Formation for mission for middle leadership in Catholic secondary schools

The era of cleric led and staffed Catholic schools is long gone. The reality that lay men and women are now charged with the responsibility to lead Catholic schools presents both challenges and opportunities. The mission of the Catholic secondary school, as an agent of the Church, is to evangelise and this evangelisation responsibility now rests with lay men and women who are leading Catholic schools. This research, which focuses on middle leadership in Catholic secondary schools, seeks to investigate and explore the formation programs and opportunities for these lay men and women so that they may take up their post with confidence, integrity and ecclesial understanding so as to enable Catholic schools to achieve their mission. This mission of the Catholic secondary school, as an agent of the Church and alongside other Church entities, is to evangelise and this evangelisation responsibility now rests with the lay leadership of Catholic schools in a brave new era.

The current milieus within which these schools operate – characterised by the minimal presence of religious clerics who are dedicated to teaching and learning, the non-practicing tendencies among many self-declared Catholics, and the limitations of the middle leaders’ deep religious knowledge and literacy – present challenges in achieving the “new evangelisation” and meeting the ecclesial expectations of the Church. Middle leaders in Catholic secondary schools are assumed to have sufficient ecclesial understanding congruent with that of the Church to lead student learning, pastoral care, wellbeing, and religious education.

This study, which was conducted in the Archdiocese of Sydney, focuses on the religious formation for mission of middle leaders and the role they perform in Catholic secondary schools. Its major research question was: “What is the nature and aspects of religious formation provided to middle leaders in Catholic schools? And how do these middle leaders view their formation experience for leadership in a Catholic school?” Four related sub-questions were employed to guide the methodology, data collection and analysis.

The study adopted a case study within a mixed-methods design methodology for data collection and analysis and data were collected through an online survey, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The major findings of the study are the wide recognition of the importance of the role of middle leaders in Catholic secondary schools in leading the Church’s evangelisation mission, the presence of a gap in the provision of formation opportunities to help them to articulate the faith dimension of their leadership role, and the need for a new paradigm for religious formation programs for these leaders that provides guidance and purpose, builds confidence in religious literacy and understanding, and is adaptable and sustainable.

Because of the secular and pluralistic world in which Catholic schools exist, the changing Church demographics highlight that the traditional patterns of religious formation on which the Catholic Church and Catholic schools have relied for many years are no longer relevant, and that middle leaders require a religious formation that is equivalent to their professional formation. Religious formation for mission is critical to the religious leadership of middle leaders and their evangelising role in Catholic secondary schools. The Church recognises that genuine faith cannot be imposed: it is freely accepted or rejected. If the educational and catechetical goals are explicit and openly stated, then middle leaders might be encouraged to engage with open hearts and thinking minds, and to embrace the formation opportunities afforded them. This then may meet Pope Francis’ call for Catholic schools to be led and staffed by missionary disciples.