULTURAL IDENTITY: THE VOICES OF 4TH/5TH GRADE STUDENTS presented by MICHAEL G . MARSHALL has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph . D . . EDUCATIONAL ADMINI STRATION degree in ’ém Ma jor’professor Date m MS U i: an Affirmative Action/[q ual Opportunity Institution 0- 12771 PLACE IN RETURN Box to remove this checkout from your record. TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due. MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE F8270 %1082% 6I01 c-quncmuoompes-ms A STUD! TO EXAM!!! CATHOLIC CULTURAL IDBITIII: In! VOICES 0? 413/513 GRADE STUDIIIS By Michael G. Marshall A DISSERTATIOU Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Educational Administration 2001 ABSTRACT A STUDY TO EXAMINE THE CATHOLIC IDENTITY OF THE 4TH/5TH GRADE STUDENT BY Michael G. Marshall The purpose of this study was to explore what particular features of a Catholic school experience enhanced the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. This study is a phenomenological ethnography using a constructivist approach. The population of this study included a purposeful sampling of 4th/5th grade students, their families, and 4th/5th grade teachers from four urban Catholic elementary schools. The decision to use 4th/5th grade students was initially prompted by the fact that a Catholic youth between the ages of 10 and 12 has been included in two key events in the Roman Catholic Church sacramental program involving both the home and the school. Another deciding factor was the stage-development analytical lenses of the theorists used to begin the study: Fowler's (1981) faith development, Kohlberg's (1969) moral development, and Egan's (1979) educational development. Each uses a stage-like development style similar to work done by Piaget and Erikson. Queries about the universality of adolescent and adult stage development work of both Kohlberg and Fowler were taken into consideration. Since this study was concerned with the early stages of faith and moral development, these queries were not seen as affecting this exploration. Data for this study was gathered through face-to-face taped interviews with the selected students (3), their parents (1), and 4th/5th grade teachers (1) from the four Catholic elementary schools. Included in each of the student interviews were a series of moral dilemmas. At the end of the first student interview, the student was given a disposable camera with instructions for taking pictures of persons, places or things that defines, for them, things that are Catholic. These pictures were titled and captioned during the second student interview. Instruction in religious truths and practices and its integration into the totality of the lives of the students are integral to Catholic schools and are what distinguishes them from.other schools. There is a crucial need for Catholic school teachers and Catholic school leadership to understand what is meant by Catholic cultural identity. For Catholic families, if they expect the Catholic school experience to enhance the faith-based Catholic cultural identity initiated in the home, there's no guarantee that it will happen. This study, from the voices of the students, found the Catholic school experience lacking in its ability to enhance the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. Copyright by MICHAEL GERARD MARSHALL 2001 DEDICATION To my parents, my first teachers Frank Marshall Rita M. Marshall (in memoriam) and To my professional inspiration Sister Marcella Houdek, HM celebrating over 50 years in religious service to God and community ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My companions on this journey... ‘0 ‘oe ku'u kumu punahele, kumu Maenette. Kaulana kou mana'o ma ko'u pu'uwai. Mahalo nui loa no kou kokua. Maenette K. P. Benham, Chair of both my Guidance and Dissertation Committees, advocate, friend Paul Gualtieri, strength for the journey, friend Dan Marshall, brother, mentor, friend Joan Marshall Florig, sister, soulmate, friend Francesco J. Marshall, brother, companion, friend and the network of friends and colleagues who provided additional love and support. Thank You vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Symbols and Abbreviations.. ..... . ...... .............x Chapter 1: Introduction.......... ..... ......................1 Purpose........................... ......... .................5 Significance and Need................... ...... ..............5 Context and Background........... ..... ......................9 Summary....................................................21 Delimitations of the Study... ..... .........................24 Assumptions................................................24 Conceptual Framework......... ...... ........................27 Conceptual Framework Mode1........................ ....... ..37 Research Questions..................... ...... . ..... ........39 Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature....................4O Historical Perspective/Context.............................41 Research and Inquiry about Student's Catholic Identity.....62 Faith Development..........................................65 Moral Development..........................................70 Educational Development....................................73 Summary....................................................75 Chapter 3: Methodology... ...... .......... ............... ...78 Rationale and Approach.....................................78 Population and Sample......................................81 Data Collection Tools......................................82 Data Analysis..............................................88 verification of the Findings...............................91 Use of Tables and Figures..................................91 Confidential and Ethical Concerns..........................92 Limitations of the Study...................................93 Chapter 4: Presentation of the Findings....................93 Catholic Cultural Identity in the Home.....................95 The Teacher as Catholic Cultural Identity Carrier.........124 Moral Dilemmas............................................133 Chapter 5 : camel-“Sic“ O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 147 Theoretical Implications O O O O O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 154 Implications for the Catholic School Teacher..............155 Implications for Parental and Family Support..............160 Implications for SChml POI-icy O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 162 Further StudYOOOOOO...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...OOOOOOO ........ 0.169 ”mm A: Student PIOtwOI O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O ........... O O O O 172 Appendix B: Family/Guardian Protocol ...... ..... ........ ...181 Apmndix c : TeaCher PrOtxOI O O C O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 1 84 Appendix D: Letters of Introduction, Invitation and consentOO...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.. ....... 188 vii Appendix E: Human Subjects Form..... ............... .......195 Appendix F: Dissertation Timeline...... ................. ..196 References..... .............. .... ......................... 197 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1...................................Theorists' Matrix ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1.......................Students' Cultural Portraits Figure 4.2................Student Stage Development Placement LIST OF SYMBOLS OR ABBREVIATIONS NCCB..................National Conference of Catholic Bishops NCEA................National Catholic Educational Association ERL..............................Electronic Reference Library ERIC..............Educational Research Information Collection ICEL............Institute for Catholic Educational Leadership CCE.......................Congregation for Catholic Education xi Chapter 1: Introduction From the first moment that a student sets foot in a Catholic school, he or she ought to have the impression of entering a new environment, one illuminated by the light of faith and having its own unique characteristics, an environment permeated with the gospel spirit of love and freedom. (Congregation for Catholic Education, 1988, p. 3) A Catholic school will not remain Catholic for long without attention to its identity. A Catholic school without an identity does not become neutral: it comes under the influence of the current community ideology or nationalism or secularism or faddism. Its mind and its heart then become those of a different community. Today more than ever before, unless a particular Catholic school is considering the principles that give it its Catholic identity and is trying to live by them, it does not deserve to stay in existence. (Buetow, 1988, p. 310) The concept of Catholic cultural identity being the result of Catholic school attendance is what differentiates the Catholic school from the neighborhood public school. Being a part of a living community of faith, a community with its own distinctive rituals and structures, and its own patterns of individual and collective life, makes the Catholic school experience synonymous with Catholic cultural identity development. Distinctive practices, structures, attitudes, and ideas that increasingly have come to mark Catholic cultural identity, is what connects the individual, through the Catholic school experience, to a community or countless other believers who have experienced a long and complex history reaching back over two thousand years. Capturing the essence of a Catholic school means being able to define and identify the signs which mark the school as Catholic. It means being able to describe and see in practice the Catholic identity of the school and, most of all, understanding the deep underlying significance of those practices. It means being able to explain and demonstrate a living answer to the question: ”How is this school Catholic?" (Ford, 1998, p. vii) The answer to the question that Ford poses, “How is this school Catholic?" is implicit in the mission and philosophy of a Catholic school and is often employed by school administrators as an integral tool in the recruitment of new students. Its mission, which implicitly captures the essence of Catholic schooling, is transmitted to parents, diocesan and Catholic community leaders, and the general public. For example, the mission statement of one local Catholic school reads: We, as members of the Saint Pius Parish Community, are called by God to practice our faith and share our love for one another through the sacraments and celebration of the Holy Eucharist. As followers and disciples of Jesus Christ, it is our vision to live the word of God by promoting peace and justice, serving the needs of our community, educating our youth and adults in the ways of our faith, and joining with them in worship and prayer. (Parent/Student handbook, p. 2) In this particular mission statement, Catholic schooling means that those who enter this Catholic school, whether adult or child, will experience an atmosphere created and maintained by adherence to a Catholic culture. Such a culture includes specific, positive ideas relevant to gospel values, the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the nurturance of community. The dimensions of Christianity are integrated throughout the curriculum not only to support the mission of the school, but also to support the mission of the family; the earliest and most persistent influence on the child's life. The staff of a Catholic school provides an arena of subsequent experiences, behaviors, value judgments, and life decisions that will mirror the early foundations established by the family. As expressed in the mission statement, the Catholic school enters into a solemn agreement-~a covenant-- with the family. Generally, the consensus of Catholic school research asserts that since the late nineteenth century the Catholic school has played an important part in creating, nurturing, and sustaining Catholic cultural identity. That is, being in a Catholic school is a visibly different experience than being in a public school, however, over the years that visible difference has changed. When I first started my formal school experience in a Catholic elementary school, the sister-teachers were dressed in religious garb called habits that covered everything but their faces and hands. Religious pictures and statuary were visible in every classroom and hallway. The American flag displayed in classrooms was the only apparent similarity between the public school and my Catholic school. As a child, I was comfortable with the Catholic school environment because my home also had similar Catholic artifacts. As a youth growing up in a Catholic household in the 19508 and 19603, I knew, without looking at a calendar, the beginning of school was near when the priest's Sunday homily was about Catholic children attending a Catholic school. This message was directed to the parents of all school-aged children. There seemed to be serious question concerning the faith-lives of any Catholic parents who chose not to send their child(ren) to the parish Catholic elementary school or the local Catholic high school. For as long as I can remember, as a student in Catholic schools, as a teacher in Catholic elementary schools, and, finally, as an administrator in Catholic elementary schools, the marketing of Catholic schools has been aimed at adults; parents, grandparents or guardians responsible for the religious upbringing of children or grandchildren. There is a need to hear more from the children as to how they feel about and understand their Catholic school experience and how it relates to their Catholic cultural identity. Feedback from the children would better inform the adults as to what it is that Catholic schooling is doing well, and what it might be lacking in Catholic cultural identity formation. Coupled with existing information and research, marketing the Catholic cultural identity of the Catholic school, which would now include information gathered from the students themselves, would be more accurate. The purpose of this study is to explore what particular features of a Catholic school experience enhanced the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. Given this criteria, the proposed research question is: How does faith and moral and cultural identity interact to frame a Catholic cultural identity, in particular, among 4th/Sth grade students in an urban Catholic elementary school? Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore what features of the Catholic school experience enhance the Catholic cultural identity of 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. In the rich complex tradition of Catholicism, emphasis will be placed on those distinctive practices, structures, attitudes, and ideas that increasingly mark Catholic identity. In order to determine the degree to which the Catholic school experience enhances the Catholic cultural identity of such students, this research will also look at family and peer influence. Additionally, a broad variety of literature has been reviewed to assist the researcher to make assessments. Included in this literature is historical information about Catholic education (pre and post Second Vatican Council), and faith and moral development. Significance and Need What exactly is ”Catholic Cultural Identity" and how does the Catholic school experience build this Catholic cultural identity? Both in America and in Rome, The Catholic Church has defined Catholic cultural identity in a variety of pastoral documents (See: National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), 1972: To Teach Ag Jesus pig). Catholic education is an expression of the mission entrusted by Jesus to the Church He founded. Through education the Church seeks to prepare its members to proclaim the Good News and to Translate this proclamation into action. Since the Christian vocation is a call to transform oneself and society with God's help, the educational efforts of the Church must encompass the twin purposes of personal sanctification and social reform in light of Christian values. (p. 3) Thus one crucial measure of the success or failure of the educational ministry is how well it enables humanity to hear the message of hope contained in the Gospel, to base their love and service of God upon this message, to achieve a vital personal relationship with Christ, and to share the Gospel's realistic view of the human condition which recognizes the fact of evil and personal sin while affirming hope. (p. 3) Dr. Robert J. Kealey, executive director of the Department of Elementary Schools of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), provides a more user friendly definition in a January, 1996 Mbmentum article. The Catholic identity of or Catholic schools resides in the people who compose the school community. If the administrators, clergy, faculty, staff, students, parents, and parishioners manifest the presence of Jesus within themselves, then a truly vibrant Catholic school community exists. As teachers we acknowledge that Jesus resides within us and we reflect to our students this presence of Jesus on earth. Our students come to know Jesus because we manifest Him. At the same time, we see in our students and all others the presence of Jesus. By baptism we became children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ. The living out of the true meaning of these words makes our schools Catholic. (p. 10) Making sense of these definitions of Catholic cultural identity requires a constant and consistent attempt at personalizing them and determining how to live from Catholic doctrine, messages, and