Catholic social teaching – The Cloisters

Prophets of the Future 5: Catholic Schools: problem or solution to sectarianism?

26th May 202326th May 2023standrewsfoundationblog

In this series, MEduc4 students on the ‘Prophets of a Future not our Own: Catholic Schools and Contemporary Issues’ elective course reflect on how a Catholic educational perspective can enhance school’s’ approach to current challenges.

Jennifer Gray, MEduc4

Tackling controversial topics is considered vital for children to develop citizenship, allowing them to learn about such prevalent issues that they may face when entering society (McKinney, 2015). Among the many controversial topics in Scotland is that of sectarianism. Today, children have greater accessibility to media; as sectarianism is often sensationalised in media, it must be ensured that children create their own informed view by examining different perspectives of sectarianism in Scotland.

What is sectarianism?

Sectarianism can be defined as groups of people who share a distinct ideology that can often create a divide between themselves and other groups (Wallis, 1975). However, McKinney provides a more recent analysis of what sectarianism is. He claims sectarianism is surrounded by intolerance and exclusive beliefs which could result in wide-scale consequences (McKinney, 2015). Often sensationalised in the media, sectarianism remains prevalent in Scottish society today, with associated controversy regarding what the root cause of it all is.

Are Catholic schools divisive?

Flint (2012) suggests, there are writers who favour Catholic schools, arguing the root cause of sectarianism is its historical origins which cannot be attributed to the presence of Catholic schools in Scotland. On the contrary, Flint continues that many opposers of Catholic schools contend that the segregation itself of denominational and non-denominational schools is the definitive factor of division in Scotland. In fact, an article from The Times (2007), saw a former Scottish education minister, Sam Galbraith, called for the abolishment of Catholic schools, claiming that denominational schools only established bigotry and sectarianism in society.

Moreover, in section 1.9.8 of the Scottish Government’s Final Report (2015) on tackling sectarianism, it is suggested that the “existence of choice in schooling relating to denominational schools was sectarian in and of itself while others arguing that targeting one sort of school as a contributor to sectarianism was itself sectarian.” However, McKinney (2015) strongly contends the report presents a lack of external coherence as it shows no evidence to validate such pejorative claims. Former Green Party member, Robin Harper, seemed to agree with the report findings, suggesting if Catholic or Protestant children grow up without the presence of the ‘opposing’ group, it becomes easier to create an ill-informed perception of the other group (Flint, 2012). In correlation with the report, it has been argued that the social division between faith schools, fails to consider segregation within such schools as a factor. For instance, Clayton (2009) suggests that children may unconsciously segregate themselves within a specific school as a result of ingrained social norms. However, SCES highlights a crucial point; Catholic schools are “communities which are open, welcoming, and inclusive.” Therefore, it could be contended that the arguments examined above, do not fully understand the nature of Catholic schools, which is also shown in the lack of evidence to support said arguments.

Contrary to the belief that denominational schools cause sectarianism, evidence has clearly shown that the Scottish people do not think that Catholic schools are the main contributing factor to sectarian behaviour. Indeed, over half of participants stated that football is at the forefront of sectarianism in Scotland, yet less than 5% of participants contended that denominational schools were the direct root of sectarian behaviours in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2015). Furthermore, a mere 15% of a child’s life is spent in mandatory education (Conroy, 2001). Thus, it is fair to suggest that children’s judgements are not solely determined by schooling, there are other outer influences such as “social and spatial identities” which contribute to children’s views (Flint, 2012:509). Based on the evidence thus far, it could be argued that Catholic schools may be indicative, rather than the direct contributing factor of sectarianism in Scotland.

How can Catholic educators help bridge the divide?

If Catholic schools can be a solution rather than a problem in terms of sectarianism, how can contemporary Scottish Catholic educators “support learners’ understanding of themselves, others and their contribution to the development and sustainability of a diverse and inclusive society” (GTCS, 2021:5)?

The Scriptures can provide inspiration and pedagogical resources to Catholic schools as they tackle this issue. The inclusive nature of Catholicism is rooted within scripture; in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul (1 Corinthians 1:10-13) states “that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.” Paul implies here that there are many kinds of people that God appoints to spread the Word of God as all Christians belong to Christ. Hence, Catholic educators recognise and value the varying spectrums of faith they may encounter within their class (SCES, online). Teachers could therefore foster a deductive pedagogical approach in their teaching; this is when children are taught through the meaning of scripture, and then make the connection between the teachings to life itself (TIOF, 2010). Furthermore, the RERC principles and practice highlights that the teacher’s responsibility in a Scottish Catholic School, is to ensure that all children “understand and appreciate significant aspects of other Christian traditions and major world religions” (Education Scotland, 2009:2).

