The perceptions and practices of school leaders in Christian Education National

Abstract

In Christian schools, leaders’ roles include the integration of the particular beliefs of the community through all aspects of school life. This article describes an interpretive study into school leaders’ perceptions of the essential features of Christian Education National (CEN) schools, how they integrated these features into school culture, and their understandings of the leadership by which they achieved this. This research identified that school leaders were aware of the beliefs of CEN. Despite leaders noting that these beliefs ought to be embedded holistically into school culture, the CEN services and resources available to support such inculcation were underutilized. Although servant leadership, shared leadership and vision-based leadership were all described in relation to CEN schools, the leadership within these schools is better understood as informed by the Christian faith rather than widely supported leadership theories mentioned in this study.

Keywords

beliefs Christian faith Christian schools reformed school leaders worldview

Introduction

This research originated from a concern for the role of school leaders in Christian schools. School leaders are recognized as having a unique position in schools, with their roles described as multidimensional and demanding (Neidhart and Carlin, 2011). In Christian schools, leaders’ responsibilities include the integration of the particular beliefs and values of the community into all aspects of school life, including educational outcomes (Buchanan, 2013). To integrate these beliefs and values it is important that school leaders first understand these beliefs, and then determine means by which to embed the particular beliefs and values of their communities into the life of the school.

Christian schools are faith-based, and have an ethos and spirituality that emerge out of their particular faith tradition (McGettrick, 2005). This research was situated within a particular Australian association of Christian schools, namely Christian Education National (CEN). Having commenced in the 1960s, CEN is a parent-established and -governed Christian school movement educating children from a Christian worldview perspective (Deenick, 1991; Hoeksema, 1983). The vision statement of CEN, in keeping with their Reformed heritage, includes an affirmation of the lordship of Christ over all of life, the Bible informing all of school practice, and biblically directed parental responsibility to educate their children. As with other schooling movements in the Reformed tradition, this vision is consistent with, and informed by, a number of theological and philosophical beliefs such as the sovereignty of God, revelation, sphere sovereignty,¹ covenant, the cultural mandate (De Boer and Oppewal, 1997; Justins, 2002), common grace and antithesis² (Justins, 2002).

Christian schools routinely operate in pluralistic and secular societies (Collier, 2013) where religious values are in decline (McEvoy, 2006; Neidhart, 2014). Further, there is evidence that Christian institutions, such as schools, have been inclined, over time, to lose their distinctiveness as they succumb to secularization (Iselin, 2009). Consequently, it is unsurprising that a concern within Christian schooling has been the extent to which school culture matches the espoused beliefs of the Christian community (Boerema, 2011). It is recognized that school leaders have this responsibility (Gannell, 2004), and that through acting purposefully in presenting and recasting the visions and values of their school communities, leaders can encourage perpetuating practice aligned with the beliefs of a community (Iselin, 2009).

It has been argued that there are few studies on leadership within faith-based schools (Striepe et al., 2014). There is evidence of how leadership is understood and practised in Catholic schools (Neidhart and Lamb, 2013). Within CEN there have been few studies (Dickens, 2013). There have been studies with respect to the use of the Bible (Thompson, 2003) and the values of CEN (Justins, 2002). However, no research has dealt specifically with how school leaders understand CEN, integrate the vision and values into school culture, and the leadership by which they do this.

The design of the study

In this study, it was important to understand how school leaders perceived the beliefs of CEN schooling, and developed practices consistent with these through their leadership. Consequently, symbolic interactionism was chosen as an appropriate interpretive lens for this research because it understands that individuals make meaning as they engage with their lived world (Blumer, 1969). Questions were developed to invite participants to describe their perspectives as school leaders within CEN schools. These included:

What do school leaders understand to be the essential features of CEN schools, as articulated in the vision statement?

How do school leaders specifically seek to integrate into school culture the essential features of CEN schooling, as articulated in the vision statement?

How do CEN school leaders perceive their own leadership as they implement the essential features into school culture?

A qualitative case study methodology was employed to gain understanding of the perspective of school leaders for its ability to provide rich descriptions of a phenomenon. The case study was confined within a bounded system of the Australian state of Victoria. In Victoria, there are ten CEN schools comprising sixteen campuses, educating over 6,500 students. This boundary was both geographically and conceptually appropriate given the regular meetings and shared professional development activities of this group of schools.

There were three groups of participants: an expert reference group consisting of staff employed by the national office of CEN that had roles including professional development in Victoria, a school principals’ group comprising the Victorian CEN principals, and a group comprising other school leadership team members including deputy principals and heads of curriculum.