teachings on daily life. In 1972, the NCCB issued a pastoral document entitled IQ_ Teach Ag Jesus Di . This was the first post-Vatican II document to specifically address the educational ministry of 6 the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. This pastoral document defined the educational mission of the Church as three-fold and interlocking:"...the message revealed by God (didache) which the church proclaims; fellowship in the life of the Holy Spirit (koinonia); and service to the Christian community and the entire human community (diakonia)" (p. 4, #14). This document, a message from the bishops, reminded parish catechists and teachers that children go to Catholic schools in order to learn how to live according to the divine model, Jesus Christ. Hence, Catholic school principals have been challenged to develop and maintain Catholic cultural identity in their buildings (Ristau and Haney, Eds., 1997, he_ he Teach ehd L§§£B= Beeeghizihg 9h; Catholie Idehtihy). Likewise, Catholic school teachers have been trained to develop moral/religious teachings within their classrooms (Shimabukuro, 1998, A Call ho Reflectieh: A Ieecheg'e egige he Catholic Igehhihy fee the 215; Cehthgy). In essence, what occurs in Catholic schools are studies and tasks that are sacred because of their humanizing potential. According to Church doctrine, when studies humanize they divinize. Children go to a Catholic school to learn to live according to the divine model, Jesus Christ. This message, born of the spirit of Vatican II, was to bring Catholic schools into the let century yet maintain the pastoral commitments of Catholic doctrine: “The vitality and firm purpose generated by the 1972 bishops' pastoral continues to animate and guide Catholic education today" (McDermott, 1997, Momentum, p. 63). In 1991, the NCEA convened a National Congress on Catholic schools in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the Congress was to initiate conversations that would shift the focus of Catholic identity development from the rituals and Observances of Latin Masses and fish on Fridays toward an approach that sought to infuse gospel values into curriculum and instruction. The outcome of these conversations would result in a set of strategies for Catholic education and encourage the expansion of Catholic schools across the United States. It would strengthen the networking between national strategies and local action. The purpose of the Congress can be described in terms of three broad goals. To communicate the story of academic and religious effectiveness of Catholic schools to a national audience that includes the whole Catholic community, as well as the broader social and potential community. To celebrate the success of Catholic schools in the United States and broaden support for the continuation and expansion of Catholic schooling in the future. To convene an assembly of key leaders in Catholic schooling as well as appropriate representatives of researchers, business and public officials in order to create strategies for the future of the schools. These strategies address five themes: The Catholic Identity of Catholic Schools; Leadership of and on Behalf of Catholic Schools; The Catholic School and Society; Catholic School Governance and Finance; and Political Action, Public Policy and Catholic schools. (NCEA, 1991, p. 1) Critical to the development of the Catholic school system has been the understanding of the goals and purposes of the Catholic school by adult leaders and teachers. While it is reasonable to say that the market is an adult population, I wonder if what is marketed in Catholic elementary education is in actuality being realized by the students. The intent of this research, then, is to encourage the sharing of information and insights into how the features 8 of a Catholic school, the actions and symbols which mark the school as Catholic, are perceived by its students. How do they see the Catholic school experience contributing to their Catholic cultural identity? What factors/indicators within the purview of the Catholic school experience enhances their Catholic cultural identity? I hope to begin to address these questions by exploring the Catholic school experience of 4th/5th grade students in four urban Catholic elementary schools in the state of Michigan. Context and Background Prior to Vatican II, most Catholic elementary schools were staffed by religious sister-teachers working for less than minimum wage whose presence provided both sign and symbol of the Catholic cultural identity of the school. Because of the presence of the sister-teachers, the continuation of the religious education, which was begun in the home, was taken for granted and rarely questioned. The exodus of many of these same religious women after Vatican II financially crippled Catholic education. The sister-teachers were replaced by laity who needed to be paid a just wage. As a result of the ”lay" element, the extension of Catholic education between home and school became ambiguous (Dolan, 1992). Due to this shift in religious teaching coupled with other factors that included charging a nominal fee for instruction, Catholic education soon began to flounder. With parish congregations shrinking, some parishes found it difficult to remain fiscally responsible for the parish 9 school, especially when tuition collection and related school fees were unable to cover the anticipated budget costs. Families still provided the initial religious education in the home and most parishes were now offering weekly religious education programs for children not attending Catholic school. With the chasm between Catholic education and non- Catholic education becoming less and less evident, the original purpose for the parish school seemed to become less important. As Catholic schools approached the new millennium, the Congregation for Catholic Education (CCE) issued a document which focused on the strength of the Catholic cultural identity of the Catholic school. The complexity of the modern world makes it all the more necessary to increase awareness of the ecclesial identity of the Catholic school. It is from its Catholic identity that the school derives its original characteristics and its ‘structure' as a genuine instrument of the Church, a place of real and specific pastoral ministry. The Catholic school participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out. (#11, 1997, p. 41) The presence of a Catholic cultural identity, a recurring theme in other Church documents on education, is identified by three topics: (a) the integration throughout the curriculum of religious truth and values with the lives and cultures of the students; (b) the promotion of the spiritual and religious formation and transformation of students; and (c) the instilling of an appreciation for Christian service in students. The NCEA, the only national Catholic organization for 10 educators, has recently published two pieces on Catholic identity. The first entitled, As we Teech ene Leagn: Reeeghizihg 0n; Cetholie Identity (1997), assesses the Catholicity of the school. The document consists of a program comprised of an assessment and six study modules presented to and implemented by school teams over a one-year period. Additionally, each module includes its own action plan and evaluation forms to be used by school teams implementing the program. These forms help teams to outline their objectives and tasks, and assess their progress over time. The program has been designed to be used in a variety of ways, following a timeline chosen by the participants. It is intended to help the faculty celebrate the already visible signs of Catholicity and actively create within the fabric of the school an even deeper commitment to the lived tradition of the Gospel. (Ristau and Haney, 1997, p. viii) After completing the assessment of the overall program, the school team would decide which module(s) of the scope and sequence fit their particular school need(s). Specific study modules are designed for each of the six characteristics examined in the assessment. Areas addressed in the assessment which appear to be areas of strength would be supported by listing the activities, behaviors, and events which clearly show successful classroom and schoolawide implementation. Throughout the school year during regular staff meetings, continued discussion would cite specific ways to maintain these areas of strength while increasing an awareness of them within the various school ”publics." The assessment of the overall school program would also surface areas of challenge which would then be addressed at regular staff meetings. The 11 school team is responsible for classroom and schoolawide implementation and would begin to address these areas of challenge by listing the activities, the events, and the behaviors which would exemplify these areas. The school team would then draw up a plan of action for the desired outcomes. gethelic Educetien: A Joughel of Inghigy end Preetice (March, 1999) published an article describing a new program specifically designed to assist Catholic school administrators with ways to enhance the Catholic climate in their schools. This leadership program, Enhancing Our catholic School Identity, is structured specifically for Catholic K-12 principals. The ultimate goal is “to enable Catholic school leaders to celebrate and enhance their ability to foster a Catholic identity for their school" (MoNiff, 1999, p. 353), and it is based on the premise that principals are the key to any schools success. Four critical elements were defined as paramount for program success: (a) prayer leadership; (b) commitment to Catholic social teaching; (c) openness to enhancing one's own knowledge of the Catholic faith; and (d) skills to provide effective staff development program. An experiential program of two-day workshops over the course of two years should encourage principals to sharpen their leadership skills and deepen their faith commitment to the gospel values embedded in the philosophy of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. A second NCEA publication on Catholic identity, A Call to Reflection: A Teacher's Guide to Catholic Identity for the let Century (1998), challenges the Catholic school teacher to examine closely his or he own Catholic cultural identity. Clarification of Catholic cultural identity among Catholic 12 school teachers is one of: ...the greatest challenges facing Catholic schools today. It is an issue of critical importance, affecting the future of Catholic education globally. Confusion on behalf of its members divides a school and creates areas of 'hidden' curricula that sabotage Gospel—driven educational goals. there is an urgency today to nurture our students into healthy, faith-filled, peacemaking adults who will not only function in, but also will provide stability and morality to, a technologically driven let century society, which will only continue to be marked by innovation, change, and instability. (Shimabukuro, 1998, p. 1) The assumption here is that the Catholic cultural identity of the school is greatly influenced by the Catholic cultural identity of those who work there. This report presented a reflective tool based on five thematic areas believed to be the most relevant for Catholic educators ”depicting the teacher as a community builder who is additionally committed to his or her ongoing personal spiritual/religious formation and professional development and to the spiritual/religious formation and human development of his or her students" (Shimabukuro, 1998, p. 7). These five thematic areas are: 1. Teacher as community builder. As community builders, Shimabukuro calls teachers to create safe, growth-conductive, potentially transformative, learning environments, in which students will risk the expression of their feelings as well as their higher—order thinking. When this is accomplished, Shimabukuro believes that the classroom will simulate a family atmosphere in which each student can experience a 13 sense of belonging (p. 17). According to Shimabukuro, brain- based research on human learning (Caine & Geoffrey, 1991, and Goleman, 1995) has clearly established the relationship between optimal student performance and such an environment (p. 17). 2. Teacher as committed to lifelong spiritual growth. As is evidenced in her research of the Church documents on education, Shimabukuro cites the classic indicator of a Catholic school as having faculty who view themselves not only as professional educators but also as ministers of the Catholic cultural identity of the schools (p. 27). To this end it becomes important that Catholic educators reflect on their commonalities of belief, exploring the Catholic faith dimension that distinctively defines each person's spirituality. 3. Teacher as committed to professional development. Shimabukuro believes that for the Catholic educator, professional competence consists in a combination of spiritual and human formation (p. 36). She continues with how the blend and balance of the teacher's implicit synthesis with continual renewal and updating in the field of education constitutes the Catholic school teacher's ongoing, holistic, formational commitment (p. 36). 4. Teacher as committed to students' spiritual development. Shimabukuro feels that authentic involvement, integrating meaningful religious instruction into the personal experience of the individual student, as opposed to the rote learning of doctrine and the rote performance of rituals, becomes the desired modus operandi of the post- Vatican II Christian (p. 48). Catholic educators are called 14 to tell the story of Christian faith, which includes its scriptures, creeds, doctrines, theologies, sacraments, rituals, and so on. Beyond telling the story, Catholic educators are called to educate the very being of their students. The story transforms into vision in the lives of the students. 5. Teacher as committed to students' human development. Shimabukuro writes that Catholic pedagogy demands that religious truth and values be interwoven throughout the curriculum, forming the foundation of all instruction (p. 61). Traditional assessment methods address the logical- mathematical and linguistic areas, but, in order to assess the other areas of cognition, alternative assessment methods must be employed (p. 61). To teach to the whole child requires a teacher who is ministerial, who individualizes instruction to the needs of each child. The cultural identity of a Catholic school finds its roots in the spiritual commitment of each teacher. Teaching in a Catholic school is often considered to be a vocation. Modeling Catholic Christian values to his or her students on a daily basis is intrinsic to the cultural identity of the Catholic school. Therefore, reflective practice on the part of the Catholic school teacher that explores a personal Catholic faith dimension, helps define each person's spiritual commitment to Catholic education. For example, within the Diocese of Lansing, each Catholic school is asked to provide a day of retreat for the school staff. It is to be a professional development day with a religious theme, which will enable the adult community within the school to focus in on some spiritual aspect of their ministry. Oftentimes a 15 keynote speaker will be brought in for a presentation and a series of workshop activities. The retreat day would usually end with a Mass celebrated together by all participants. While infusing one's teaching with Catholic values is important, teachers in Catholic schools keep abreast of current innovative teaching strategies and adapt and update their knowledge in psychology, pedagogy, and the intellectual sciences. Current professional development also includes the areas of computer technology, the Internet, and distance learning, as well as alternative assessment methods, such as portfolios, product and performance-based assessments, and other qualitative evaluation methods. Teaching to the different learning styles of students and challenging them to higher level thinking skills are just two examples of how religious instruction can stimulate the imagination of the Catholic school student, because ”It is through the use of the imagination that students are able to conceive of, and relate to, the divine" (Shimabukuro, 1998, p. 50). For example, encouraging students to use their imaginations through storytelling, art activities, creative writing, moral dilemmas, and drama are ways in which students can be stimulated through an instruction that promotes higher level thinking skills and imagination. Challenging student thinking beyond the recall and comprehension levels into thinking levels of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation is the goal of the Catholic school teacher who requires students to take ownership of concepts that become relevant to their lives. The Catholic school teacher is called to teach the whole child and minister to his or her students by integration 16 religious truths and values throughout the curriculum. In addition, the Catholic school teacher must locate ways of assessing students in order to encourage Catholic doctrine learning. Traditional paper and pencil assessments are not always the most appropriate form of spiritual or academic assessment. For example, performance assessment might be better suited for those students with a flair for the dramatic or a vocal or instrumental presentation of a song to complement the life story of a composer. These are ways by which to challenge students in their assessment of doctrinal learning. The challenge to the Catholic school teacher, beyond transmitting information to students, is to be able to adequately assess each student using a number of assessment types. This individualized instruction helps to meet the needs of each child. Everything that the Catholic educator does in a school takes place within the structure of an educational community, made up of contacts and the collaboration among all of the various groups of students, parents, teachers, and non- teaching staff. Together they are responsible for making the school an instrument for integral formation. Although it is not exhaustive, this concept of the scholarly institution as an educational community, together with a more widespread awareness of this concept, is one of the most enriching developments for the contemporary school. The Catholic educator exercises his or her professionalism as a member of one of the constitutive elements of this community. The professional structure itself offers an excellent opportunity to live and bring to life in the students the communitarian dimension of the human person. 