Therefore, by fostering all teaching approaches outlined above, children are learning about peace and acceptance from a young age, which should encourage them to challenge the sectarian divide in Scotland as they have an informed mindset of the topic. Our pupils will have the tools to make informed decisions, and thus become prophets of a future not their own.

Prophets of the Future 4: Catholic Schools and the Preferential Option for the Poor

19th May 202319th May 2023standrewsfoundationblog

Aisling Gallagher, MEduc4

There is no simple definition of poverty nor a simple solution to tackle its effects. UNICEF defines poverty as ‘when a person’s needs are insufficiently met due to their lack of access to primary materials such as food, clothing and shelter’ (UNICEF, 2014). Poverty affects education, not least due to the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and the War in Ukraine. Catholic schools and teachers can help address this issue through effective pedagogical and professional practice.

Poverty and education

Child poverty is a significant indicator of poor academic performance (Hirsch,2007). In Scotland, children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds regularly achieve less academically than their wealthy peers (Naven et al ,2019). Children from lower-income families tend to underperform in school due to a lack of communication skills, limited vocabulary, and focus (Perkins et al., 2013). Where food insecurity is an issue, the performance and behaviours of children are negatively affected as breakfast is crucial to support cognitive development, academic performance, and behaviour (Gao et al, 2021). Therefore, as future teachers, the academic study of poverty is vital, as we can see its direct impact on education, allowing us to address the issue within our classroom.

Catholic Social Teaching

Pope Francis shares his concerns about poverty: “It is a cruel, unjust and paradoxical reality that, today, there is food for everyone and yet not everyone has access to it” (Pope Francis,2019). The intrinsic dignity of the human person, as created in ‘Imago Dei’, meaning ‘in the image and likeness of God’, is the cornerstone of all Catholic social teaching (Genesis 1:26-31). If we truly love God, we must love one another and to violate God’s children is to violate God Himself. Poverty is a direct violation of Human Dignity.

Jesus, Himself, was a product of poverty. In Matthew (25:34), Jesus states: “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.” In this passage, Jesus connects serving others to serving himself. I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink: caring for the most vulnerable children in our classrooms is also taking care of Jesus. Jesus illustrates this as the night before his death, he washed the feet of his disciples (Jn 13:1–5). Such a task was the work of a servant, so Jesus does this to highlight the importance of serving others. We can learn a lot about how to treat people with Dignity through the work of Jesus. As Pope Francis reminds us: “if we truly wish to encounter Christ, we have to touch his body in the suffering bodies of the poor” (Soehner, 2017).

The Scriptures demand that we “defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:9), and so the preferential option for the poor is a vital aspect to consider for our pedagogical and professional practice. Liberation Theologian Gutierrez claims that the preferential option for the poor symbolises Christian discipleship because of the influence of Jesus’ own poverty and love for the poor (Gutierrez, 2009). Christ founded the Kingdom of God, paving the way for a new system of justice for the disadvantaged, freedom for the oppressed, and comfort for the suffering (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 2005, section 325). The underpinning of educational and social responsibility is the Christian approach of the preferential option for the poor.

Young people as agents of change

A consequence is that young people need to be aware of social injustices and their causes. The social and economic factors that contribute to child poverty and the debilitating consequences of hunger can be studied by the students, who can also engage in theology and ethical reflection using current Catholic social teachings (Byron,2015). This participation aims to create a community of young people who are theologically literate and capable of articulating a modern Christian response to these current problems by actively looking for transformational responses. It is crucial as future practitioners to recognise that young people are leaders, initiators, and decision-makers and are not just a target group for developmental processes (United Nations, online). Therefore, through teaching them about poverty, pupils can follow in Jesus’ footsteps and fulfil the scriptures’ orders to honour the poor while giving them a voice.

Conclusion

Implementation of the preferential option for the poor must be adaptable, tailored to each school, supported by data, and directed by the experiences of young people and school personnel. So e.g. in the case of breakfast clubs mentioned above, evidence shows that while breakfast clubs can improved academic achievement and mental health nonetheless on their own will not combat hunger, given that various studies have concluded that impoverished children are more likely to arrive at school late (Children in Scotland,2021).

