Output details

Individual and Institution

This chapter is one of several I have contributed to a book that provides a critical appreciation and creative appropriation of the Catholic intellectual tradition for guiding the practice of education in general and of Catholic education in particular. It draws upon and integrates in an original manner theological, educational, philosophical and sociological perspectives in analysing an aspect of educational work and organisations that is rarely examined explicitly in the literature: the challenge of doing justice to the individuals who make up an educational community at the same time as acknowledging the needs of the institution as an institution. It poses, in an unusual way, the dialectic between, on the one hand, legitimate zones of jurisdiction within an educational institution, where boundaries, structures, order and direction play a necessary part, and, on the other hand, the need for room for manoeuvre, spaces for freedom, experiment, ownership and personal appropriation by individual staff and students. Here political realities and personal needs can be in tension. The chapter brings out how the poles of this tension must be held together creatively and harmoniously, neglecting neither the (diverse) needs of individuals nor the needs of institutions, in service of their educational and religious mission, to provide continuity, consistency, direction and coherence. The mutual dependence of individuals and institutions is brought out and a strong case is made that authority in educational institutions should aim to promote freedom. The analysis is applied to the particular context of Catholic schools.