Curriculum and Compassion: An Inquiry into the Relevance of the Charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in a Post-Modern World

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relevance of a curriculum that embodies the charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in a post-modern world. The project will investigate the understanding of the charism both by the researcher and by selected brothers who are in unique positions to articulate and explicate just what the charism entails. A variety of formational and foundational documents will also be subjected to philosophical analysis so a deep picture of the charism is available to the reader. Literature surrounding post-modernist curriculum theory serves as the theoretical framework for this investigation of the charism of the brothers. Insights from a variety of post-modern educational researchers will be placed in dialogue with the charism in order to consider the driving research question: "What relevance does the educational Charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart have in a post-modern society?$quot The study uses methods consistent with the post-modern framework: philosophical analysis; interviews, primarily oral histories, with selected Brothers of the Sacred Heart whose experience puts them in a position to offer insights into the charism; and narrative inquiry on those interviews collected from selected brothers. Students graduating from a Brothers of the Sacred Heart school like that in which this researcher works enter a world whose driving paradigm is a post-modern one. The curriculum which they have experienced is, however, in many ways, modern, and even pre-modern. Nevertheless, this study concludes that the written and oral descriptions of the charism of the brothers, as well as the ways that it is in fact found to be practiced in their schools, is consistent with broad characteristics of the post-modern perspective. Especially as the brothers emphasize an openness to student growth, and as they seek to embody a curriculum based on hope, trust, compassion and love, they represent an approach to education that is implicitly post-modern. If education in the charism is to remain relevant, a curriculum must be envisioned that nurtures and ever more deeply embodies those post-modern characteristics.