Consejo de disciplina

Culture, being a polysemous word, is elusive and difficult to define. Cassidy considers culture as “a cluster of assumptions, values, and ways of life that give expression to the identity of a human community” (2001, p.1). Culture pervades every aspect of communal life within a certain geographical area: simply put, culture is how we do things around here. The Latin origin of the word culture, “cultura” meaning “to till” or “to cultivate”, signals it as an unnatural entity, a human-made creation. The original meaning helps to ensure a better understanding of culture as a non-neutral construct (Gallagher, 1997, p.12). Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that it is impossible to objectively analyse a certain cultural context without some level of prejudice or bias. Gallagher identifies culture as the most influential and determining factor in “how we see ourselves” (1997, p.10). Constructionist theorists have termed this cultural conditioning as our “social imaginary”, which is a “common understanding that makes possible common practices and a widely shared sense of legitimacy” (Taylor, 2004, p.23). Indeed, the role of the imagination in assisting identity formation and development is vital.

Culture is the chief factor in how we see ourselves and is fundamental in forming our identity as individuals. Therefore, the particular culture within a school can be influential in shaping its members’ individual identities. The dynamic between the collective identity of the school and its impact on the identity formation of individual members is relevant to this research, where students with minority religious and secular worldviews belong to a school with a different religious identity.

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The all-encompassing character of a school’s culture is described by The glossary of educational reform (2018) as follows:

The term school culture generally refers to the beliefs, perceptions, relationships, attitudes, and written and unwritten rules that shape and influence every aspect of how a school functions, but the term also encompasses more concrete issues such as the physical and emotional safety of students, the orderliness of classrooms and public spaces, or the degree to which a school embraces and celebrates racial, ethnic, linguistic, or cultural diversity.

Similar to “culture”, “ethos” is a nebulous term that resists straightforward conceptualisations and is itself subsumed within the broader concept of culture. When used in relation to schools, it signals the range of beliefs and values that define the philosophy of a particular school. Donnelly identifies definitions of ethos as being informed by either a positivist or an anti-positivist stance (2000, p.135). A positivist stance will determine ethos as a “formal expression of the authorities’ aims and objectives for an organisation” (2000, p.135). This stance would seem to describe Catholic schools, as they are directed by the beliefs and values of the Catholic Church hierarchy. However, theorists from the anti- positivist approach understand ethos as informally emerging from a process of social interaction between all members of the school community (2000, pp.135-136). The findings of the current research echo Donnelly’s research in that it found a disconnect between the formal expression of school’s ethos and the lived experience of it (2000). The periphery voices of those who do not fully assign to the shared religious vision of the school under study draw into sharp relief the divide between the two. Moreover, McLaughlin identifies that “the potential tension between an ‘intended’ ethos and an ‘experienced’ ethos is ... an inescapable part of ethos in an educational context” (2005, p.312).

Morris (1998) asserts that for a school to have a distinctive and completely coherent ethos, all members of the school community must adhere to values and beliefs of those in authority. Donnelly notes the challenge for teachers and students of religiously diverse and increasingly secular societies, who are members of Catholic schools, “where the Catholic hierarchy’s objective for education is that of total commitment to religious values on the part of teachers and pupils” (2000, p. 138). However, the current research questions this expectation of total commitment to Catholic values and asks instead if it is possible for a Catholic school to re-imagine its ethos as one committed to the values of an intercultural education that seeks to contribute to an authentic inclusive environment.

2.6.1 The Identity Development of Students

Adolescence is the stage of development which typically initiates a unique growth in the development of one’s identity. Young people from 12-18 years of age generally embark on a period of self- discovery that traverses the interiority of their being and their experience of the outside world around

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them. The interconnectedness of and interplay between exterior and interior experiences at this stage have formative implications for identity development. Erikson (1950) describes the adolescent stage of his eight-stage theory of psychological development as a time of struggle and conflict regarding a person’s negotiation between remaining faithful to inherited values from early influencers, for example parents or guardians, and the strong affiliation and attachment to “new” ideals and values. A young person at this stage must forge their own individual identity, as distinct from these early influencers. The importance of social interactions at this stage crucially confronts a young person with other and often conflicting ways of being in the world, which further allows for a developing sense of morality. A successful identity development results in the adolescent making commitments, the “psychosocial bonds young people make by the end of adolescence”, which underline their integration within society (Miedema and Bertram-Troost 2007, p.133). Marcia identifies the significance of “commitment” and “exploration” in Erikson’s work (1993).

Understandably, education and schooling play an important role in the identity development of young people at this exploratory stage of their lives, which coincides with the development of formal operational thought or the ability to think critically (Erikson, 1968). As this research explores young people’s experience of RE, a subject which aims to open up and critically explore questions of religious and non-religious belief, it must also investigate how this experience impacts upon the religious or non-religious identity development of the young person. Where the religious or non- religious identity of a student is different from the religious identity of the school, how the dominant religious identity of the school engages with this difference is influential to the identity development of the student, in terms of their self-understanding of their own religious or non-religious identity, as understood by the religious ethos of the school. To put it more candidly, the identity development of students relates to their sense of belonging in the school community of which they are members (Barrett, 2000).

Research conduct by Miedema and Bertram-Troost (2007) examines the role of denominational secondary schools in the worldview identity development of adolescent students. The authors define a worldview as “the system, which is always subjected to changes, of implicit and explicit views and feelings of an individual in relation to human life” (2007, p.136. See also Andrée 1989; Leeferink and Klaassen 2000; Miedema 2003) or simply, “the way one looks at life”. Employing a theoretical conceptualisation of “religious identity development”, this research finds that school had no significant impact on the religious commitments or explorations of students. However, students indicate that school has an impact on the way they look at life, hence the researchers recommend further research in students’ evaluations of RE to broaden the picture.

The current research explores students’ experience of RE and reflects on how this has impacted their self-understanding of their individual religious or non-religious identity. Experiences relating to how

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one’s religious or non-religious identity is perceived to be treated is important. For example, if a person of minority faith feels the religious school they attend does not adequately recognise or respect their religious identity, then this can impact negatively on the way they define themselves in relation to the school’s identity. Indeed, there are various studies critiquing the misrecognition of children’s religious and non-religious school identities (Hemming and Madge, 2012; Byrne, 2015; Stapleton, 2018). Kitching defines misrecognition as referring to “the misrepresentation, non-engagement of non-co-religionist child identities as part of religious schools’ curricula or ethos” (2017, p.2). Barrett (2000) suggests it is helpful for Catholic students to attend Catholic schools, as it positively assists their identity development in terms of giving them a sense of belonging and coherence. This sense of belonging aids the development of an “authentic selfhood” (Kitching, 2017, p.2). The participating Catholic students in the current research did report more positively on the RE they received, although they showed a heightened awareness of the how their peers with different religious and secular worldviews felt overlooked.

An important implication of Miedema and Bertram-Troost’s research is that teachers who want to gain a deeper insight into the religious identity developments of their students must recognise and engage with the religious and non-religious backgrounds of the students and their parents (2007, p.149). The findings of this research reveal a blind spot regarding adequate recognition on behalf of the participating teachers of the religious diversity within the school community.

The following section of this review considers the role of the Religion teacher in Catholic schools, which is understood as following the perfect model of Jesus Christ – the ultimate teacher, whose teaching is witnessed in his life, death and resurrection by Christians (McKinney, 2013 pp.81-83). Teachers in Catholic schools are called to “imitate and give witness to Christ, the one teacher, not only in their words but also in their behaviour” (2013, p.81). The challenges of this expectation are also explored in the following section.