This edited collection is the first part of a two-volume set., which focuses on leadership in Catholic education settings in the United Kingdom. It includes an overview of the importance of different types of leadership, including ‘servant-leadership’, in understanding and framing Catholic school practice, a critical survey of why leadership matters to ensuring the success of Catholic education, and a discussion of what counts as the defining characteristics of leadership in Catholic education and how this relates to the aims or philosophy of Catholic education. The chapters in this book draw from the insights and experiences of serving Catholic school leaders as well as from academics and researchers in Catholic education studies. The final two chapters provide a comparative analysis for the United Kingdom in a global perspective using data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) . Together, the chapters argue that there is an urgent need to find, nurture, and sustain outstanding leaders for Catholic schools and colleges.

The administration of Pre K – 12 Catholic schools becomes more challenging each year. Catholic school leaders not only have the daunting task of leading a successful learning organization, but also to serve as the school community’s spiritual leader and the vigilant steward who keeps the budget balanced, the building clean, and maintaining a healthy enrollment in the school. Each of these tasks can be a full time job, yet the Catholic school principal takes on these tasks day after day, year after year, so that teachers may teach as Jesus did. The goal of this book is to provide both beginning and seasoned Catholic school leaders with some insights that might help them to meet these challenges with a sense of confidence. The words in this text provide research?based approaches for dealing with issues of practice, especially those tasks that are not ordinarily taught in educational leadership programs. This text helps to make sense of the pastoral side of Catholic education, in terms of structures, mission, identity, curriculum, and relationships with the principal’s varied constituencies. It also provides some insights into enrollment management issues, finances and development, and the day in day out care of the organization and its home, the school building. As a Catholic school leader, each must remember that the Catholic school is not just another educational option. The Catholic school has a rich history and an important mission. Historically, education of the young goes back to the monastic and cathedral schools of the Middle Ages. In the United States, Catholic schools developed as a response to anti?Catholic bias that was rampant during the nineteenth century. Catholic schools developed to move their immigrant and first generation American youth from the Catholic ghetto to successful careers and lives in the American mainstream. However, most importantly, Catholic schools have brought Christ to generations of youngsters. It remains the continuing call of the Catholic school to be a center of Evangelization—a place where Gospel values live in the lives of faculty, students and parents. This text attempts to integrate the unique challenges of the instructional leader of the institution with the historical and theological underpinnings of contemporary Catholic education.

Catholic School Leadership addresses many of the challenges facing those who prepare faith leaders and education leaders for the Catholic schools of the future. The well-known editors and contributors to this volume have written about their personal experiences with Catholic schools; the educational foundations of Catholic schools; teacher preparation and development; Catholic school leadership; dealing with parents and families; and the challenges of technology for Catholic schools. The contributions emphasize the perspectives of both scholars and practitioners within Catholic education and will interest anyone who has experienced time in a Catholic school either as a student, teacher or administrator, as well as those interested in what is happening within Catholic schools today.

This volume presents an interdisciplinary and systematic review of Catholic Education Studies across Ireland and Britain. Taken together, the chapters drill down to the foundations, identity and leadership matters in Catholic education and schools. It is in reading the complete volume that a more precise picture of Catholic education in Ireland and Britain develops into sharper focus. This is important because it reflects and crystallises the complexity which has almost organically developed within the field of Catholic Education Studies. It also provides a powerful antidote to the naïve reductionism that would boil Catholic education down to just one or two fundamental issues or principles. Contemporary Catholic education, perhaps globally but certainly in Ireland and Britain, is best depicted in terms of being a colourful kaleidoscope of differing perspectives. However this diversity is ultimately grounded in the underlying unity of purpose, because each of the contributors to this volume is a committed advocate of Catholic education. The volume brings together a rich range of scholars into one place, so that these voices can be listened to as a whole. It includes contributions from leading scholars, blended with a plethora of other voices who are emerging to become the next generation of leading researchers in Catholic education. It also introduces a number of newer voices to the academic context. They present fresh perspectives and thinking about matters relating to Catholic education and each of them confidently stand alongside the other contributors. Moreover, these reflections on Catholic education are important fruits to have emerged from the collaboration made possible through the creation of the Network for Researchers in Catholic Education, which was established in 2016 under the auspices of Heythrop College, University of London.

A guide to the high-impact leadership that is essential for realizing successful, vibrant Catholic K-12 schools, colleges, and universities Recent studies by educational organizations, such as the National Association of Independent Schools, have found that aspiring leaders believe they lack preparation in areas such as financial planning and fundraising, human resource and legal issues, trustee governance, risk management, and addressing polarization within their school community. High-Impact Leadership in Catholic Education proposes that contemporary Catholic K-12, college, and university leaders embrace a fundamental, high-impact approach to all aspects of the academic organization. This high-impact model examines the centrality of the Catholic mission; the strategic plan as an institutional road map; steps to foster a safe, vibrant community with a financially sound future; the critical importance of risk assessment and crisis management; the unique role of trustees; and the qualities that characterize high-impact leadership. On the basis of Dwyer's extensive experience in teaching and administration in American Catholic universities and independent schools, each chapter also includes critical questions for reflection and a pertinent case study. This book is aimed at leaders in Catholic education at K-12 and higher education levels. It will be particularly interesting to administrators of Catholic institutions who aspire to be presidents, principals, heads of school, and senior leaders.

From the age of fourteen until his death at the age of eighty-two, Pope John XXIII kept what he called his 'Journal of a Soul' - the record of his growth in holiness. Elected Pope at the age of seventy-eight he impressed the world with the breadth of his mind but also with his simplicity and his will to be at the service of others. This book covers the full span of his long career from the seminary at Bergamo to his brief but transformative papacy.His journal is a rare and intimate record of the spiritual life of a much-loved figure. As he wrote, 'my soul is in these pages.'