Data were collected in two stages. The first involved individual semi-structured interviews of both the national office staff and principals’ groups. Following this, an online survey was sent to a larger group of senior leadership team members from the Victorian CEN schools. The online survey consisted of open-ended questions and closed statements with a five-point Likert scale format with options of strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree or disagree, agree and strongly agree.

The data analysis was guided by the Constant Comparative Method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). This method allowed the collection, analysis and interpretation of data to occur concurrently (Creswell, 2002). This method was chosen as it aligns well with qualitative research (Boeije, 2002) and provided a means to compare the data, and allowed theory to be developed based on the participants’ perceptions rather than preconceived theory.

Findings

Leaders’ perceptions of the essential features of CEN schools

Consistent with the vision of CEN, respondents from the three leadership groups in this study understood the essential features of CEN schools to be the lordship of Jesus Christ over all of life, biblical worldview-informed practice and parental responsibility for education.

As previously noted, faith-based schools have particular emphases that emerge from a particular approach to the faith (McGettrick, 2005). In Christian schools with a Reformed heritage, the sovereignty of God, or Christ’s lordship, is described as the ‘tap root among other roots’ (De Boer and Oppewal, 1997: 281). Participants in this research perceived the lordship of Christ as a reference point for their approach to education, informing decision-making and practice. Concretely, respondents suggested the Christian faith not be confined to religious instruction classes or chapel services, but rather be evident holistically across all elements of school life. Respondents in all three groups used the presence or absence of chapel to elucidate understandings of this holistic approach. As one principal commented:

I would expect to see a Christ-centred curriculum, leadership, practices, every task, like maintaining gardens to dismissing staff, to be done in a considered way where it is intentionally and actually an act of worship. All of life is religion. All of life is worship… I’d say in CEN you’d be surprised to see chapel services.

Despite this comment, it is clear that practices vary in CEN. Previously it has been asserted that ‘in CEN there is no chapel’ (Dickens, 2013: 135). Two principals in this study described chapel services as a regular part of school life that provided students with opportunities to engage with issues from a biblical viewpoint.

In CEN, the sovereignty of God has often been discussed with reference to the Dutch Reformed heritage of the school movement’s founders (Dickens, 2013; Justins, 2002; Long, 1996; Low, 2013). The national office staff acknowledged CEN’s rich Reformed heritage and underlying theological and philosophical concepts. Yet, only one of the twenty-six school-based participants linked the lordship of Christ to the Reformed heritage of the school movement. The Reformed heritage and underlying theological and philosophical concepts bring increased depth and meaning to the vision statement. They are foundational to a particular approach to Christian schooling that was to go beyond the employment of Christian staff, studying the Bible, and chapel service; it was to be holistic (Justins, 2002). The absence of these beliefs from respondent answers warrants consideration as to whether school leaders have knowledge of the heritage and beliefs that underpin their approach to schooling and are thus able to develop a culture that is informed by these beliefs.

CEN has a history of utilizing Christian worldview as a medium to integrate faith and education (Dickens, 2013). The language of biblical worldview or Christian perspective pervades CEN. Twenty-six of the thirty respondents affirmed this, describing the Gospel, Christian perspective or biblical worldview-mediated practice as an essential feature of CEN schools. Rejecting notions of dualism, where life can be divided into sacred and secular parts, respondents described the Bible and the Christian life as foundational to all aspects of school practice. Participants from each group specifically mentioned a creation–fall–redemption biblical worldview framework as a vehicle for this. For example, one respondent stated:

… biblical worldview that we would want to instil within the curriculum. I know there is more contemporary language, but the language that I have grown up with is the creation–fall–redemption model: the idea that God created the world, but we live within a fallen world because of sin, and that God, through Jesus, day by day, is redeeming the world and one day will bring it back into its full state.

Despite the almost universal identification of biblical worldview as an essential feature, leaders’ understandings varied. Those representing the national office of CEN suggested that biblical worldview-informed practice necessitated teacher professional development. Principals and senior leadership team members did not mention teacher training when discussing biblical worldview. Further, all of the national office staff suggested that the biblical worldview-mediated practice espoused across the movement was not well understood, nor consistently implemented. Several principals’ comments confirmed this. Two principals labelled CEN as ‘conservative’. Another suggested that a biblical worldview-mediated approach to education could lead to Biblicism.³

Participants in this research understood that parental responsibility for education was an essential feature of CEN schools. They described this primarily in terms of ‘partnership’, understanding there to be a biblical mandate to raise children in the Christian faith. However, no Scriptural references were offered in support of this. The main expression of parental responsibility was, as one respondent stated, ‘parents having a role in education to the extent that there was at least some determinative responsibility being fulfilled through their Associations and the election of Boards’.