17 Every human being is called to live in community as a social being and as a member of the People of God. Therefore, the educational community of a school is itself a “school." It teaches one how to be a member of the wider social communities, and when the educational community is at the same time a Christian community, it then offers a great opportunity for the teachers to provide the students with a living example of what it means to be a member of the community-the Church. M. Scott Peck, in his book The Qifferehh DIET: Cgmmhhihy Mehihg_ehg_geeee (1987), defines community as, A group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to ;rejoice together, mourn together,’ and to 'delight in each other, making others' conditions [their] own.’ (p. 59) As a community builder, a Catholic school teacher is called to create a safe environment for his or her students; an environment that is conducive to personal growth; an environment for learning that is potentially transformative and in which students can express their feelings and thinking freely. The goal of a Catholic school teacher is to build a family atmosphere in the classroom that belongs to every student. This is what reconnects the Catholic school to the Catholic family. Catholic school teachers have a responsibility to tell the story of the Catholic Christian tradition to their students. Within that story is included the scriptures, the creeds, doctrines, theologies, sacraments, signs, symbols, 18 rituals, and so on. At their disposal, the Catholic school teacher has available advanced teaching strategies such as cooperative learning and conflict-resolution models, as will as a variety of technologies to accomplish these goals. However, these methodologies can never substitute for the personal Catholic cultural identity of the Catholic school teacher. Teacher enthusiasm translates into student engagement. While students benefit through character development, the family unit often becomes stronger through the influence the Catholic school experience has on a student. A Catholic school influences identity development, values, and perspectives through an implicit curriculum of its ethos, structure, and style. Catholics in the United States possessed a distinctive ethos, a value system, that set them apart from their Protestant and Jewish neighbors. As immigrants, they also brought with them specific ethnic heritages, and parents zealously sought to transmit such cultures and traditions to the children of the New World. This desire to pass values and tradition on to future generations is a central concern of every culture. New England Puritans had the same aspiration, and so did Jewish immigrants in New York and Cincinnati. The way a people pass their culture on from generation to generation is through education. (Dolan, 1992, p. 241) The family forms the earliest and most enduring influence on the child's way of life. Subsequent experiences, behavior, value judgments, and life decisions will mirror the early foundations established by the family. The tenets of Catholicism integrated throughout the Catholic school experience will strengthen the family by offering the student 'the seeds to grow into an integrated, self-realizing, 19 responsible adult. The school, like the child and the family, might draw from this exploration in multiple ways. This researcher believes the mission of the Catholic school, the marketing of the Catholic school, and the teaching process in the Catholic school are three areas of importance. Examining the development of Catholic cultural identity through the Catholic school experience from a student perspective would be of benefit to many groups involved in our sacred educative process. The student becomes part of a sacred lineage whose ancestors created certain basic elements and certain basic themes that, today, advance the spiritual development of nearly one-third of the world's population (Newsweek, March 29, 1999). The sense of joining such a large community, of becoming part of a global family, becomes integral to the Catholic school experience from the very beginning. The Catholic school sees itself as a community that respects the dignity of each person, where members are free to question within a commitment to genuine dialogue, and where an ethos of caring infuses social encounters. the common ground established here orders and gives meaning to much of daily life for both faculty and students. (Bryk, Lee 5 Holland, 1993, p. 299) In Catholicism, nothing surpasses the Hebrew Scripture's teaching that human beings were created “in the image of God." Catholic educators see the dignity of the human person as the origin of the very right to an education. Therefore, the significance of the concept of the dignity of the student for Catholic pedagogy will show in many areas. Hence, the significance of the Catholic school experience for the student is evidenced in the distinctive characteristics of 20 Catholicism itself, and the characteristics reflected in the whole curriculum of the Catholic school. The preceding documents encourage attention, but there is a lack of research that determines a difference. As the former administrator of an urban parochial Catholic elementary school whose budget was always driven by tuition based on enrollment, I will always be open to new, innovative, and creative ways to market the Catholic schools to families in the community. To make marketing sharper and truer, it is essential to know if, in fact, Catholic cultural identity is being developed. If Catholic schools are supposed to be creating and strengthening young people's Catholic cultural identity, I began to wonder if, indeed, any of the students in any local Catholic elementary schools could articulate their Catholic cultural identity. Could they explain how their school activities helped them to frame their Catholic cultural identity? Summary The special mission of Catholic schools can be expressed in three interrelated features i.e., gospel values, the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the nurturance of community (Grace, p. 74). Asking students to articulate their Catholic school experience provides an additional lens through which to corroborate a Catholic school's mission statement. Current educational literature speaks of schools as communities of learners. The concept-community of learners, highlights the realization that students learn best when adults model behaviors significant to the community. Among their most treasured 21 values, communities of learners name respect for and service to others, cooperative behaviors, creative and critical thinking and striving to achieve one's personal best. Adults in the community are life—long learners who guide and encourage students in their educational journey. The adage, '"What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying"' pervades the atmosphere in a community of learners. In a Catholic school, not only can teachers and students form a community of learners, but also they can intertwine their lives at a deeper level and recognize they are a community of faith. It is the faith dimension of the community that gives a Catholic school its unique culture. (Winchek and O'Malley, The Faith Community, p. 1) In marketing a Catholic school, an effort is made to portray the Catholic school as a caring, concerned community devoted to developing the whole person whose purpose is put forth in the mission and philosophy of the school. Parents and guardians are told that they can expect their children to receive an education in virtuous thought and conduct that has all but disappeared from the curricula of state supported schools (Day, p. 165). This research could benefit Catholic school marketing practices. The Catholic school teacher represents the mission and philosophy of the Catholic school to the students and the larger public. The Catholic school teacher personifies, in addition to synthesizing, the integration of faith and culture and faith and life. Our fundamental responsibility as Catholic educators is the nurturing of a profound faith in the lives of our students. Our Catholic schools should be environments where evangelization is woven into the very fabric of our daily experiences. As we offer quality education to prepare our students to be contributing and honorable citizens of a world community, so also we have a responsibility to prepare them to become contributing members of a faith community. Although 22 faith is not culture, faith needs culture to incarnate itself. Our faith imbues us with a particular prophetic vision to transform our culture, in accord with gospel values. (Zukowski, Faith Development, p. l) The ability or lack of ability of a 4th/5th grade student to articulate in word or picture what it is that makes the Catholic school experience different, could make this research important as a starting topic for staff development possibilities that would reflect the sacred dimension of the Catholic school teacher. Finally, the Catholic Church will be impacted by this research because the Catholic Church is the model of the faith community that the school should be. American Catholics are living in a period of transition. One model of church is passing away and another is coming to life. Since the new has not yet replaced the old, conflict and division are very real problems. The challenge of the future will be to empower the new generation of Catholics with the ability to shape what American Catholicism will be in the years ahead. The Catholic school experience could be the source of that empowerment. The major value of Catholic schools is embodied in the tradition of thought, rituals, mores, and organized practices that form these schools. From this perspective, Catholic education represents an invitation to students both to reflect on a systematic body of thought and to immerse themselves in a communal life that seeks to live out its basic principles. The aim of this type of schooling is to nurture in students the feelings, experiences, and reflections that can help them apprehend their relations to all that is around them-both the material world and the social world, both those who have come before and those who will come after. (Bryk. Lee & Holland, 1993, p. 335) 23 Delimitations of the Study 1. This study is not a comparison of public and parochial education. 2. This study is not a study of Catholic school curriculum and instruction. 3. This study is not a comparison of Catholic cultural identity in different regions: urban, suburban, rural; and across different age groups. 4. Although the influence of family and peers might be referred to, this study will not focus directly on the impact of family or peers concerning identity development and formation. 5. This study does not generalize to a larger population of Catholic schools. Assumptions Examining the narratives of young people from this perspective assumes that, developmentally, young people enter and leave faith, moral, and educational stages at different times, thereby assuming that individual responses and individual stories will differ. this research study is based on the following assumptions: 1. The life experiences of 4th/5th grade students in an urban Catholic elementary school will produce a variety of stories as unique as each individual student. 2. The degree or extent to which a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school was exposed to a religious or spiritual environment in their early child 24 development in the home will affect the degree or extent to which the Catholic school experience will have on the Catholic cultural identity of the student. 3. When asked to describe or tell a story about Catholic cultural identity, a 4th/5th grade student will use 'props' (photos, artifacts, memorabilia, etc.) more often and more comfortably than they will vocabulary for explanation. 4. A 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school from a Catholic home will not, necessarily, have a stronger Catholic cultural identity because of his or her Catholic school experience. 5. The Catholic cultural identity of the 4th/5th grade teacher in an urban Catholic elementary school has an influence on the Catholic cultural identity of the 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. A Catholic school experience has been a part of most of my life. Having attended Catholic schools for all of my school experiences-elementary, secondary, and undergraduate- and having worked professionally within the Catholic school system for the past twenty-five years, I bring to this study a cultural history rich in both pre and post Vatican II religiosity. My personal experiences in the parochial school system, working with parents and teachers within that system, as well as the students, will enable me to help maintain the parameters of this study during data collection. Historically, Catholic Christians have needed visible signs and symbols to remind them of their solemn agreement ‘with God. A prime example of this is as old as the Israelites who followed a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night while they made their way through the desert in 25 search of the Promised Land. More recently we have the reported appearance of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje in Bosnia. An outward sign or symbol is perceived as proof that a relationship with God is still valid. I believe that, for some participants in the Catholic school experience, the same will be true. Unless there is a visible showing of sign or symbol, the Catholic school experience is not much better than a non-Catholic school experience. A pre-Vatican II Catholic school experience was ripe with sign, symbol, rite, and ritual. The sister-teachers were wearing religious garb that left only their hands and faces visible to the students and their classrooms were filled with statues, religious pictures, and other religious artifacts that presented students with reminders and examples of how they were to live their lives. The post-Vatican II Catholic school experience has a mere fraction of the signs and symbols. Many of the religious women and men were now dressed like their non-religious male and female faculty members, and the multitude of visible religious artifacts, once broken or lost, were rarely replaced. The school experience that was once identified as catholic, was now a school experience with a Catholic cultural identity being promoted by the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church. I believe that this study will surface rich descriptions that will examine the multi-faceted constructs of Catholic cultural identity. I also believe that the strength or weakness of the family and teacher cultural history will determine the strength or weakness of the features of the Catholic school experience. This will make an impact on the 26 Catholic cultural identity of the 4th/5th grade student. I also hope to discover how articulate a 4th/5th grade student is able to be when talking about an implicit element of his or her nature. Conceptual Framework The conceptual framework used in this research will be constructivist based on the premise that as a child develops, persons affecting that development will bring to their charge personal life experiences from which have surfaced identities shaped from their own life experience decisions. The development of identity, therefore, is complex and dynamic. How students develop cognitive skills and affective knowing will be based upon the connections they make between what each student knows and what is made available to them. A goal of the constructivist is to understand the complex world of lived experience from the point of view of those who live it. Constructivist interpretation sees particular actors, in particular places, at particular times, fashion meaning out of events and phenomena through prolonged, complex processes of social interaction involving history, language, and action. For the constructivist, objective truth and knowledge is the result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered. Constructivist thought agrees that the responsibility of society is to pass on its wisdom, knowledge, values, and skills to each succeeding generation (Clark, 1997, p. 14). Infused in the experience of learning is the inevitability that individuals interpret what they experience by using 27 frameworks that are preexisting. They thereby construct self and the world through the meaning of lived experience. Van Manen (1996) supports this thinking in his views on a phenomenological research approach when he states, “The point of phenomenological research is to 'borrow' other people's experiences and their reflections on their experiences in order to better be able to come to an understanding of the deeper meaning or significance of an aspect of the human experience, in the context of the whole human experience" (p. 62). In light of this constructivist perspective, the purpose of this study was to explore what particular features of a Catholic school experience enhanced the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. As a starting point, this research has drawn from the stage development theories of Fowler (1981), Egan (1979), and Kohlberg (1969). Each of these uses stage development work similar to work done by Piaget and Erikson. Collectively, these concepts suggest that moral identity is not static but is framed dynamically through multiple relationships. Fowler (1981) believes that faith at the natural level is a human universal, a feature of all people, whether members of primitive or advanced cultures, whether religious or unbeliever. Faith, then, has a cognitive dimension, one that is formulated in doctrine and given intellectual acknowledgement; an affective and relational dimension, realized existentially in trust, fidelity and love; and an actional dimension, the concrete living out of the faith in one's daily life. In this framework, faith is an activity of 28 the head, heart, and hands. Emerging within the process of human development are capacities for faith. How these capacities are activated and grow depends to a large extent on how one is welcomed into the world and what kinds of environments one develops in. Faith is also shaped by initiatives from beyond us and other people, initiatives of spirit or grace. How these latter initiatives are either recognized and imaged or unperceived and ignored, powerfully affects the shape of faith in our lives (Fowler, 1981). In seven stage-like developmentally related styles of faith (see Table 1.1), Fowler presents a theory of faith which is interactive and social, requiring community, language, ritual, and care. According to Fowler (1981), the seven stages include: 1. Stage 0-(0-4 years): Undifferentiated Faith. the seeds of trust, courage, hope, and love are fused in an undifferentiated way and contend with sensed threats of abandonment, inconsistencies and deprivations in an infant's environment (p. 121). 