From Educational Vision to School Reality; the Role of School Evaluation

Ramsay, William; Clark, Eugene

doi:10.1177/002196578803100303

Cited by 2 publications

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“…46 The church-school-parent-community network of today is largely successful in children's values education. 47 From children's 'lying down', to their 'rising up', to their 'walking by the way', adults within the faith community can interpret children's life situations with reference to the Word of God, providing situational and holistic values instruction. 48 A biblical approach to values is organic and integral rather than isolated.…”

Section: The Role Of Values In Christian School Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Culture of the Christian School

Mills¹

2003

Journal of Education and Christian Belief

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The Culture of the Christian SchoolIN DISCUSSIONS OF educational administration theory, school culture has emerged as a contentious construct characterized by polarized positions. The underlying tensions are between conflicting structuralist and post-structuralist perspectives. These have led to views of Christian school culture and school organization as being either, on the one hand, static, positivist, hierarchical, individualistic and capitalistic or, on the other, dynamic, coherentist, communally interdependent, service oriented and Christ-centered. All schools demonstrate an ethos or organizational culture by default if not by design. It is therefore imperative for Christian school administrators, educators, and the community to consciously define the aspects of school culture that reflect the shared biblical values of the Christian school community.particularly to those inside the organization. 2 Furthermore, in describing school culture, we have to deal with a conflicting and complex mélange of subcultures that possess distinctive attributes, norms, language, patterns of dress, and informal codes of behavior. 3 The key ingredients of school culture are the shared values and beliefs of its members. The culture subconsciously defines the hidden ideology, epistemic assumptions, motives, values and perceptions of participants in the organization, powerfully and silently creating meaning and fostering unity within the community. These are often translated operationally through symbols, processes and structures such as the history, myths, rituals, heroes and heroines, rules, physical environment, organizational structures, and indeed, the very nature of human interactions within the school. 4 This is a time of uncertainty in both education and society, of great epistemological cynicism in which all ideas rooted in tradition are now challenged. This analysis of school culture is an attempt to resolve some of the current tensions that have arisen in contemporary educational administrative theory. Among both secular and Christian perspectives, there are a number of opposite positions regarding the ideal culture of the school. The most relevant issues in the contemporary context are identified and debated here.

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Section: The Role Of Values In Christian School Culturementioning

confidence: 99%