Despite respondents from each group viewing parent partnership positively, there was recognition that maintaining parental responsibility was proving difficult. In explaining this, participants suggested that some parents choose Christian schools for a ‘cheap independent education’, and/or do not have ‘the sort of reformational theology underpinning their own worldview’ consistent with the CEN approach to schooling. In addition, there has been societal change with respect to religious values. Christian schools operate in a secular society (Edwards, 2011), where it is evident that religious values are in decline (Neidhart and Lamb, 2013). Consequently, it has been suggested that there is ‘a growing disinterest among Christians to engage in theological thinking and discussion’ (Dickens, 2013: 147). Thus, it may be that the value of parental responsibility is being diluted by the impact of secularization on society, including those within the Christian faith.

How leaders embed the essential features into CEN schools

CEN schools espouse a partnership connecting home, school and church through a biblical worldview-mediated approach that looks to honour the lordship of Christ over all of life. At the heart of this approach to schooling is a desire to integrate faith and learning in a manner that is described within CEN as distinctive or distinctively Christian (Dickens, 2013; Edlin, 2004; Justins, 2002).

Culture relates to norms of practice in behaviour, beliefs, activities and assumptions of a shared social unit, which are handed on through social interaction (Schein, 2010). It is concerned with patterning at a visible level, but also has less visible aspects. School culture is a multi-faceted concept that includes shared understandings of values, ethos, character and practices. Central to a school’s culture are its vision and purpose (Peterson and Deal, 2009). Justins’ (2002) research found the prevailing cultural practices of CEN schools to be the employment of Christian staff, the nurture of children from Christian families, the development of a Christian curriculum, parental responsibility and partnership in education (or parent control). The integration of the essential features of CEN are described with reference to Justins’ four aspects of school culture below:

Perceptions of the integration of the essential features through staff

By what they say and do, leaders influence culture (Schein, 2010). Respondents from all three groups understood that to develop a culture consistent with the essential features, school leaders needed to embody the life they advocate (Hall, 2007), distribute leadership and establish strategies to implement it.

The employment of Christians was understood as an important foundation for the establishment of a Christian school culture. According to principals and senior leadership team members, employing staff that support the Christian ethos of the school was insufficient; staff were to be active in their adherence to the Christian faith.

An impediment to the development of an integrated holistic approach to Christian education has been that teachers have often been trained in secular universities and then teach within Christian schools from the same secular perspective (Lawrence et al., 2005). Respondents agreed with this and were purposeful in providing professional learning opportunities for teachers to develop their practice, including meeting times to share their learning, and collaboration time to develop curriculum and practice consistent with a biblical worldview.

CEN’s training arm, The National Institute for Christian Education (NICE), was recognized as a professional learning provider to develop practice consistent with the vision. Participation in seminars, such as the NICE-developed Certificate of Christian Education and CEN new staff induction days, were encouraged. Despite the rhetoric, national office staff perceived that schools inconsistently engaged with the services and training provided by NICE. School-based participants’ comments confirmed this. School practices varied. While some advocated that all teaching staff engage with the services and training of NICE as a condition of employment, others engaged with Christian organizations that presented a ‘wider perspective’ and ‘a more liberal view of the scriptures’ than CEN.

How students encounter the essential features of CEN

Consistent with an affirmation of the lordship of Christ over all of life, participants understood that the faith formation of students occurs across the life of the school.

In a Christian school, staff are expected to honour and respect students and to model a Christian lifestyle (Scouller, 2012). As one participant stated: ‘the students can catch the vision of Christian education by seeing the way teachers act and react’. Yet modelling, as the main means of integrating faith and education, is insufficient (Shortt, 2014). The God of the Bible is interested in individuals and their relationships with him and their fellow man. However, the message of the Bible is not simply one of individual pietism or the development of virtues (Smith and Shortt, 2002). If the words and actions of teachers are not coupled with policies, practices, curriculum and pedagogy that reflect the gospel, then students will be presented with a truncated gospel within a dualistic approach to schooling. As such, participants suggested that the curriculum as a whole was to foster exploration of and a sense of wonder in God’s creation. Through their practice, teachers were to encourage students to see the connectedness of the Christian faith and life. The heritage of CEN schooling is one where the gospel is to penetrate every aspect of school life. Despite this, it was noted that certain aspects of practice within CEN schools demonstrate their Christian distinctiveness more than others. Specifically, class or student devotional times, school assemblies, chapel services, biblical studies classes and programs developed or provided by external providers were occasions where the Christian faith was more explicit.