2. Stage l-(pre-school): Intuitive-Projective Faith. The fantasy-filled, imitative phase in which the child can be powerfully and permanently influenced by examples, moods, actions, and stories of the visible faith of primally related adults (p. 133). 3. Stage 2-(grade school):.Mythic-Literal Faith. The stage in which the person begins to take on for him or herself the stories, beliefs, and Observances that symbolize belonging to his or her community (p. 149). 4. Stage 3-(after age 12): Synthetic-Conventional Faith. 29 A person's experience of the world now extends beyond the family. Faith must synthesize values and information; it must provide a basis for identity and outlook (p. 172). 5. Stage 4-(17-30 years): Individuative-Reflective Faith. The late adolescent or adult must begin to take seriously the burden of responsibility for his or her own commitments, lifestyle, beliefs, and attitudes (p. 182). 6. Stage 5-(rare before age 30): Conjunctive Faith. Involves the integration into self and outlook of much that was suppressed or unrecognized in the interest of a stage-4 self-certainty and conscious cognitive and affective adaptation to reality (p. 197). 7. Stage 6-(later life; a rare stage): Uhiversalizing Faith. A disciplined, activist incarnation-a making real and tangible-of the imperatives of absolute love and justice of which stage-5 has partial apprehensions. The self at stage-6 engages in spending and being spent for the transformation of present reality in the direction of a transcendent actuality (p. 199). Influenced by the human development work of Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Erik Erikson, Fowler's faith stages are not to be looked upon as an achievement scale for evaluative purposes, but rather for correlative purposes of how time, experience, challenge, and nurture are required for growth in faith. Also influenced by the human development work of Jean Piaget (1931, 1958, 1965) and Erik Erickson (1963) has been Kieran Egan (1979) in his theory of educational development. The main claim Egan makes is that at each stage one makes sense of the world and experiences it in significantly 30 different ways, and that these differences require that knowledge be organized differently to be most accessible and educationally effective at each stage. From the defining characteristics of the stages are derived principles for organizing learning and teaching (Egan, 1979, p. 7). Egan (1979) states that a theory, basically, is a thing to think with, an intellectual tool made from distinctions that conform with the phenomena it is about. He strengthens his definition by affirming the value of a theory by how well it conforms with the applicable matter. He affirms how well it helps to make sense of it, and how well it guides practice, observation, and research in refining and revising categories and distinctions to conform.more closely with the relevant phenomena. Egan presents four stages of educational development (see Table 1.1) defining how sense is made of the world and personal experience, and how the significant ways in which the world is experienced requires that knowledge be organized differently at each stage to be most accessible and educationally effective. Egan's stages, and partial explanations, include the following: 1. The.Mythic Stage (4-10 years): At this stage, a young person's thinking shares important features with the kind of thinking evident in the stories of myth-using people: intellectual security by providing absolute accounts of why things are the way they are, and by fixing the meaning of events by relating them to sacred models. People in this stage lack a sense of otherness-concepts of historical time, physical regularities, logical relationships, causality, and geographical space. There is also a lack of a clear sense of the world as autonomous and objective. Characteristically in 31 this stage, myth stories tend to be articulated on binary oppositions. Successful learning becomes a process of projecting what young children know best onto the world and absorbing the world to their basically emotional and moral conceptual categories (p. 11-12). 2. The Romantic Stage (8-15 years): Instead of projecting binary opposites from within, the romantic mind searches outside itself to the limits of the world for external binary opposites within which reality exists. At the Romantic Stage. perception focuses on the extremes, on the most fascinating bits and pieces, on vivid true stories, on dramatic events and ideas, on bizarre facts, on heroes and heroines, and on some particular areas in great detail. With the development of a sense of an autonomous world comes the reciprocal perception of a self separate from it (p. 28-29). 3. The Philosophic Stage (14-20 years): Transition into this stage is marked by the realization that all the bits and pieces experienced in the Romantic Stage are interconnected to form a single unit, and that the student is a part of that unit and is determined by their place in the unit. Abstract general schemes come into focus as sources of truth and knowledge explain the richness and complexity of reality (p. 50). 4. The Ironic Stage (19-adulthood): The ironic mind is interested in itself only as a part of the world's particularity and to understand in what ways the mid's methods of imposing order on, or making sense of, the world interferes with what is actually real and true about it (p. 84). Educational development is a process naturally unfolding 32 in a supportive environment primarily made up of knowledge because knowledge is the fuel of the process of educational development. Without knowledge there is no education; with little knowledge there is little education (p. 156). An advanced stage of educational development can only be reached by passing through prior and requisite stages. This belief in stages that are hierarchical, sequential, and invariant also characterizes the path of development in the moral judgment work of Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg (1969, 1971, 1981) had proposed a comprehensive scheme for developmental and comparative research on moral understanding. The scheme builds upon the work of Piaget ([1932] 1965) by identifying three major levels in the attainment of moral understanding and dividing each level into two stages. There are moral philosophers (Kagan and Lamb [Eds.], 1987) who believe Kohlberg's theory to be weak and limited even though the original theory was reformulated (Kohlberg, Levine, and Hewer 1983). With these criticisms in mind, this researcher chose to use Kohlberg's lower stages as a place to begin. Life experiences left Lawrence Kohlberg (1969) wondering if others were as unprepared to deal with moral issues in any consistent or rational manner as he was. From his work in higher education emerged six stage-like positions in the development of moral reasoning (see Table 1.1). These stages include: Level I: Preconventional Morality (age 4-10): Moral value resides in a person's own needs and wants. Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation. Individual's moral judgment is motivated by a need to avoid 33 punishment. Stage 2: Instrumental-Relativist Orientation. Individuals moral judgment is motivated by a need to satisfy own desires. Level II: COnventional Morality (age 10-13): Moral values reside in performing good or right roles, in maintaining the convention order, and in pleasing others. Stage 3: ”Good Boy/Nice Girl" Orientation. Individual's moral judgment is motivated by a need to avoid rejection, disaffection, or disapproval from others. Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation. Individual's moral judgment is motivated by the need not to be criticized by a true authority figure. Level III: Postconventional Morality (adolescence- adulthood): Moral values reside in principles, separate from those who enforce them, and are part of the person's identification with the enforcing group. Most people never reach this last level. Stage 5: Legalistic Orientation. Individual's moral judgment is motivated by community respect for all, respecting social order and living under legally determined laws. Stage 6: Universal, Ethical Orientation. Individual's moral judgment is motivated by one's own conscience (p. 77- 78). Kohlberg and his associates studied how individuals structure their experiences of and judgments about the social world. Their findings concluded that moral reasoning develops through a succession of stages, and even though the sequence of these stages is invariant and universal, the higher stages 34 are more adequate than the earlier ones. This research will examine how the person is likely to reason about moral dilemmas in Kohlberg's different stages. Table 1.1 Theorists' Matrix Fowler Kohlberg Stage 0: Primal Faith (0-4 years) Basic trust, derived from a loving relation- ship with a nur- turing parent, is the strength to be achieved, 'Stage 1:Intuitive- .Projective Faith (preschoolers) Pre-Conventional (early childhood) Social awareness is confined to the family, and any adult is an authority figure. Understanding God will be largely from their re- lationship to their parents. Stage 1: Concern about self. Fear of punishment dominates motives. Obedience to a powerful authority. Actions are judged in terms of their physical conse- quences. Stage 2:.Mythic- Literal Faith (grade school) Stage 2: The basic motive is to satisfy my own needs. I do not consider the needs of the other person, unless I think it will benefit me to do so. The concept of fairness looms large in a personfs way of faith knowledge at this stage. Simple stories about good and 35 Egan The.Mythic Stage (4-10 years) Myth provides absolute accounts of why things are the way they are and by fixing the mean- ings of events by relating them to sacred models. One of myth's functions is to obliterate history, to assert that nothing has changed in the world since the sacred beginning, thus providing a kind of eternally valid charter for things as they are. Children's imaginative life colors and charges their environment with a meaning evil hold a great attraction at this stage. Stage 3: Synthetic- Conventional Faith (after age 12) This is the con- formist stage. Right and wrong are understood as a matter of expectations of others. Stage 4: Individuative- Reflective Faith (17-30 years) Individuality; objective reflec- tions on different points of view; and the person I am and can become. Stage 5: COnjunctive Faith (rare before age 30) Knowledge is open to an affective sense of the world and God which goes to levels of aware- ness well beyond the capacity of the intellect. Stage 6: Uhiversalizing Faith (later in life) What shines forth is a special grace Conventional (pre-adolescence) Stage 3: Concern about groups of people and con- formity to group norms. Living up to what is ex- pected by people close to you or what people generally expect of people in the role of son, brother, friend, etc. Motive is to be accepted. Stage 4: Honor and duty come from keeping the rules of the society. The focus is on preserving the society, to keep it going as to avoid breakdown of the system. Post Cbnventional (adult) Stage 5: A sense of obligation to law because of one's social con- tract to make and abide by laws for welfare of all and for the protection of all people's rights. A feeling of contractual commitment freely entered upon, to work, friends, and family obligations. Stage 6: The belief 36 derived from within. The Rsmantic Stage (8-15 years) Children must forge a new relationship and connections with the autonomous world and so achieve some method of dealing with its threatening alienness, and, they have to develop a sense of their distinct identity. The Philosophic Stage (14-20 years) Students turn in- ward, as it were, and conduct a general survey of the real world; they begin to chart a mental map of its general features. This is not a process of expansion outwards along lines of content associa- tions; rather, it is a closer charting of the context within which the student exists. It is a closer approach toward self. The Ironic Stage (19-adulthood) Students' interest in the world is no longer determined by the requirements of their immature egos, tutu: Chfil‘j.l that makes a as a rational and knowledge may person a living, person in the val-I by pursued, unfet- breathing repre- idity of universal tered by the various sentation of the :moral principles, constraints of God who is always and a sense of immaturity, for its at work trans- personal commit- own sake. forming the world ment to them. and people's Principles are lives. universal principles for the dignity of people as individ- uals. Conceptual Framework Model From a sociological perspective, socialization is not only a matter of adaptation and internalization but also a process of appropriation, reinvention, and reproduction. Central to this view of socialization is the appreciation of the importance of collective, communal activity-how children negotiate, share, and create culture with adults and each other. (Corsaro, 1997, p. 18) To best illustrate this idea of children collectively producing peer cultures and contributing to the reproduction of the wider society, Corsaro (1997) uses a common garden spider construction, the orb web, where the radii or spokes of the model represent a range of locales or fields that make up various social institutions (e.g., family, economic, cultural, educational, religious, etc.) upon which children weave their webs; the hub, or center of the web is the family of origin, which serves as a nexus of all cultural institutions for children. The web spirals represent movement through distinct peer cultures which are created by each generation of children in a given society. His notion of interpretive reproduction (p. 18) is meant to capture the innovative and creative aspects of children's participation in society as well as children's ability to actively 37 contribute to cultural production and change. Cultural routines and language are important elements of interpretive reproduction. The habitual, taken-for-granted character of routines serve as anchors of security and shared understanding. These anchors enable children to deal with the unexpected and the problematic while remaining comfortable in the confines of daily life. Language and its use are central to cultural participation thereby being instrumental in creating and maintaining concrete routines. Children attempt to interpret and make sense of their culture in order to participate in it. In attempting to make sense of the adult world, children collectively produce their own peer worlds and cultures. They embed them in the web or experiences they weave with others throughout their lives, making them part of their life histories within a given culture. This model will enable the researcher to take the 4th/5th grade student from the center or hub of their web, through two distinct peer cultures: preschool and preadolescence, and see how the social institutions of family, religion, and the Catholic school experience has impacted their Catholic cultural identity. Because this model stresses routines and language, any elements determined harmful to development in those areas would provide tension to this model. Lack of childhood routines or lack of adult- child interactions or lack of social interactions could prohibit a 4th/5th grade student from fully understanding the research. 