Characterizing Organizational Sustainability in Catholic Schools: A Cross-National Study Applying Text Mining

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested the importance of sustainability in all organizations; however, their application to schools as an organization is limited. This study aims to characterize sustainability in primary and secondary catholic schools. The theoretical framework is based on the theories of resources, capabilities and stakeholders because they relate most directly to organizational sustainability. The method consists of three interrelated parts. First, a bibliometric analysis with four clusters was obtained in the first model of understanding (1.0). The second stage consisted of a content analysis, which elicited meanings by screening2,710 records and deepening 200 research studies with the model (2.0). Then, in the third stage, an exploratory analysis was carried out through interviews with a group of Latin American education experts who manage almost 300,000 students in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, and Chile; the data were analyzed using the text mining technique with discourse analysis. The results validated five categories: Management, Campus Operation, Well-being, Education for Sustainable Development, and Associativity. This study concluded that associativity in these Catholic organizations is fundamental to guaranteeing their sustainability over time and that the wellbeing category implies social and political transformation processes. Therefore, it is proposed for future research to measure these categories and systematize them as a model of sustainability management in the school as a whole and as a strategy for managing sustainability processes in the whole school.

An organizational sustainability framework for Latin American Catholic schools in the La Salle network. A cross-national study using structural equations modeling

“…After the factorial analysis, it was determined the following dimensions that answer an initial proposal of a school organizational sustainability framework: governance, politics, people, food, transportation, waste infrastructure, curriculum, formation, health, secular association and partnership (Gutierrez-Rivera et al. , 2023a, b).…”

“…Despite predominating qualitative methodologies in these frameworks, their application to quantitative validation remains challenging. Furthermore, while studies explore organizational characteristics for sustainability in educational institutions, research specific to school organizations is lacking (Gutierrez-Rivera et al, 2023a;Sanches et al, 2022).…”