CEN schools aim to inculcate in students a biblical worldview to assist them to become responsive disciples across the whole of life (Dickens et al., 2015). Yet, principals and national office staff were sceptical as to whether students understood biblical worldview. There was, according to one participant, more ‘hopefulness’ than certainty that students, in general, were equipped to be responsive disciples who understood the essential features, and had, for example, formed a biblical worldview. Given the rich tradition of using biblical worldview as a means to integrate faith and education (Dickens, 2013) within CEN, this needs to be addressed. In explaining their comments, it was suggested that there were simply no data, and it could only be assumed that students actually understood a biblical worldview. This sentiment was best demonstrated by the following comment:

Have they actually got the skills and ability to critique culture? Do they have that ability to think through life from a biblical worldview?… I think we expect sometimes, because we have mentioned something or have some key questions on a wall, that somehow kids have picked that up rather than having mechanisms to feed that back to us.

Alternatively, it was suggested that the focus of the services provided by the school movement was more about assisting Christian parents, leaders and teachers in developing Christian schooling rather than ensuring students were able to articulate and understand a biblical worldview. Thus, students were, in the words of one participant, the ‘forgotten part of the partnership’.

How the curriculum exhibits the essential features

Education is laden with values and meanings (Blomberg, 1980). School leaders from the three groups advocated a biblical worldview-mediated approach that critiqued the government-mandated curriculum from a Christian perspective. It was their understanding that implementing curriculum imbued with a biblical worldview required shared understandings and engagement; it involved allocating time, support and resources for teaching staff to work collaboratively around shared understandings. As one school-based leader commented:

Before we begin each unit, we carefully consider how our unit fits within the whole story of the Bible, and how it informs a head, heart and hand response that allows us to love and know God, and to love and serve our neighbours. We aim to teach an integral curriculum where we place an emphasis on ‘In Christ, all things hold together’ (Col 1:17). We think carefully about how curriculum, assessment and pedagogy work together in conveying our big idea, taking into account the diversity of our learners.

Many teachers find teaching from a biblical perspective challenging (Fisher, 2012). Both principals and national office staff affirmed this, perceiving that the practice of integrating the Christian faith and education was inconsistent within CEN schools. As one respondent noted, teachers can be dualistic in their thinking and fail to integrate faith and education. Another perceived that about half of the teaching staff demonstrated the ability to integrate their Christian faith into the curriculum. Thus, the implementation of a biblical worldview-mediated approach to curriculum remains underdeveloped or a work in progress in CEN schools. This finding supports previous research into CEN schools (Dickens, 2013). To assist staff to see the importance of developing curriculum consistent with the vision of CEN, principals recommended linking curriculum development to teaching staff appraisal processes. It was further suggested that this held staff accountable and aided practice aligned with the vision.

How parents become more cognizant of the essential features

The CEN vision statement affirms parents’ responsibility to educate their children from a biblical perspective (Dickens, 2013). Respondents from the three groups valued the concept of a school–parent partnership in education. While noting barriers to this partnership, they understood the need for school leaders to be intentional and persistent in communicating to parents the school’s distinctive approach to Christian schooling. The national office staff advocated the use of resources developed to support member schools in engaging parents including the Certificate of Christian Education training course, and the periodical Nurture. Principals and senior leadership team members did not mention these resources. Rather, they emphasized utilizing a range of school-based methods including newsletters and information nights.

One of the eight principals interviewed spoke positively about successfully engaging with parents through a series of seminars for new families:

We are blown away with the responses we get. If anything, they go away more affirmed in the choice that they have made… It is a real winner in terms of getting understanding of what we mean in terms of parent partnership.

Others were more aspirational.

Christian parents established CEN schools. In many of these schools, parent involvement was mandatory, with parents required to spend a minimum number of hours volunteering in the school or to pay money in lieu of service (Justins, 2002). In previous research that included CEN schools, it was found that ample opportunities existed for parental involvement, but many parents did not make use of these (Mohajeran, 2006). Responses from participants in this research suggested that parental participation in schools varied. Principals suggested that they actively encouraged parents to be involved in the everyday life of the school. However, senior leadership team members’ responses suggested that parent involvement varied markedly from school to school.

Leaders’ perceptions of the leadership that develops a CEN school culture

In faith-based schools, leadership includes the combination of education and leadership influenced by the particular faith of the school community (Buchanan, 2011). In this research, school leaders suggested that their leadership was informed by the Christian faith. Additionally, they believed that the essential features of CEN were integrated into school culture through servant, shared and vision-based leadership.