38 Research Questions The purpose of this study is to explore what particular features of a Catholic school experience enhance the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. Given this, the proposed research question is: What elements of the Catholic school experience enhance or inhibit the development of a Catholic cultural identity among 4th/5th grade students? To respond to this query, the following sub-questions are proposed: 1. How do 4th/5th grade Catholic school students define their particular Catholic cultural identity? If there are differences, what accounts for the differences? If there are similarities, what accounts for the similarities? 2. What elements of the Catholic school experience do 4th/5th grade Catholic school students identify as essential to their Catholic cultural identity formation? 3. What other aspects of the student's life do they identify as impacting their Catholic cultural identity (e.g., family, peers,media, church attendance, parish events, etc)? 4. What can we learn? What salient themes emerge from their stories about Catholic schools and the formation of Catholic cultural identity that would be useful for marketing, curriculum, and instruction? 39 Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature Introduction The paradigm of 'becoming a Catholic' is given amplification by the refraction of educational reality through the lenses of strategically located icons and religious artifacts which wrap the students in an ideological miasma heavily laden with Catholic significance and meaning. (McLaren, p. 180, 1993) The purpose of this study was to explore what particular features of a Catholic school experience enhanced the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. Using the history of the Catholic school experience as well as faith, moral, and educational development theories, this study will examine the factors that both enhance and hinder this process. To better understand this problem, research and professional literature from faith, moral, and educational development will be reviewed. The marketing of the Catholic school experience has oftentimes been based on the difference between the atmosphere of the Catholic school and that of the non- Catholic school. This difference can be referred to as the Catholic identity of the school. As dioceses, national Catholic educational associations, and the Roman Catholic Church itself publish documents on creating and maintaining Catholic identity in the school, tensions naturally surface when Catholic identity is reported to be missing from a Catholic school. The intent of the researcher then is to link the findings of this research study with other current associated research; to offer new interpretations and 40 insights derived from relevant studies; and, finally, to provide an evaluation reference by which the results of this study can be measured against the findings from other similar studies. Historical Perspective/Context The American Catholic school experience emerged as part of the zealous missionary effort to convert a continent to Christianity. Oftentimes, begun as a shoestring operation in a damp church basement or a log cabin room where 3 single instructor taught the basic four R's to a group of children, these Spanish, French, and English missionaries preached the gospel message to Native Americans and colonists in what is now the United States. Where Spanish and French missionaries focused on Native American conversion, the English priests focused on sustaining the faith of their compatriots in the New WOrld (Walch, 1996). In broad strokes, the development of Catholic schools can be divided into three periods. The first period, spanning the period from colonial times until approximately 1830, represents the birth of a new Church in a new nation. The second period, from 1830 through 1960, saw Catholic schools expanding rapidly in response to immigration and confronting divisive issues that shaped the formal system and gave it a distinctly American character. The third period, from 1960 to the present, has been described as the Catholic.moment,during which Catholics have become part of the mainstream of American political, social, and economic life, and Catholic social ethics have become a vibrant voice on the national 41 scene (Bryk, Lee 5 Holland, 1993). Fgem colehial times until 1830 Because Catholicism was a prohibited religion in all the English colonies except Maryland and Pennsylvania, colonial Catholics kept a low profile. The majority of Catholic children received their education at home. Occasional visits by traveling schoolmasters were opportunities to make improvements to their home schooling. Rare visits by missionary priests were times to secure religious instruction. In the face of such overwhelming hatred and legal restrictions, colonial Catholics made little effort to establish their own schools. For the most part, Catholic education in the colony remained informal throughout the eighteenth century because these small Catholic communities could not afford to support both schools and churches. The American Revolution diminished colonial era anti- Catholicism. As colonies passed laws dropping legal restrictions on the practice of Catholicism, Catholics responded by joining their Protestant compatriots in the fight for independence. With the end of the war came the uncertainty of whether prewar legal restrictions on the practice of Catholicism would be reinstated. Catholics desired to be accepted in the dominant Protestant culture in all things but religious beliefs. The appointment of John Carroll as first Bishop of the United States was to be the bridge between the new nation and Rome, likewise, helping Americans understand Catholicism. With the acceptance of the practice of Catholicism in the colonies, European Catholic immigrants came to the New 42 WOrld in large numbers reinforcing the American view that Catholics were foreigners. Americanizing these new foreign- born Catholics without compromising their Catholic faith was a complicated task that Bishop Carroll felt could be accomplished through the establishment of Catholic schools or some similar social institution. His feelings were not matched by those early Catholic colonials. When Carroll outlined his plan for funding, building, and running a Catholic school as specified in the laws which govern the Roman Catholic Church, the laity rebelled. They saw no reason to consult the parish priest about educational matters concerning their children. This conflict would prove to be the most significant in the American church in the years before the Civil war (Walch, 1996). Catholics in Philadelphia established the first parochial school in 1783 based on the guidelines created by Bishop John Carroll. St. Mary's School was a model of collaboration between pastor and parishioners where the pastor understood that he did not have the power to unilaterally make decisions. In spite of this successful collaboration, German immigrant parishioners broke away from St. Mary's to establish their own cultural parish and school, Holy Trinity, where school classes were held in the basement of the church until funds could be raised to build a school. Philadelphia Catholics would support these two parish schools until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and German immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century. In other quickly developing cities in the early years of the nineteenth century, less is known about Catholic education. One thing that is known is that large Catholic populations in New York 43 and Boston were not as successful as Philadelphia Catholics in establishing and maintaining Catholic schools (Walch, 1996). Although Catholic parochial schools had trouble grounding themselves in colonial culture, Catholic education did emerge in the form of the college-seminary school which Roman Catholic bishops felt was most beneficial since they also served as a recruiting ground for future priests. Seminarians worked as unpaid teachers at the college and part of the college's collected tuition was directed toward seminarian schooling. Successful college-seminary schools, such as Georgetown University, which educated the Catholic colonial male aristocracy, flourished under Jesuit leadership in the English colonies. The Jesuits are seen as responsible for the formation of Catholic and post secondary education in America (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993). The Jesuits specified a curriculum for secondary and post secondary education which was patterned after Renaissance humanism. This method of teaching by classes and grade levels spanned approximately seven years of instruction. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers teaching order, first established curriculum and method for elementary schools. First printed in 1720, the Conduct of Schools specified a curriculum of the 4R's: reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic, and religion with whole-class recitation as a favored method. As was generally true in colonial schools, Catholic elementary schools stressed the importance of religious education. Instruction in secular subjects, however, had a great deal in common with Protestant schools. (Bryk, Lee 5 Holland, 1993, p. 19) 44 During this colonial period, Catholic elementary schools were very similar to Protestant neighborhood schools, both developed along the lines of perceived needs within the community. Whereas the college-seminary training was the appropriate education for young men, the European-style academy, founded by female religious, took on this role for young colonial women. The Ursuline Sisters from France founded the first female academy in the United States in 1727 in New Orleans. The early academies taught the four R's as well as French, owing to the influence of the Ursulines, and other subjects considered proper for an elite young woman's domestic education, such as drawing, music, and needlework. By the 18309 the curriculum had expanded to provide a broader classical education including Latin, algebra and geometry, chemistry and physics, geography, natural history, and oral philosophy (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993, p. 21). Like their Protestant counterparts, the Catholic academies were founded primarily for religious and moral reasons and depended on the contributions and hard work of the women religious who staffed them. By the turn of the century, these communities of women religious, originally European missionaries themselves, would welcome new locally founded orders who would also dedicate themselves to Catholic education. 1830-1960 Although the great waves of Catholic immigration did not begin until the middle of the nineteenth century, the number of Catholic immigrants that had arrived in the United States by 1830, especially in the cities of the Northeast, was perceived as a 45 threat by the Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority. (Bryk, Lee 5 Holland, 1993, p. 23) In most New York City Catholic parishes, some sort of schooling was offered in the parish. More often than not, it was in the basement of the church in cramped, crowded rooms. Like today, the major problems facing these parish schools were financial problems which threatened to close some of them. New York City Catholics petitioned the city's Common Council for financial aid and campaigned for almost two years before their petition was denied. Undaunted, they decided to build their own schools. The Irish-born Bishop of New York, John Hughes, championed the cause recruiting religious women and Christian Brothers to teach in the schools which would be built in 75 percent of the parishes in the city, instructing about one third of the Catholic school population. Boston offered a striking contrast to New York. By the mid-nineteenth century, close to half the city's population was Catholic, with a large Irish Catholic contingent. Like New York, the Boston public schools cultivated a Protestant ethic that was offensive to Catholics. Anti-Catholic feelings permeated the community resulting in unforgettable incidents such as the convent burning in Charleston in 1834 and the Eliot School case in 1859 which ultimately brought an end to forced recitation of anything contrary to a person's religious beliefs (Dolan, 1992). Such feelings resulted in the Catholic Church leadership in Boston moving more toward building churches than building schools. Following the example set by the Boston churches, most New England diocese left the building of schools to aggressive Catholic educators, of which there were very few. 46 Cincinnati offered a striking contrast to Boston. As in New York, the Bishop of Cincinnati, John Purcell, spearheaded the Catholic school movement throughout his fifty-year tenure as bishop. In promoting the growth of Catholic schools in his diocese, Purcell, unlike Hughes in New York, tried working with the Cincinnati public schools to achieve some compromise to help foster acceptance. Unsuccessful in all his attempts with the public schools, Purcell turned his determination and energies toward building a Catholic school system emerging as the Midwest champion of Catholic schools. The growth of Catholic schools in less developed regions of the country differed measurably from that in places like New York and Cincinnati. Usually, a priest or a schoolmaster would organize a school in a small town in a one-room building that depended on the teacher for its in-session and out-of-session days. It was at this time that the dependence of religious orders of women became essential to the development of Catholic education, whether in the large cities or in the small frontier towns. Giving primary attention to the establishment of the female academy, the sisters became involved in a variety of parish and diocesan activities before undertaking the operation of the parochial schools. Throughout their tenure in Catholic education, these teaching sisters would endure serf status, having fewer rights and privileges than priests, religious brothers or even lay people in the parish. Bishops, possessing the ultimate authority in their diocese, oftentimes interfered with religious community affairs and local pastors, their own superintendent of education for their parish, would do what they pleased in the school. All bishops and pastors did not 47 act in this manner, but those that didn't were in the minority. The melding of the public school with the Catholic school in these early frontier towns was common because the definitions of these schools were evolving with the regions. It was not uncommon to find the local Catholic school designated as the local public school or the local public school having secular classes as well as sacred classes, all being taught by Catholic teachers. Local and federal funding for these Catholic public schools varied from region to region until this symbiotic existence came under the emerging, more clearly defined, boundary lines of separation. America had decided that formal schooling was the answer to the growing mass of unruly foreigners and the doubts about their moral fiber. The common school, as envisioned by Horace Mann, would be the vehicle making education available to all children ensuring that children were being educated together- in-common. Mann’s humanistic education would guarantee a harmonious community in the midst of its growing diversity. Catholics were not opposed to publicly supported schools. The common school of Horace Mann, though, was to be a school where the Protestant Bible, Protestant hymns, and anti- Catholic texts were the norm. The nondenominational school was a Protestant school. In addition to the Bible, common school advocates depended on the moralistic schoolbooks of William Holmes McGuffey. The popularity of these schoolbooks was understandable because McGuffey never forgot that the Bible was the keystone of the common school curriculum. As historian Timothy L. Smith notes, McGuffey's Readers were handbooks of common morality, testaments to the Protestant virtues which half a century of experience had 48 elevated into the culture-religion of the new nation. (Walch, 1996, p.27) The American way of life was marked by Protestant signs and symbols. Catholic deference to the view that American education was a moral enterprise was equivalent to faith denial. It was basic conflict between the ideology of the common school and Roman Catholicism that would lead to the development of the Catholic school system. