Phenomenal Women: Experiences of Women in Executive Catholic Educational Leadership in the United States

Journal of Catholic Education, 2016

The increasing emphasis on the myriad of leadership preparation standards have caused university principal preparation programs to necessarily focus on the more secular aspect of leading schools. For the Catholic school principal, this has left little focus on the development of critical strategies to lead for Catholic Identity and faith formation. This article suggests using the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Schools as a framework for Catholic principal preparation programs to address this issues. Additional suggests for program development are also offered.

2007

This paper reports a qualitative study of the practice of leadership in Catholic schools to ascertain the perceptions of lay principals, who as positional leaders play a critical role in embracing and creatively rebuilding the Catholic vision of life within the reality that the Catholic school principalship is now a ministry of the laity. The methodology included semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflexive journals, direct observation, and document analysis. The study examined both individual human behaviour and the structure of the social order in Catholic schools. The findings point towards successful leadership in Catholic schools being highly influenced by the cultural and spiritual capital that a principal brings to a school signifying a fundamental importance of appointing principals who are not only professionally competent but spiritually as well. In an era of unprecedented social, educational and ecclesial change, and with an ever widening role description, lay principals are challenged to redefine and re-articulate their Catholic character and identity, and will need to look for new ways to make this explicit. Embracing a new leadership paradigm of shared leadership, the preparation and on-going formation of lay principals were identified as critical for the continuance of the Catholic school's distinctive mission in the future.

New Thinking, New Scholarship and New Research in Catholic Education, 2021

Journal of Catholic Education, 2017

Routledge eBooks, 2005

2003

F or most of the history of Catholic higher education in the United States, the selection and preparation of leaders was a relatively stable process controlled almost entirely by the bishops and religious congregations that founded and ran the colleges and universities. Over the last thirty-five years lay men and women increasingly entered the leadership pool. As they did, the once well established pipeline and preparation process for leadership became less well-defined, less certain. Today, more than half the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities are lay persons. 1 The trend toward selecting Catholic lay persons as presidents will continue. We are at a point now where we can compare the backgrounds, aspirations, and career paths of religious and lay presidents-the general focus of this study, which is a key part of its authors' effort to focus on the challenges and promise inherent in the emerging patterns of leadership in American Catholic higher education. 2 Catholic college presidents were generally religious and/ or priests in past years, and because of this they differed as a cohort from their presidential peers at other institutions in notable ways. These differences often could be seen in the types of degrees they held, their fields of study and expertise, their career paths, reasons they sought or accepted a presidency, and, perhaps most notably, in their gender mix. As Catholic institutions of higher education have become increasingly led by lay people, these differences are fading. Fields of Study Perhaps the most obvious example of the trend is in the area of a president's field of study. Thirty-four percent of the religious

2015

Sooner or later, every Catholic school faces a change of leadership. Research indicates that leadership succession is one of the most important influences on the sustainability of schools, yet most Catholic schools do not include leadership succession planning as a part of their strategic plan. The purpose of this qualitative, multi-site case study was to examine the leadership development practices and administrative succession plans employed at three selectively sampled Holy Cross-sponsored Catholic secondary schools. These practices were compared and contrasted with those in business, the nonprofit sector, public education, independent schools, and other Catholic schools. The intent of the research was to use the findings to develop a set of recommendations and strategies to strengthen leadership development and succession planning in these Catholic schools. Results of the study suggested that the most effective leaders positively influence leadership development and succession p...

2006

Course Delivery Blackboard/Elluminate Course Description This course will focus on the challenges and opportunities that influence the professional practice of Christian educational leaders (e.g. school Principals, Departments Heads, board members) working in public school systems (public, independent and private). We will examine selected challenges, for example, leading Christianly within state sponsored public schools. The framework for our examination will be leadership theory and practice (historical, contemporary, spiritual and practical), permissible and possible society and cultural accommodations to Christian leaders working within public school systems, and Christian leadership in action-exemplary case studies. The course will include an identification of the tensions that exist in contemporary public society regarding faith-based leadership practices. The tensions will serve as our tools of analyses. At least five tensions will be identified. They are: images imbedded in personal leadership practices; images imbedded in public perceptions of Christian leadership practices; power, control and authority and leadership; gender, ethnicity and complexity in leadership; and, pluralism's promises and Christian leaders' response.

Journal of Catholic Education

This qualitative phenomenology investigated the job-related experiences of early career Catholic elementary school principals (N = 13) in the Mideastern region of the United States. Data were collected from an introductory survey, semi-structured interviews, two focus groups, and a participant designed plan for professional development. The findings indicated that Catholic elementary principals in their early career are motivated by a calling to a vocation in Catholic school leadership as well as the ability to develop and implement a vision for their school. Principals reported being challenged by limited resources, balancing the demands of the position, and navigating relationships. Finally, principals believed they are supported by diocesan administrators in the areas of human resources and student issues, particularly if the concerns have legal implications.