The leaders of CEN schools considered themselves first to be followers of Christ. They understood that their faith, to some degree, shaped their practice. Specifically, principals and senior leadership team members believed Christian practices including Bible reading and prayer aided their leadership. Leaders from each group also described a sense of being called by God to their role. However, not all leaders were able to describe the relationship between their faith and leadership. Several leaders’ comments were broad; others suggested they lacked the time to reflect on their own leadership.

School leaders perceived servant leadership to be evident in CEN schools. Servant leadership is recognized as an approach to leadership initially conceptualized by Greenleaf (1977). Servant leadership is also a biblical concept. Despite overlap, the contemporary understanding of servant leadership is not the same as the biblical concept (Banks and Ledbetter, 2004; O’Harae, 2007).⁴ Although perceptions of servant leadership varied, respondents’ conceptions appeared to be informed more by the Christian faith, understanding that Christ taught and modelled service and sacrifice, than by Greenleaf’s conceptualization, of which they seemingly had little knowledge.

Although in favour of servant leadership, national office staff expressed concern about misunderstandings of this concept within the Christian community.

Principals and senior leadership team members advocated a shared approach to leadership within CEN schools. Members from both the national office and principals’ groups spoke against individualistic charismatic leadership. Instead, they acknowledged that individuals had different skills and gifts, and that working together enhanced leadership and decision-making.

Respondents also understood that vision played a significant role in the integration of the essential features of CEN into school culture. They encouraged the practice of sharing a vision for education, and encouraging and empowering people towards that vision.

Concluding comments

This research was designed to explore what school leaders perceived to be the essential features of CEN, how they embed these features into school culture, and the leadership by which this is done.

A finding of this research was that participants demonstrated awareness of the essential features of CEN. Whereas the national office staff acknowledged the Reformed heritage of CEN, school-based leaders’ understandings were often broad and without reference to the underlying beliefs and heritage of this schooling movement. School-based leaders’ underdeveloped perceptions of the essential features suggest that the espoused vision statement of CEN is more of a cultural artefact, that is, a remnant of the past rather than a deeply understood set of rich, tightly held statements informing practice within schools. Left unchecked, and if it has not already happened, this has the potential to compromise the identity of CEN schools.

School leaders perceived that the essential features of CEN are to be embedded into school culture holistically. This is consistent with the vision of CEN. In describing their efforts to develop practice consistent with the vision, leaders acknowledged the need to employ people active in the Christian faith and for professional learning programs to be established to educate staff in their integration of biblical worldview-mediated practice. Despite their efforts, it was noted that the implementation of a biblical worldview-mediated approach to curriculum remains inconsistent in CEN schools. Further, national office staff and principals both expressed uncertainty as to whether students understood a biblical perspective. Given the rich heritage of CEN in the use of biblical worldview, this is of serious concern. It was noted that school leaders value and endeavour to foster parent partnership. Societal pressures and a changing demographic were two factors that were making this difficult.

A further finding of this research was that respondents perceived that the essential features of CEN were aided by leadership that embodies the Christian life, and includes shared leadership, service, and constantly and intentionally encouraging people to embrace a vision for Christian schooling. Yet it was also clear that many leaders’ knowledge of contemporary leadership theory and critical self-reflections of their leadership remain underdeveloped.

School leaders in Christian schools have roles that include the integration of their particular understanding of the Christian faith into school culture. To enhance the integration of faith and education in this particular expression of Christian schooling, it is recommended that professional learning programs be designed to support the development of leaders. These programs should focus on assisting leaders to develop a deeper understanding of the Reformed heritage of CEN and the theology that underpins it, identify strategies for integrating the beliefs of their respective communities into their Christian school contexts, and clearly articulate contemporary leadership theories and practices.

In conclusion, this research is of interest as it adds to the emerging body of knowledge related to leadership within Christian schools. This research has concluded that within the context of this particular group of Christian schools there are inconsistencies in the integration of the Christian faith into school culture. Christian parents founded this particular group of schools. Yet, over time, the parent population has changed. Research into parent perceptions of CEN and how schools seek to engage parents may benefit schools in understanding both the barriers to parent engagement and effective means of engaging parents in these communities. Similarly, given the uncertainty as to whether students understood the essential features, researching the understandings of students has the potential to assist schools as they aim to develop school cultures consistent with their vision for schooling. This research explored leadership within a particular type of Christian school. To further investigate Christian school leaders, it would be necessary to research leaders’ perspectives of the professional learning required, as well as the professional learning they undertake, as they look to fulfil the complex task before them.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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