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the American bishops made repeated efforts at accommodation with the new public system. However, as Catholics continued to encounter hostility and anti-Catholic rhetoric in supposedly nonsectarian public schools the movement toward a separate system gradually grew. (Bryk, Lee 5 Holland, 1993, p. 25) In the 18308 the family was still viewed as the primary educator and would remain so throughout the next decade. Catholic newspapers and pamphlets were the main means of religious education and were used by the bishops as a means of building unanimity of opinion within the Catholic community. A main concern to the American bishops at this time was textbook material that was offensive to Catholics. Though oftentimes discussed, an alternative to the public school system would have an extensive gestation period in the womb of the American Catholic Church. It would take the American bishops another 55 years before issuing a mandate to parish pastors to build a Catholic school near every Catholic church and to issue a decree to Catholic parents to send their children to these Catholic schools because of the dangers inherent in the public school system. Until the 19608, these decrees which came out of the Third Plenary 49 Council of Baltimore in 1884, though never fully realized, held high the aim of Catholic education: "every Catholic student in a Catholic school" (Bryk, Lee & Holland, p. 25). The first decree of the Council stated bluntly that a parish school must be built near every Catholic church. The second decree provided for the removal of parish pastors who were ”gravely negligent" in erecting parish schools. The third decree promised spiritual "punishment" for any parish that failed to support their pastor's effort to build a school. A final stressed that “all Catholic parents are bound to send their children to parochial schools unless, at home or in other Catholic schools, they provide sufficiently and fully for their Christian education." The implementation of the four decrees was reserved for the bishops themselves (walch, p. 61). The spirit of the third Baltimore Council's decree to create a separate school system was more easily understood than the actual task of creating a working model. Throughout the nineteenth century, there never was a total commitment to the parochial school system, either on the part of the bishops or on the part of the people. Not only was there an external Protestant threat, but, more importantly, the internal quarrels among the ethnically diverse American Catholics could quickly and easily derail any plans to adjust the emerging public school system. Continued anti-Catholic prejudice, whether in an explicit form such as church and convent burnings, passing laws that overtly discriminated against Catholic schools or prejudice against hiring Catholic schoolteachers, helped strengthen the Catholic commitment to establish separate schools. 50 Leadership in the American Catholic Church, at this time, had a strong English-Irish bent (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993), starting with John Carroll and extending to later leaders such as James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore and Archbishop John Ireland of Minneapolis. These men sought to build upon a belief in the commonalities between Catholicism and American values while maintaining cordial relations with American institutions like the common schools. The Americanists claimed that, since there were obvious differences between American and European Catholics, the Church in the United States should incorporate the American ideals into itself. This meant that there should be separation of church and state; that religious pluralism should be tolerated; and that the Church should be remodeled along democratic lines. The latter meant that in the Church there should be freedoms analogous to those enjoyed in America's liberal democracy (e.g., active participation, personal initiative, and Open communication); and that the Church should protect individual consciences in preference to ideas such as loyalty, obedience, and uniformity. Gibbons and Ireland advocated these positions because they desired to enhance the identity and mission of the church in a pluralistic society. Americans would never venerate—much less join-a church that did not respect and foster the American ideals of liberty and justice (McCarthy, 1994, p. 48). Bishops Gibbons and Ireland espoused a vision of American Catholicism where religious ideals were blended with culture rather than separated from it. They firmly believed that to maintain a presence, the American Catholic Church must recognize change as essential. The Roman Catholic Church 51 was not always in total agreement with the leadership of the American Catholics. The views of Gibbons and Ireland allowed for a collaborativeness between American Catholics and Protestants. The conservative Roman Catholic church taught that a good Catholic was to pay, pray, and obey. the response to the American dispute would be in the form of the two papal pronouncements, one on how the Church should be organized and should function (Testem Benevoletiae, 1889), and the other stating that cordial relations with the modern world was not necessary because the modern world was the problem (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 1907). In these documents, Pope Leo XIII firmly reestablished ecclesial authority. By rejecting “Americanism" and “modernism," Church conservatives felt that they now had support for establishing ethnic schools. For some, fear of separatism and the possible rise of divisive ethnic politics could threaten democracy. Immigrants wanted their children to learn the English language and American ways of life. They also knew that they had to prove their Americanism over and over again. The ethnic Catholic school could provide them with a connection to their European past, preserve their Catholic values, and facilitate their assimilation into American public life. The parochial school at this period served to slow up the process of acculturation, to make it less of a traumatic experience-less of a complete, almost instantaneous break with the European past [as was the case in public schools of that time] and all it stood for. The children in the Catholic schools were 'Americanized'-but by teachers of their own race and religion, who clung in great part to the old ways, only slowly adapting to the new. (Bryk, Lee 8 Holland, 1993, p. 28) The social standing of immigrant Catholics in later years, as 52 evidenced in studies by Andrew Greeley and Peter Rossi (1996), would attest to the wisdom of this educational philosophy. Catholic immigrants comprised the majority of immigrants who entered the United States during the three decade period prior to WOrld war I. With large numbers of these immigrants ethnically clustering, in some places creating overcrowded urban slums, anti-Catholic bigotry emerged from an already existing xenophobic fear surrounding America's entrance into the war. The papal pronouncements of Pope Leo XIII fueled concern about docile, obedient Catholics taking orders from Rome (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993, p. 28) and parochial schools were touted in the print media as destroyers of American patriotism. The Catholic hierarchy responded with a national defense of Catholic schools. In 1922 the council's (National Catholic Welfare Council) executive secretary, James H. Ryan, wrote a systematic apologetic for Catholic schooling. Noting that the first American schools were religious schools-both Protestant and Catholic-Ryan recalled that tax-supported public schools dated only from the 18508. As a result, he argued, public schools had no legitimate claim “to be considered the only true American system of education." Through such statements, Catholics reminded the nation that democracy was a religious ideal and aggressively argued Catholicism embraced the essence of the ideal. (Bryk, Lee 5 Holland, 1993, p. 29) The American Catholic Church answered the external threat to Catholic education by consolidating all Catholic institutions, particularly Catholic schools. Ethnic schools became more American and organizational structures like the Catholic Educational Association were founded in 1904. This association, known today as the National Catholic Educational 53 Association (NCEA), was charged with the task of helping Catholic educators discuss the basic issues surrounding operation and improvement of Catholics schools. Near the end of the nineteenth century, as the demands for Catholic schooling escalated for beyond capacity, the bishops took a more active role in opening schools. They focused on diocesan high schools which would accept students of parishes from across the diocese. They established school boards which were to help coordinate the activities of these new institutions. In 1920 these school boards were replaced with a superintendent of schools who was appointed by, and directly responsible to, the bishop. These changes were meant to establish credibility in the Catholic school within the changing forces of American life, especially movement in education. They were to provide a balance where the secular side of the Catholic school was to be as strong as the sacred side of the Catholic school. Catholic school academic curriculum, most notable on the secondary level, in some cases mirrored the public initiative. In other cases the curriculum demonstrated a sharp rejection of the prevailing culture. The academic curriculum found in the earlier boys prep schools and in girls academies was replaced with one having a more comprehensive educational philosophy. The need for commercial or vocational courses was more pragmatic than knowing a Latin or Greek vocabulary. Critics argued for the moral and aesthetic value of the classics as well as the value of classical humanism to all students. Understanding self, society, and God was central to Catholic educational philosophy, and, although the base of people to be educated 54 had been expanded, the purpose should not deviate from the central moral aims of schooling. Immigrant parents realized the value of education as a vehicle for social mobility and Catholic educators were in full agreement. The classical curriculum was the curriculum for the attainment of status. Catholic educators were urged to point out to parents the greater earning power of those students who finished high school. An academic education in high school, followed by college, paved the way for social position, the professions, and Catholic leadership in society (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993, p. 31). A papal pronouncement of Pope Pius XI in 1929, Divini Illius Magistri, supported the classical curriculum in education. Cautioning against errors of pragmatism.in the curriculum, and hastily abandoning the old ways, Pope Pius XII strongly affirmed the teaching of Latin as well as voicing his support of single-sex rather than coeducational schooling. Thus continued Catholicism's uneasy relationship to secular society. Debates would continue, but fundamental principles were not to be conceded. The Catholic school system had fully evolved by the end of the 19208. Ethnic parishes continued into the 19508 with English becoming the language of the parish in a majority of places. The autonomy of the local parish and the diversity of the ethnic parishes, as well as obstacles pertaining to the hiring and firing of teachers and the use of common textbooks across the system, would challenge the systemization of Catholic schools. The strength of the traditional private academy as the place for secondary education would retard the growth of the Catholic high school. Further clarification of 55 the role of the Catholic high school would be needed before Catholic schools, in general, could come into their own. The question of why Catholics established schools to begin with deserves an answer. First and foremost, Catholic lay people put a primary value on the need for religious instruction. Parents wanted to pass on their religious culture to their children, and the principal way this was being done--in the late nineteenth century--was through the schools. Family and church had not abdicated this responsibility, but after mid-century the school increasingly became the primary institution in the religious education of children. For most Protestants, a Sunday school fulfilled this role. For others, the German Lutherans being the best example, separate parochial schools were necessary. So, too, with Catholics. Thus, the school became an essential part of the Church's evangelization program. The shift from the primacy of informal religious education in the family to formal religious instruction in the school was critical to the development of a Catholic school system. (Dolan, 1992, p. 276) 1960 to the Ereeent Through two world wars and nuclear destruction, Catholic schools continued to prosper reaching a peak in 1965, when approximately 12 percent of all American elementary and secondary students were enrolled in Catholic schools. The validation of American Catholics came with the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, as President of the United States in 1960. Strangely out of place in the limelight, the American Catholic Church was now positioned for the critical examination of every Church institution and practice prompted by the Second Vatican Council. Vatican Council II was the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, the first being held in Nicea in 325 and the twentieth, Vatican I, being held in Rome 56 from 1869 to 1870. this ecumenical council called together the ranking prelates of the worldwide Christian churches to discuss matters pertaining to unity. Vatican II, whose purpose was to renew life in the Church, reform its institutions, and to explore ways and means of promoting unity among all Christian communities, was announced in January, 1959, by Pope John XXIII. It was announced on the day which had been established for the purpose of praying for Christian unity. The seventeen cardinals in attendance at the time of the announcement sat silent and motionless like statues. Response from Vatican officials was mixed. Some feared for the loss of some of their privileges while others wondered if the council was really necessary considering the current vigor and power of the institutional Church. Still others expressed serious doubt for the proposed council, citing the fact that former councils were usually followed by times of serious doubt and confusion (McCarthy, 1994). Pope John XXIII's goal for Vatican II was to modernize the Church and to involve it in the concerns of the world, especially those efforts that would strengthen unity and peace. Hi8 ultimate goal was the unification of all Christians. Toward this end, Pope John XXIII used the word aggiornamento. Aggiornamento meant the Church had to change to meet the needs of the times, that is, the changes taking place outside of itself. Aggiornamento looked to the needs and legitimate demands of the people. It was not a simpleminded rejection of all that was old and a breezy acceptance of everything new, but rather a disengagement from the limitations of the past and from a culture no longer viable. Aggiornamento denoted critical involvement in the new culture without denying its evils and its need for transformation. (McCarthy, 57 1994, p. 63) Aggiornamento became the guiding principle of Vatican II as the Council discussed developments taking place in history that Christians should not fear; the struggle of colonial people to determine their own future, the effort of workers to obtain their socioeconomic rights, and the quest of women for equality in domestic and public life. Vatican Council II brought together the largest collection of church and religious leaders ever assembled in one place. Besides twenty-seven hundred bishops from around the world, also present were ninety superiors of religious communities, and fifteen women from as many countries. Also on hand were some four hundred theological experts, thirty- nine representatives from other Christian communities, and some eighty-five ambassadors from different countries (McCarthy, 1994). The end result of all their efforts could be described as revolutionary because it affected every aspect of Catholic life. Vatican II has been aptly described as a paradigm shift from medievalism to postmodernity in the images of the Church and its relationship with the world (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993). The outcome of Vatican Council II still reverberates within the walls of the institutional Roman Catholic Church. The American Catholic Church continues to experience aftershocks more than a quarter-century later. Changes in doctrine and liturgical practices mandated by Vatican II seemed to transform Catholicism into a new religion. American Catholic schools would watch as central symbols such as statues and sister-teachers dressed in religious garb would 58 largely disappear; teaching staffs would become increasingly lay people rather than religious; and the traditional religious education curriculum would change. Most notably would be the decline in student enrollment. Once educating one in every eight students enrolled in school and turning away tens of thousands more because of lack of space, money and teachers, the system which at one time was bursting at the seems would, twenty-five years after reaching peak enrollment of 12 percent of the school-age population, decline to only 5.4 percent by 1990 (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993, p. 33). Closely linked to the decline in student enrollment was the ever-present financial problems experienced not only on a parish level, but also on a diocesan level. Within the parish, replacing the vanishing religious sisters with lay personnel was costly. Lay teachers demanded a just wage and benefits for their service, unlike the sister-teachers whose salaries were determined by the local pastor and.whose benefits were assumed by the religious order. This financial imbalance was offset by drastically raising tuition and fees for students enrolled in the Catholic school. In some areas, tuition costs quadrupled over a ten-year period of time. As the Church moved into the global arena which was decreed by Vatican II, the number of social missions within the diocese increased just as religious vocations decreased. This caused financial strains on the diocesan coffers. Diocesan support could not be seen as a possible solution to the school problem. Curricular issues in American Catholic schools were addressed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops 59 (NCCB) in their 1972 issuance of the document To Teach a Jesus Did. This document stated a threefold educational ministry for Catholic schools: to teach the