Distinctiveness and Inclusiveness: Incompatibility or Creative Tension?

Abstract

In bringing into a sharper focus the two polarities sketched out in Chapter One, I shall concentrate on Catholic schooling in the public sector. This means that I omit treatment of those contexts other than schooling which also provide opportunities for educating Catholics in their faith. Among these might be included sermons, liturgy, missions, catechesis, sodalities, sacramental participation, religious literature, pilgrimages, scripture study and other forms of adult and higher education. The crucial roles of the family and the parish in Catholic education are not addressed. I concentrate my attention on ‘ordered learning’ in formal educational settings, rather than the Catholic community’s total range of processes for education and formation in faith, without assuming that my area of focus is either the most important or the most effective element within those processes. Such ordered learning is central to, but smaller in scope than, the faith community’s total formative process.