Catholic education leader warns of special character ‘creep’

In a recent speech, Dr Kevin Shore talked of the maintenance and preservation of special character as one of the biggest challenges facing the state integrated school sector in the next 10 to 20 years.

On the surface all appears well, and the popularity of state integrated schools with parents reflects their desire for a strong values education, Dr Shore said.

But Dr Shore, who is also chief executive of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office, said he is not convinced that these parents and the proprietors and stakeholders of state integrated education are talking about the same thing.

“State integrated schools do not provide generic values education; in fact, our state school cousins do a great job of this,” Dr Shore said. “State integrated schools offer a more specific experience of values by ensuring that special character is infused across the entirety of the school day and the teaching and learning programme, staffed by teachers committed to a specific tradition and giving preference to families connected to that faith or philosophical tradition. That is quite different to generic values education.” 

Dr Shore said that “the transmission of this specific faith or philosophical tradition requires a common understanding, a clearly written and articulated statement of the special character and the strategic intent to manage and protect that legacy over an extended period as people and society change”.

“That does not mean that special character does not also evolve but that important principles, values and beliefs are maintained that sit at the core of the particular special character identity,” he said. 

“This stewardship of identity sits with the proprietor and must be protected through frequent changes in proprietor personnel and across time. It is easy for creep to happen as the special character is slowly lost and corporate values take hold.”

Dr Shore said that “creep and loss of special character is a real danger” and will be one focus for APIS workshops being hosted across the country to discuss the relationship between the proprietor, school board and school leadership.

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