So there is still a need for a discernment as well as a greater comprehension of the concept of the preferential option for the poor as it is presented in the gospels, Catholic Social Teachings, and Vatican documents on education before it can be fully effective (McKinney,2018). Within an environment in which school resources are constrained, Catholic schools should collaborate with the government to access a more extensive financial base to support the underprivileged while retaining their own identity and priorities.

As future practitioners, we must commit to promoting the human dignity of each child in our class to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as he devoted much of his life to helping the poor. We can allow the preferential option for the poor to shape our professional practice, while promoting an ethos within our schools that ensures that the voices of the poor are truly heard.

Prophets of the Future 1: Poverty and Catholic Schools

25th Apr 202325th Apr 2023standrewsfoundationblog

Katie Duffin, MEduc4

The Catholic Social Teaching principle of ‘Preferential Option for the Poor’ reminds us of God’s distinct love for the poorest and most vulnerable people in our world (CAFOD, 2022). However, this concept within Catholic schools has perhaps surprisingly raised concerns and at times been problematic (McKinney, 2018), such as the definitions of ‘a preferential option’ alongside how to define the ‘poor’ (Kirylo, 2006), alongside contentious discourse surrounding how this actually looks in practice in a Catholic School (Connell, 2016). Not only that, but in a world where many Catholic schools charge fees and cater for those children and young people from more affluent backgrounds (Grace, 2002), the question has been raised – are Catholic schools truly a preferential option for the poor? And what might their call to social action through the preferential option for the poor look like?

Current challenges for Catholic Schools

In Scotland, approximately one in four children are living in poverty (Scottish Government, 2021), with this figure estimated to increase to 29 percent in 23/24, making it the highest figure in twenty years (Corlett, 2019).
Families and children living in relative poverty face many disadvantages such as lack of employment opportunities, low income, and barriers to lifelong learning, with a direct impact on their academic achievements and future prospects for life and work. Simply put, if a child or young person is born into a life of poverty, it can be almost impossible to escape the poverty cycle as they progress through life.
The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can also not be ignored. The enforced lockdowns only intensified the disadvantages of those children and young people living in poverty (McKinney, 2020). Issues of low income and food insecurity were compounded by a lack of educational resources during the various lockdowns, as children and young people missed out on the much relied-upon and welcomed spiritual and pastoral support that Catholic schools provide (McKinney, 2021).
History has shown that Catholic schools in Scotland – in stark contrast to other countries where Catholic schools are fee-paying private schools – have largely served communities of low socio-economic status, whose roots began primarily from Irish immigrants who moved to Scotland and undertook low-skilled employment in the second half of the nineteenth century (Paterson, 2020). Therefore, practitioners should be particularly sensitive to issues such as the cost of the school day. While schooling in Scotland may be free, the costs associated with the school day can put many children and young people at a disadvantage before the bell has even rung (Robertson & McHardy, 2021). Costs associated with extra-curricular activities puts those learners from low socio-economic backgrounds at a distinct disadvantage, as extra-curricular activities have been shown to provide positive educational outcomes, so by not being able to participate, they are unable to fully access the curriculum, with a potential knock-on to future life and work prospects (White, 2018).

Effective Pedagogies

Curriculum for Excellent (CfE) states that each and every learner should ‘have the best start in life’ and be ready to succeed (Scottish Government, 2010). Catholic practitioners must utilise pedagogical approaches in order to provide effective teaching and learning surrounding the complex issue of poverty, while providing pupils with the tools so they may become agents of change in their own circumstances. This is also in line with CfE Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work whereby we must educate learners and enable them to participate in 21st Century society, but we must also endeavour to provide effective support in order to reduce any barriers to learning (Scottish Government, 2009).

Inductive and deductive approaches to embedding the Preferential Option for the Poor

