2.5 Research design
2.5.2 The research context
2.5.2.1 Catholic/Christian ethos
The school was founded through the vision and guidance of the Catholic mission by His Grace Archbishop Dennis Hurley in 1981. The founding principal, staff and school governors were all people of the Catholic faith who promoted and maintained a strong Catholic culture. Prior to the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, which ended apartheid, schools were racially divided and Catholic schools were classified as independent schools. These independent schools were classified as such since they did not depend on government funding. As a result they determined their own policy of admission and religious practices. In keeping with the Catholic mission, Hilltop School was an independent school that served only the poor and marginalised and promoted a strong Catholic ethos. Funding was received from the Catholic Church.
The end of apartheid saw a search for a suitable new non-racial education system in South Africa. Numerous draft policies and commissions culminated in the South African Schools Act of 1996 (RSA, 1996b), which made provision for two types of schools, public and independent schools. Public schools can either be on state or private property. Independent schools in South Africa were given an opportunity to relinquish their financial obligations to the state while still maintaining ownership of the property. Hilltop School is built on the property of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church exercised the option of handing over the administration of the school to the Department of Education because of financial difficulties. A Deed of Agreement signed between the Catholic Church and the Department of Education in 2001, formalised the classification of Hilltop School as a public school on private property
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The Deed of Agreement ensures that the Catholic ethos of the school remains intact. The basic purpose of the agreement is to ensure that
the religious organisation and the governing body are committed to working as partners to ensure that the school offers education of excellence with a distinctive Catholic character from which all members of the school community, especially the learners, can benefit (CIE, 2004).
The distinctive Catholic character as stipulated in the agreement has three salient elements: the school must have a distinctive religious character, the school should be a real centre of care and the education must be valued-based. What makes a Catholic school different from other schools? According to the Catholic Institute of Education (CIE) it is the ethos that gives a Catholic school its distinctive character. The CIE explains this ethos in its Governance Handbook (2012):
When the school talks about ethos it is talking about all the things that make the school Catholic, that is the spirit of the school. Being a Catholic school is about more than just excellence in education. A Catholic school promotes and teaches the values of Jesus Christ as upheld by the Catholic Church, through its Religious Education programme.
At the heart of Catholic values is the love of God and love of the neighbour. Catholic values hold that each person’s dignity is recognised and that children, the poor and marginalised deserve special care because they are the most vulnerable. Children of all faiths attend Catholic schools and are welcomed but they must recognise and accept that the school has a Catholic character (CIE, 2012, p. 19).
According to the CIE (2012, p. 21), a Catholic school must demonstrate its ethos by respecting the dignity of each person, building liturgy into its daily activities, being in harmony with the Catholic Church, reaching out to the vulnerable and marginalised, having a component of critical reflection and delivering a quality religious education.
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Mullins (1983) reiterates that in order to establish a distinctive Catholic culture, the school community must have a value-based education programme, strive to offer excellent holistic education, demonstrate planned care and concern for all members of the school community, cater for the vulnerable, remain open to all regardless of status, race or religion and must promote and develop learners so that they can take their place as responsible citizens serving both the Catholic and wider community.
The Deed of Agreement emphasises that the religious character of the school must be maintained through religious observances and religious instruction: “In this way the uniqueness of Catholic education is preserved as religious education becomes a living reality at the heart of the school community” (CIE, 2004).
At Hilltop School, every attempt is made to honour the Deed of Agreement by promoting and maintaining a Catholic ethos (Figs 4 and 5). To this end religious education that is designed by the CIE is incorporated into the school curriculum. Catechism is also offered to all interested learners outside the school academic programme. In addition, pastoral care for both staff and learners is provided by trained pastoral counsellors who are trained by the Catholic Schools Office. Religious and pastoral care committees form an integral part of caring for the poor, vulnerable and marginalised, as well as ensuring that religious education and religious
Figure 4. Learners receiving the Holy Eucharist from the resident priest.
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observances are conducted within the required standards as set out in the Deed of Agreement.
HIV/AIDS counselling and bereavement care are cornerstones of the pastoral care for both learners and staff.
Figure 5. An extract published in a Catholic magazine encapsulating the ethos of our school.
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Many dilemmas and complexities are experienced as we promote a strong Catholic culture at the school. Firstly, despite Hilltop being a Catholic school, most of the learners and staff are not Catholic. Learners and staff represent a diversity of religions: various other Christian denominations, Hinduism, Islam and Zulu traditional religion. Such religious diversity raises complex issues against the backdrop of promoting a Catholic culture. Many staff members are not always accepting of the exclusive promotion of the Catholic faith. However, since staff members are advised before employment at the school that the school has a Catholic ethos, many comply with this ethos. The need for secure employment takes precedence. The tensions that underlie the issue of religion will be returned to as my narrative unfolds in the ensuing chapters.