message of hope contained in the gospel; to build community not simply a a concept to be taught, but as a reality to be lived; and service to all mankind which flows from a sense of Christian community (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993). Schools were to be the instruments of social justice that would be reflected in their unique educational mission and philosophy. Ultimately, Catholic schools faced issues on segregation. Forced busing plans increased the interest in urban Catholic schools, and increased enrollments would help their serious financial difficulties, but the bishops would not risk Catholic schools becoming a safety net for racists or separatists. Neglecting the urban poor to serve only a more affluent suburban clientele would be counter-witness to gospel values. Standing firm in their commitment to disadvantaged communities, the American bishops embraced the educational philosophy of participation not only in one's solitary community, but also in the community in which one loves. this commitment was verified in the first post-council document on schools which came from Rome. The 1997 document, The Catholic School, stressed the importance of Catholic schools in the mission of the Church as redefined by Vatican II. As a community, the Catholic school mirrors the mission of the Church in building the kingdom of God. Functioning in this way, the Catholic school, as an agent for religious formation, leaves behind the transmission of facts and invites students to engage in a critical reflection on the personal life of Christ, and how it plays a central role in 60 education and to the individual as 8/he discerns their place in the world. Each encounter in the Catholic school- structure, policy, daily life-is a teachable moment that can shape the life of the student. Catholic schools entered an extended period of uncertainty in the 808. With enrollment still on the decline, and financial problems still a major concern, Catholic schools emerged with a new identity. No longer the haven for immigrant children, Catholic schools now mirrored the commitment of some parents to the education of their children. Many Catholic schools had closed and very few new ones were being built, but sacrifices were being made to maintain the presence of the Catholic school in the community based on the foundation of parental commitment (Walch, 1996). Rooted within the history of the Catholic school are the theological guidelines for parents as the primary educators of their children (Second Vatican Council, 1965). Subsequent Church documents (John Paul II, 1988; National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1988; Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1977; and the United States Catholic Conference, 1976) identified the Catholic school as a formation agency of special significance. It supported the family and society in promoting the holistic formation of children. The development of the parochial school as a keystone of Catholic institutional life, where children acquire the basic learning skills needed in society, has had a major influence in shaping the Catholic ethos. McCormack (1999) believes that children make their first conclusions about self-worth, competence, acceptability, and of their importance to others from their experience of the 61 home environment. Children first learn from their parents to be accountable for themselves and to act responsibly toward others. Parents teach through word and example that effort is more important than results, and that learning from a process has a value in itself, apart from the product. Parents demonstrate that mistakes can become stepping stones to improvement and, therefore, need not be considered failure. Parents also convey that they are made in the image of God and are called to make appropriate life-giving choices at home, at school, and in private. Parents teach accountability for choices, behaviors, and actions or inactions. Identity is formed step-by-step, building block by building block, just like habits (McCormack, 1999, p.3). A child's sense of identity, which will carry him or her through their adult life, is established through parenting practices and contributed to in the interaction, classroom practices, and teaching strategies of the school experience. Research and Inquiry about Student's Catholic Identity This researcher used a network of colleagues, university professors, university and seminary libraries, professional organizations, and the Internet for understanding the range of the study, and the major contributions in the field. My initial search included a review of personal library resources, recommended course readings, and reading lists from related departments at Michigan State University. Specific needs and interests have narrowed these resources to what is considered here. The Institute for Catholic Educational Leadership (ICEL) at the University of San Francisco enabled the researcher to 62 review Catholic school dissertations from 1966 to the present. To generate possible sources, the researcher used keywords and phrases in a variety of combinations: Catholic, identity, Catholic identity, preadolescent, 4th/5th grade student, ethnography, Catholic school, teacher, family, spiritual formation, and faith development. These same keywords and phrases were also used in searching dissertation abstracts, First Search, the Electronic Reference Library (ERL), and the Educational Research Information Collection (ERIC) data bases. A mixed variety of sources have aided the researcher in better understanding the scope of Catholic identity and the Catholic school experience. Many studies in related areas have been done. However, none of them look at Catholic cultural identity and the Catholic school experience through the voices of 4th/5th grade students in an urban Catholic elementary school. For this reason additional research is needed for understanding how the features of the Catholic school experience enhance the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. A similar, but not significant, study related to Catholic identity was done by Cummings (1996) and.was initiated as a result of the NCEA National Congress on Catholic Education (1991) which recognized the significance of Catholic identity for Catholic schools as its most important issue. This study used a researcher-designed questionnaire based on Roman and American Catholic Church documents on Catholic schools. Questionnaires were grouped under four main headings: COmmunity, Message, warship, and Service. The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether 63 the increased religious diversity in a Catholic secondary school student population had an impact on the school's Catholic identity as perceived by their administrator, faculty members, and high school seniors. The findings suggest that in a secondary school with more than a 25% non- Catholic population, the Gospel message of Community was perceived as part of the hidden curriculum; that WOrship was perceived to ritualize values and beliefs not held by the community; and, that Service was perceived.merely as a graduation requirement. A study looking at Catholic identity in elementary schools (Blecksmith, 1996) determined the characteristics of Catholic identity through an examination of Church documents on education. It attempted to determine to what extent Community, Message, WOrship, and Service were present in Catholic elementary schools today. A survey was developed and mailed to principals as well as first, third, and eighth grade teachers. A telephone interview with 10% of those surveyed was also conducted. The survey revealed that shared perceptions between administrator and faculty would most likely be present in effective Catholic schools which possess a strong school culture. Two studies have used elementary students as participants (Biller, 1985 and Shamoo, 1985), but both have been studies of a quantitative nature. Based on these findings, the researcher suggests a qualitative study that particularly focuses on the features of the Catholic school experience which enhance the Catholic cultural identity of the 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. A study of this nature requires foundational 64 information regarding the faith development, the moral development, and the educational development of children. Faith Development The faith development model of James W. Fowler (1981) asserts that individuals have the ability to move through seven distinct stages of faith and moral development during their lifetime. Since the students to be interviewed are still in grade school, this study will focus on the first three of the seven stages: Infancy and Undifferentiated Faith, Intuitive-Projective Faith, and Mythic-Literal Faith. Fowler makes his presentation using the immense richness found in the words of Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Erik Erikson. I believe faith is a human universal. We are endowed at birth with nascent capacities for faith. How these capacities are activated and grow depends to a large extent on how we are welcomed into the world and what kinds of environments we grow in. Faith is interactive and social; it requires community, language, ritual, and nurture. Faith is also shaped by initiatives from beyond us and other people, initiatives of spirit or grace. How these latter initiatives are recognized and imaged, or unperceived and ignored, powerfully affects the shape of the faith of our lives. (Fowler, 1981, p. xiii) For Fowler, faith is the way of seeing ourselves in relation to others against a background of shared meaning and purpose. Not always religious in nature, faith helps a person find meaning, purpose, and priority within the big picture. At birth, the first experiences of faith are marked by a consistency in providing for one's needs as well as making a valued place in others' lives which is demonstrated by 65 loyalty and dependability (Coles, 1990, p. 4-6). What is brought to the care and nurture of the child reflects the values and beliefs of the parent or parents. Fowler (1981) states that as love, attachment, and dependence bind the new one into the family, he or she begins to form.a disposition of shared trust and loyalty to the family's faith ethos, thus establishing a covenantal pattern of faith as relational. Diagramed as a triadic shape, a covenantal pattern rests on a base line representing a twoaway flow between self and others of love, mutual trust, and loyalty. Above the baseline, at the point of the triad, is a representation of shared centers of value and power invested in by both self and others (Coles, 1990, p. 17). We invest or devote ourselves because the other to which we commit has, for us, an intrinsic excellence or worth and because it promises to confer value on us. We value that which seems of transcendent worth and in relation to which our lives have worth. (Coles, 1990, p. 18) For Fowler, commitments and trust shape identities enabling one to become part of that which is loved and trusted. Sustaining these identities are covenantal patterns of faith as relation. Lasting human relationships exhibit this triadic form tacitly more often than explicitly. Faith, for Fowler, is also an imaginative process awakened and sharpened by interactions that make up the “stuff" of our lives. Faith, which binds people to centers of value and power and in its triadic joining of communities of shared trusts and loyalties, gives form and content to the imaging of an alternative environment, God (Archer, 1999, p. 28 and Collins, 1999, p. 8). Images symbols, rituals, and 66 conceptual representations become an active way of learning in the language and common life of people in communities. When asked what we think or know, according to Fowler, we call up images and set about scanning files, questioning what we know. The result is a narration that transforms the nascent images into shared images. Never exhausting the content of the nascent image, faith cannot form the shared image of the ultimate environment. Belief is made up of the forms faith shapes expressing, celebrating, and living in relation to the ultimate environment imaged both now and in the past. Faith, a8 imagination, composes a felt image of an ultimate environment (Archer, 1999, p. 28). Fowler's Stages ef Faith Development 1. Stage 0-(0-4 years): Primal Faith; The Incorporative Self; Nursed Faith; and Foundation Faith. This pre-stage (not empirically verifiable) owes much to Erik Erikson's understanding of the first age in the life cycle where basic trust, derived from a loving relationship with a nurturing parent, is the strength to be achieved. 2. Stage l-(pre-schoolers): Intuitive-Projective Faith; The Impulse Self; Chaotic Faith; Unordered Faith; and Impressionistic Faith. This stage of faith development can first be noticed in pre-school children. The ”episodic" and "impressionistic" world of children at this stage is made up of images (not stories). Social awareness is confined to the family and any adult is an authority figure. Children's understanding of God 67 will be largely from their own relationship to their parents who are often perceived as the biggest, most powerful people they know in the world. God is a "Big Daddy" in the sky. 3. Stage 2-(grade school): Mythic-Literal Faith; The Imperial Self; and Ordering Faith. The concept of fairness looms large in a person's way of faith knowledge at this faith stage: fairness is understood, not in any abstract way, but concretely as a way of knowing what to expect from others and a way of bringing order into one's world. One discovers that there will be times when others are not always fair and that we, ourselves, are not always fair, but God is seen as always being fair. Stage-2 is also the era of the story: ”Is this story true?" is an often asked question. It is important to note, however, that the stories children tell at this stage are stories in life, not about life. Stories where the meanings are trapped in the narrative because there is not yet the readiness to draw from them conclusions about a general order of meaning of life. Simple stories about good and evil hold great attraction (Fowler, 1981, p. 137). From their personal experiences people accumulate stories to tell because stories help digest one's experiences. Stories tell what happens to people. Remembered experiences form a set of stories that can constitute a world view and characterize one's beliefs. If a personal worldview is unknown, stories can remind and illustrate an opinion of some aspect of the world (Shank, 1990, p. 29). In addressing the sociology of childhood, William Corsaro (1997) focuses more on children's relations with 68 peers than with adults. His coverage of children's cultures ends with the transition to adolescence. Furthermore, Corsaro offers an interpretive perspective to the sociology of childhood which he contrasts with more traditional socialization or outcome approaches to children and to their development. In this perspective he notes that a central intellectual role model for him was Shirley Brice Heath (1983, 1989, 1990), whose ethnographic work with children and families, radiates with rigor, compassion, and integrity. Most recently, Corsaro has been inspired and challenged by the theoretical views and writings of Candy Goodwin (1985, 1990), Jens Qvortrup (1991, 1993a, 1993b, 1994a, 1994b), and Barrie Thorne (1986, 1987, 1993) on children and childhood. As children venture out from the family, they are aimed in specific directions, are prepared for interaction with distinct interpersonal and emotional orientations, and are armed with particular cultural resources that are all derived from earlier experiences in their families. (Corsaro, 1997, p. 97) Faith development and moral development, while independent, are affected by cognitive operations as well as their mutual interactions. Children try to understand not only what is happening to them, but why; and in doing so, they call upon the religious life they have experienced and the spiritual values they have received, as well as other sources of potential explanations (Coles, 1990). Desires, hopes, dreams, and ambitions, as well as deep despair, sometimes finds connections-in a an idiosyncratic way-to biblical stories or to religiously sanctioned notions of right and wrong or to rituals such as prayer and meditation. 