In order to provide effective teaching and learning whilst highlighting ‘the relevance of faith and learning in religious education to the lives of young people in modern society’ (Scottish Government, n.d.), we must as Catholic practitioners consider which pedagogical approaches are most suitable. With Religious Education, there are predominantly two main teaching approaches. The first is an inductive teaching approach which begins with the experiences of the learner and aims to help them discover how God is revealing himself through these experiences (Bishops Conference Scotland (BCS) 2010, This is Our Faith). As such, we must understand that many children and young people in our class will have a real-life experience of living in poverty, such as the challenge of food insecurity. This has led to schools attempting to tackle the issue though the introduction of free breakfast clubs, ensuring that no child is too hungry to learn. These breakfast clubs can go some way in reducing some of the barriers to learning, as by ensuring that all children are fed, we are enabling them to be ready to learn (Graham, 2014).
Another way in which Catholic teachers can empower learners to enact change in their own lives and to break the cycle of poverty is by utilising a ‘deductive’ approach, and teaching them through Scripture (BCS, 2010). The preferential option for the poor is integral to the teaching of Jesus, and is particularly prevalent in the Gospel of Luke, often referred to as the Gospel of the poor (McKinney, 2016). In the Sermon on the Plain Jesus proclaims ‘Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of god. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied’ (Luke 6:20-21), and so with Jesus as teacher, all in the school community are challenged to create a welcoming, inclusive environment for all, where the needs of the poor must take priority. Through the use of Scripture in this way, the beliefs, practices and values of the Catholic Church will also be exemplified, in line with the values of This is Our Faith (TIOF) (BCS, 2010).
Catholic schools in Scotland must continue to provide support to those most vulnerable, listen to them, and ‘arrange themselves to suit them’ (Congregation for Catholic Education, 2002) so they may truly live and be a preferential option for the poor.

Covid and the Common Good: Learning from the NHS

23rd Mar 2021standrewsfoundationblog

Dr. Catherine Blackman (NHS General Practitioner)

As students return to school, this is a perfect opportunity to reflect on what lockdown has taught us, and is a wonderful chance to integrate the children’s own experiences with their faith. Catholic Teachers have the responsibility to empower their pupils to influence the secular world, to teach their pupils what is important, to live as Christ taught us, as a community, with decent values; to be Christ-centred. The NHS’ commitment through COVID, provides us with a wonderful example stemming from within secular society, to emphasis, as Catholics, the absolute necessity of the Church’s social teaching.

Over the last 40 years, society has been encouraged to put the individual, rather than the community, first. As a consequence, values have altered. Respect of others has dwindled, the blame culture has been promoted and instant access to our multiple needs has been enabled. It is a material rather than a godly world. The pandemic has shifted all of this. We are now in a situation where we all need to act together, to be patient, to take responsibility for and accept the consequences of our actions. It is important now, more than ever, that the Church reinforces the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

As a Catholic Doctor, I have come to realise the importance of this through my work. I have always tried to bear witness to the truth, by example. Throughout, my working life, I have not been particularly spiritual, perhaps due to laziness, though the ever-increasing pressures placed on NHS workers have certainly played their part. I have humoured my conscious by telling it “laborare est orare”, yet I do believe there is something within the NHS ethos that is spiritually important to learn from. Fundamentally, the NHS is held together by people committed, even when this comes at their own expense, to achieving the common good. This has been demonstrated no more clearly than during the current crisis.

We have seen how throughout the pandemic the NHS has faced challenges from the public, by those who refuse to abide by COVID safety measures. The recent, unjustified, abuse of NHS workers, illustrates this. Support from the government has also been woeful at best. Indeed, this is a much longer governmental trend, through underfunding and overburdening the NHS, in the hopes it will conform to the individualistic and consumerist trends we see in wider society. As health care workers we strive to do our best for the patient and do not actively intend to do harm. However, as professionals we are also human. Currently we are working under extremely difficult and stressful situations. Many of us are suffering from stress, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and burnout. The commitment to our patients, however, continues to spur us on despite these challenges. As a Catholic GP, I see this as faith in action.

NHS Care Workers are trained to be patient centred. It is important to put the needs of the patient before your own. We are trained to explain things in simple terms that the patient understands. We are expected to keep up to date with the latest medical advances and to continually update our knowledge so that we treat our patients in the best possible way. Surely this follows Christ’s teaching of “Loving our neighbour as ourselves”, and promotes the inherent dignity of the human person. We are encouraged to be constantly self-analytic and self-aware, reflective of our practice to determine any need for change. In essence this must equate to examining our consciences in serving the other in a spirit of solidarity.

As a GP Partner, I promoted the importance of the team. When we work collaboratively, we can achieve far more than when working on our own. We all have different strengths and talents and if we pool these together, we are far more successful. It is important to value each team member as we are all inter-dependent. No one is more or less important than anyone else and the team is only as strong as the weakest link. No man is an island. This is the heart of the common good; it is only this style of work and thinking that will get us through the pandemic. In this case, it is not just about the individual but about the wider community. We all need to play our part. If we were to act with integrity as one big team, taking responsibility for our actions, everyone would benefit and there would be more chance of overcoming the pandemic. Let us use the challenges we have all faced as a moment of teaching, for hope and renewal, in the common good of our society.