2010

Journal of Catholic Education

Canon law recognizes the pastor as the chief educational officer (CEO) of the parish school. However, recent studies demonstrate that seminaries do not prepare seminarians for work in or leadership of Catholic schools, and recent scholarship also demonstrates that an increasing number of seminarians lack the desire to lead a parish school. Our research study examined the post-seminary preparation of priests for leadership of parish schools. We also explored alternative governance models for Catholic schools. We conducted structured interviews with 10 national leaders to explore these two areas of interest. Our findings demonstrate that preparation of newly ordained and veteran priests for parish school leadership is woefully inadequate. Interviewees suggested that the pastor/principal relationship and school finance are two important topics that should be addressed in best practice preparation programs for school leaders. All 10 interviewees had difficulty imagining alternative governance models for schools in which the pastor would not serve as the CEO, but at the same time, some of the participants could see potential benefits of alternative governance models. Based on the findings of our study, we recommend that: (1) seminary programs include an initial introduction to the importance of Catholic schools for evangelization; (2) a new national model for preparing young and veteran priests for school leadership be developed and implemented; (3) existing best practices for alternative governance models be collated and promulgated; and (4) church leaders and stakeholders determine the best governance models for their schools and then prepare the appropriate people for leadership roles accordingly.

is focus edition seeks to explore this question and o er solutions. e articles that comprise this focus edition examine this intersection between this increasing emphasis on leadership standards and the need to develop the on-the-ground knowledge and skills required to prepare e ective Catholic school principals. Given the reality of addressing national/state leadership standards like the ISLLC, it is critical that there is an examination of the required programmatic balance in the “faith and instructional” leadership competencies required to run an e ective Catholic school.

The focus of this research was student leadership and student leadership development in a Catholic secondary school. Central to the thesis were the leadership experiences and self-perceptions of elected students aged 15-17 years as they participated in the school's leadership program. These insights helped the researcher characterise the functioning Program of student leadership at the school, and to discern what kinds of leaders are produced through its efforts. The review of literature considered five established leadership models: transactional leadership, transformational leadership, charismatic leadership, servant leadership, and distributed leadership. These models were analysed with regards to their strengths, limitations, and potential application to a Catholic, educational setting. Christian leadership and school-based, student leadership initiatives were also v

2005

INTRODUCTION / Xl interesting to observe the ways that lay leaders will engage the American culture and academy. Many have attended non-Catholic universities and presume, for example, that respect for individual rights, tolerance, justice, pluralism, and academic freedom are necessary conditions for truth to be discovered and wisdom to be lived. These leaders will not have the same kinds of wariness towards modernity and apprehensiveness that such conditions, if unleashed to the extreme, could obscure or destroy the very nature of education. Jaroslav Pelikan has rightly lamented that many universities bracket or ignore the religious areas of study and thereby offer students an inadequate and shallow form of knowledge and education. 3 There should be no doubt at any of our institutions that we are unabashedly Catholic, that these are places where Jesus and the Church are found. Whether in the classroom, on the fields, in the residence halls, or serving the poor in the community, the language and life of faith is understood as necessarily integrated into all that we do and all we are. As new models of Catholic higher education leadership emerge, it will continue to be very difficult for religious congrega tions to move from "doing" the majority of the apostolic work to "guiding," as others pick up the torch in planning and practice. Vatican II's Perfectae Caritas, as well as Pope Paul VI's Ecclesiae Sanctae and Evangelica Testificatio, identify religious life as a response to a call by God to meet the needs of the Church. The Holy Spirit is still very much alive and calling religious congre gations to serve in many ways. The training and recruitment of religious congregational members for the ministry in colleges and universities is important, but will not adequately address the coming challenge. The efforts of religious and laity working together must be more than creating figure head appointments with veto power. Some universities are beginning to take a serious look at ways to better prepare lay presidents and administrators to lead Catholic institutions. Boston College started an institute in 2001 to help administrators of Catholic colleges deal with the transition from religious to lay leadership. Catholic colleges and universities will need to develop programs for students, employees, faculty, xii / Anthony J. Cemera parents, and trustees that promote theological education, spiritual development, ethical reflection, leadership development, and mission effectiveness. The torch of Catholic higher education is not a static possession to be fearfully guarded, but a vision and way of life, fueled by the past, confidently carried by those who dare, like those bef o re us, to bring Christ's faith, hope, and love into the future. I know we all look f o rward to the continued efforts to improve Catholic higher education. The recent conference at Sacred Heart University provides us with a new and hope-filled point of departure, and this present volume is a further step along the way. I hope that what you read here, which attempts to capture and expand on the conference presentations and con versations, will spur all of us to continue to engage our students and our Church as we explore and live out the emerging paradigm of lay leadership.

2023

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