69 Links between faith and moral development are stronger in the early stages of development and weaker towards the higher stages (Francis, Kay 5 Campbell, 1996). Religious communities attempt to transmit their heritage to the younger generation, including their faith, morals, rituals, and their community's worldview, lifestyle, and values. The aim of religious education extends beyond merely communicating knowledge about religion, to the socialization of students in terms of commitment to faith, acceptance of religious rules of behavior, and adoption of the worldview of the religion (p. 423). Accordingly, this kind of faith and moral education may play an important part in the transmission of the religious ethos. Moral Development My research and that of others indicates that the development of moral character is in large part a sequential progressive growth of basic principles of moral reasoning and their application to action. (Kohlberg, 1971, p. 69) Strongly influenced by the work of Piaget, Kohlberg (1969) focuses on an active knowing subject interacting with a dynamic environment. The now famous Heinz dilemma, originating from Kohlberg's work, has proven an especially good research vehicle, permitting the elicitation of different ways of justifying moral judgments concerning relations between life, law, punishment, and conscience. Heinz's wife is dying of cancer that only a newly discovered drug, which Heinz cannot afford, may cure. Heinz's dilemma is whether to try to save his wife's life by stealing the drug 70 or to obey the law and let his wife die. The outstanding feature of many young children's moral judgment is their attention to the concrete or literal aspects of an act, rather than to the intentions of the actor (Gibbs, 1977). This tendency of young children to focus on an immediate or literal action justifying their moral judgment is primarily observed in their judgment of the behavior of others. By school age, Kohlberg points out, children will usually begin to evidence in their justifications a less literal understanding of interpersonal moral behavior and exhibit more of a pragmatic nature. This pragmatism shifts at a preadolescent period to justification based on shared interpersonal values. One stage of thought does not merely replace another. Instead, a new stage transforms the old one and incorporates its main elements into the new thought pattern (Fenton, 1977). PeOple can understand moral arguments at their own stage, at all the stages beneath their own, and sometimes at one and, occasionally, two stages above their own. They generally prefer the highest stage of thought that they can comprehend. Kohlberg carries over into ethics the Piagetian concern to harness empirical psychological inquiry for dealing with philosophical issues. He does this while taking a rational look at how, in different stages, persons structure their experiences of, and judgments about, the social world. this study will use Kohlberg's Level A: Pre-Conventional Morality, and the two stages embedded within the Level, to begin to explore a child's moral development. The first stage is characterized by unquestioned obedience to rules and authority in order to avoid punishment. The physical 71 consequences of an action determine whether it is right or wrong. This stage takes an egocentric point of view-the interests of others are not considered. The second stage is characterized by serving one's own needs and occasionally the needs of others. YOU scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. To be right means following the rules when it is in my interest, and also what is fair. It is a more or less equal exchange-a deal-an agreement. At this stage, we can separate our own interests and points of view from those of authorities and others (Kohlberg, 1969). Research states that deliberate attempts to facilitate stage change through educational programs based on the discussion of moral dilemmas has been successful in elementary schools, junior and senior high schools, and on the college level (Fenton, 1977). However, the relationship of moral thought to moral action is not as simple as it appears. In light of this, one needs to link faith and moral development to a philosophical construct of a child's educational development. Knowing how to engage students' interest in specific things of value should be much the same as knowing how best to help students learn specific things of value. The awareness of students' interest in, and ability to learn specific things as they change during the course of development, should affect the ideas or experiences contained in the school experience. Educational Development Kieran Egan (1979) desired to create a theory of educational development which organized differently the 72 knowledge needed to make sense of the world. He created a four-stage approach based, in part, on data generated by Piaget and Erikson. This research will look at Stages 1 and 2 of this theory. What we need in education is a different kind of theory, one which focuses on the educational aspects of development, learning, and motivation and which directly yields principles for engaging children in learning, for unit and lesson planning, and for curriculum organizing. It is this kind of theory that this book offers--a new and comprehensive theory of educational development from earliest years to maturity. (Egan, 1979, p. 6) Egan distinguishes four main stages of educational development claiming that at each stage people make sense of the world and experience in significantly different ways. He claims that these differences require knowledge to be organized differently in order to be most accessible and educationally effective at each stage. From the defining characteristics of the stages are derived principles for organizing learning and teaching. St f t' v 1. Stage 1-(4-10 years): The Mythic Stage This first stage of educational development is called mythic because young children's thinking shares important features with the kind of thinking evident in the stories of myth-using people (Egan, 1979, p. 11): (a) a main function of myth is to provide its users with intellectual security; (b) myth stories, as well as children, lack what has been generally called a sense of otherness-concepts of historical time, physical regularities, logical relationships, 73 causality, and geographical space; (c) myth lacks a clear sense of the world as autonomous and objective; and (d) myth stories tend to be articulated as binary oppositions. At this stage, learning involves making sense of the unknown outside world in terms of the known world within. Effective teaching at this stage provides access to the outside world through organized knowledge known in terms that children can use and absorb. Myth or fairy stories derive their power from being reflections of those characteristics of children's thinking that enable them to project mental images onto the world and absorb the world to them with ease and flexibility (Egan, 1979, p. 27). The passage from the mythic stage coincides with the perception that the world is autonomous; that it is separate and fundamentally different from the child. 2. Stage 2-(8-15 years): The Romantic Stage The Romantic Stage is characterized by the development of rudimentary but serviceable concepts of otherness; concepts of historical time, geographical space, physical regularities, logical relationships, and causality. The world outside of the person has lost the security known as the extension of one's self and is filled with strange things, alien laws, and mysteriously threatening situations. With the development of the autonomous world comes the reciprocal perception of the separate self. Within this stage is the development of a fascination with extremes of what exists and what is known. The Guinness Book of werld Records becomes a favorite read. Knowledge becomes engaging when it is different from anything the 74 student has come to know up to this stage. The student's search for limits during this stage can produce obsessive hobbies and pastimes. The Romantic Stage is characterized by how it constantly pushes against limits, enabling students to explore the reality of the world by first making contact with its most extreme limits and then working inward (Egan, 1979, p. 47). Egan created this theory of educational development out of a sense of the ineffectualness he felt with existing educational research that veiled education in non-educational theories and paradigms which directed attention away from educational issues. Educational development is a process fueled by knowledge in an environment where the proper fulfillment and satisfaction of one stage leads to the next. The subsequent stages build on, elaborate, and develop from 'the previous ones, gathering from them any benefits and enriching perceptions, and whatever sense is made of the vmorld and human experience (Egan, 1979, p. 92). Summary Just as parents are responsible for the beginnings of their children's natural lives, so they are responsible for 1111£eir children's introduction into the life of faith, moral, a111d educational development. The Roman Catholic Church SuE>]:_Dorts the primacy of parents in the education of their children, but that primacy also means that Catholic parents bear the primary responsibility in handing on Catholic faith and tradition to their children. Involvement in complex religious acculturation and education can be part of the 75 natural child development process beginning with the modeling of a faith life by the parent. For religion to have a personal meaning, to be relevant and effective, children must be taught how to live their faith. This can be accomplished by showing them how to live their faith every day in such ways as performing simple acts of kindness and sharing. They can choose to be more honest and tolerant when other options are more tempting. It is accepted thinking that through the practice of virtuous behavior children can become open to forming a close relationship with God. The Catholic school experience should be an extension of the faith life that began with those initial faith life experiences in the home. The mission of the Catholic school becomes effective when it educates holistically, reaching the inner lives of the children in effective ways, motivating them to be concerned about their behavior and effort at school. Everyone connected to a Catholic school experience, 130th at the home and at the school, works to support the (effort to build and maintain a Catholic cultural identity in eavery student by committing themselves to instruct, to model, to encourage, and to praise toward that end. Assuming that the attainment of academic excellence can be much the same in the Catholic and the non- Catholic school, what should the distinctive and unique contributions of the Catholic school be to its students? What should the differences be in the young people who have been educated in Catholic schools when compared to those who have been schooled elsewhere? In light of the central significance the Catholic religion has in the mission of the Catholic school, these questions can be rephrased to ask: What will be noteworthy in the lives and the demeanor of Catholic school graduates who have been taught to love God, to cherish and practice their Catholic faith, and encouraged to lead Christian lives? (Cronin, 1999, p. 1) 76 The unique gift for children from the Catholic school experience should be the love of their religion and a Christ- like identity that enables them to live their lives in accord with truth and goodness. James Fowler (1981), Kieran Egan (1979), and Lawrence Kohlberg (1969) believe that various fonms of personal development happen in stages that are necessary steps for the total development of the person. In defining these various stages, these theorists enable someone to be placed and identified within the stage framework. People being uniquely individual, placement and identity are likewise. Movement through the stages is controlled by the individual and his or her life experiences. A Catholic school experience is a life experience for many children. Within the Catholic school experience is the claim that integrated throughout is an identity element based on the doctrines of the Roman Catholic <3hurch that enhances the ability of the student in the (Zatholic school to strengthen a Catholic identity salience. flfhis researcher believes that a Catholic identity salience (Ban be created and strengthened through various life exPeriences, one of which need not be a Catholic school Eaifiperience. Therefore, what features of the Catholic school (aJtperience enhance, or not, the Catholic cultural identity of El 14th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary E3<=hool? 77 Chapter 3: Methodology Introduction The purpose of this study was to explore what features of a Catholic school experience enhanced the Catholic cultural identity of a 4th/5th grade student in an urban Catholic elementary school. The analytical lenses that guided the analysis of this study included James Fowler's (1981) seven stages of faith development, Kieran Egan's (1979) four stages of educational development, and Lawrence Kohlberg's (1969) six stages of moral reasoning development, as well as the cultural identity work of Robert Coles (1986,1990) and Gini Shimabukuro (1998). The methodology used in conducting this study is explained in this chapter and is accompanied by a rationale for the choice of methods. The setting in which the study was carried out is defined, followed by a description of the population and the sample-selection criteria. The processes of data collection and analysis are discussed. Rationale and Approach Given the nature of this study, one that will focus on the individual lived experiences of 4th/ 5th grade students in ear; urban Catholic elementary school, this study used a qualitative approach incorporating the four methods Cllléilitative researchers typically rely on for gathering information: (a) participation in the setting, (b) direct Observation, (c) in-depth interviewing, and (d) analyzing 78 documents and.material culture (Marshall and Rossman, 1999). Based on these and other characteristics of qualitative research (Marshall and Rossman, 1999, p. 3), this study hoped to gain a better understanding of the complexities of the human experience of faith development in 4th/5th grade students in an urban Catholic elementary school. A.constructivist approach was woven throughout this qualitative study. Constructivism is a theory of knowledge and learning that defines knowledge as temporary, developmental, socially and culturally mediated, and thus, non-objective (Brooks 5 Brooks, 1993). Learning from a constructivist perspective is understood as a self—regulated process of resolving inner cognitive conflicts that often become apparent through concrete experience, collaborative discourse, and reflection (Brooks & Brooks, 1993, p. vii). Participants brought prior experiences in faith and moral and educational development to the research setting allowing the researcher to de-construct, through the various character- istics of qualitative research, these experiences to better understand the influence of the Catholic school experience on ‘the nurturing of a personal Catholic cultural identity. The strategy used to better understand all the information, observations, interviews, theories, and patterns ‘tflaat emerged during the fieldwork to produce the essence of 1:1me culture was ethnography (Fetterman, 1998). Ethnography éiJmlowed a holistic outlook on the research in order to gain a rich, descriptive, comprehensive, and complete picture of the .£>Eilrticipants. Describing the culture of a Catholic school tirllnough the expressions of core beliefs, values, traditions, 8I'lllbols, and patterns of behavior which provide meaning to 79 the school community and which help shape the lives of students, teachers, and parents, reflected the multilayered and interrelated context of the way things are done in a Catholic school. A primary goal of the Catholic school experience is to blend faith and culture. The ideas, beliefs, and knowledge that characterized the Catholic school experience was best illuminated through a cognitive ethnography where participants were able to define their reality, speak to the sub-categories of their existence, and define their symbols (Fetterman, 1998, p. 17). Defining this cultural experience through the ethnographic approach of examining what the research hears and sees within the framework of the multilayered and interrelated context of the participants' view, contributed to the holistic outlook of gaining a comprehensive and complete picture of the group. Ethnography is concerned with making sense of social life. An ethnographic approach to viewing the rich cultural symbols and rituals of a Catholic school experience, focusing on the (expression and representation of emergent experience and lneaning in discreet microscopic social settings, opened doors to understanding critical cultural knowledge as well as lielping to frame, classify, and categorize collected behavior (Fetterman, 1998, p. 27). Population and Sample The population included in this research was a I’lllnposeful sampling of eight 4th/5th grade students from four ‘11311an Catholic elementary schools each having a diverse 80 student population. The schools had a rich cultural history within the Roman Catholic Church school tradition of serving their parish and local communities, and each had a predominantly white student population with a Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Multi-Racial student population also present, but in a minority capacity. All the schools were in urban settings with student populations ranging from less than 100 students to more than 300 students. Student participation included a balance of race and gender. Criteria for student selection incorporated: 1) identity as a 4th/5th grade student enrolled in an urban Catholic elementary school; 2) a religious affiliation as a Roman Catholic; and 3) identified as a 4th/5th grade student enrolled in an urban Catholic elementary school for a minimum of two years, excluding Kindergarten. I proposed to begin with two students, one male and one female, from each of the following ethnicities: African American, Caucasian, Asian American and Hispanic. This selection would help the researcher better understand potential confounding conditions :due to cultural and religious affiliation. The use of a (diverse participant population better enabled the researcher 'toidefine and/or understand the phenomenon of cultural rneanings as determined by the participants. Not being able to number among the participants two Asian American students, ‘tflae resulting participants were: two Caucasian students, one male and one female, three African American students, one male and two female, and three Hispanic students, one male Eillci two females. The decision to use 4th/5th grade students was initially .511?