Gerald Grace Research Articles

Exploring the extent to which ‘spiritual capital’ is impactful in a cross-section of Catholic independent schools with a founding religious trusteeship

Gerald Grace (2002. Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality. London: Routledge), borrowing from the sociological constructs of Pierre Bourdieu, speaks of the significance of the spiritual and cultural capital of religious orders in providing a substantial catalyst in the development of Catholic education in England and Wales This article endeavours to explore the extent to which spiritual capital remains impactful in a cross-section of Catholic Independent schools with a founding religious trusteeship in the UK, taking into account the changing ecclesial demography within the Catholic Church in the UK alongside contemporary education challenges. Following a critical retrieval of literature relating to the concept of spiritual capital, this article will classify and interpret research evidence based interviews with headteachers of a range of Catholic Independent schools.

A commentary on Nicholas King’s review of Radical Christianity. A Reading of Recovery

I am grateful to Gerald Grace for his interest in, and inclusion of a review of, my book, Radical Christianity, in International Studies in Catholic Education, and to Nicholas King for his generous...

Challenges for Catholic schools in contemporary Uruguay

This article reviews and updates a previous work published in 2007 as a chapter in the International Handbook of Catholic Education (Aristimuño, A. 2007. “Challenges for Catholic Schools in Uruguay.” In International Handbook of Catholic Education: Challenges for School Systems in the 21st Century. Part One, edited by Gerald Grace and S. J. Joseph O’Keefe, 149–163, Dordrecht: Springer). Its purpose is to review and analyze the transformations Catholic education has experienced since then in the small and secularised country of Uruguay, and by doing so, to identify its main contemporary challenges.It incorporates new literature and findings related to Catholic education globally (Grace, G. 2016. Faith, Mission and Challenge in Catholic Education. The Selected Works of Gerald Grace. London: Routledge; Lydon, J. 2009. “Transmission of the Charism: A Major Challenge for Catholic Education.” International Studies in Catholic Education 1 (1): 42–58), to new ways of religion that are growing in Latin America (Da Costa, N. 2017. “Creencias y descreencias desde las experiencias cotidianas. Una mirada desde Uruguay.” Estudos de Religiao 31 (3): 1–21; Morello, G. et al. 2017. “Lived Religion in Latin America and Europe. The Roman-Catholic Experience in Everyday Life.” Quaderni del Csal-4, Centro Studi per l’America Latina, IX (17). Trieste: Edizione Universita di Trieste), new empirical research about the current situation of Catholic education in the country (Census AUDEC, 2016 and 2017), and the voice of several new Catholic education leaders who run influential educational organisations in the country.These new sources and findings show that in spite of some demanding social and global changes, what sustains and inspires the work of the protagonists at the heart of Catholic education in Uruguay continues to be its ‘spiritual capital’, defined as ‘resources of faith and values derived from commitment to a religious tradition’ (Grace, G. 2002. Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality. London: Routledge Falmer, p. 236).

The Contours for Researching Religion and School Choice

ABSTRACTThis article argues that contemporary conceptual frameworks for understanding religion may not be adequate for the arena of religion and school choice. Successive published research suggests that people are choosing religious schools for reasons other than religion. But what if the reasons why people might be religious and their motivation for choosing a religious school are more complex? This article considers some of the latest theoretical conversations around religion and social science. In particular it discusses approaches developed by U.K. Catholic sociologist of education, Gerald Grace. The article proposes some new contours for researching religion and school choice in North America.

Renewing spiritual capital: the National Retreat for Catholic Headteachers and the National School of Formation: the impact on Catholic headteachers in the UK

This paper draws on the findings of a small-scale research study based on interviews with twenty serving Catholic headteachers from the primary and secondary phases and from the maintained and independent sectors. The focus of the study was to explore the concept of ‘spiritual capital’ among the headteachers and to evaluate the impact of two major new initiatives in England and Wales: the National Retreat for Catholic Headteachers and the National School of Formation. Gerald Grace and others have raised concerns about the depletion of spiritual capital among Catholic headteachers as more lay people take on the responsibility and the Catholic culture which sustained such capital continues to decline. My initial conclusions are that Catholic headteachers are still drawing on spiritual capital from their own resources and the wider community, but these resources are maintaining rather than developing or deepening their spiritual lives. The new initiatives have had a significantly positive effect on the spiritual resources they draw upon in their role as Catholic headteachers.

Faith, Mission and Challenge in Catholic Education: The Selected Works of Gerald Grace

Faith, Mission and Challenge in Catholic Education: The Selected Works of Gerald Grace

Response to Grace’s reflections on Allen and West’s paper

We are pleased to be offered the opportunity to respond to the Comment by Gerald Grace on our paper ‘Religious schools in London: school admissions, religious composition and selectivity’. The Comm...

Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets, and Morality, by Gerald Grace

Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets, and Morality, by Gerald Grace

Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality, by Gerald Grace

Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality, by Gerald Grace

Simplicity and Complexity in Contemporary School Leadership: A Response to Grace

Gerald Grace's (2000) paper Research and the Challenges of School Leadership: the Contribution of Critical Scholarship is applauded for making a powerful case for critical leadership studies to be taken seriously and for providing an exhortation for many educationists to think again about headship. However, this paper suggests that Grace's paper is weakened by: (a) traditionalism (e.g. a false equation of leadership with headship and neglect of more recent discourses of leadership, distributed leadership and complexity theory); (b) reductionism, oversimplification, selectivity and misrepresentation in his consideration of educational management studies; (c) neglect of the considerable overlap between critical leadership studies and educational management studies; (d) an untenably negative view of educational management studies (neglecting their potential for realising the same agenda as critical leadership studies); (e) eurocentrism; and (f) his neglect of foundational issues in, and authors on, critical theory.

The Dilemmas of Leadership and the Virtues of Policy Scholarship

In this book Gerald Grace could well have taken as his point of departure R.H. Tawney's dictum that 'an appeal to principles is the condition of any ... reconstruction of society, because social institutions are the visible expression of the scale of moral values ... and it is impossible to alter institutions without altering that valuation' (Tawney, 1982, p. 10). As the title of this book suggests, it is not about management and, in fact, it is only in passing a book about leadership: the real target of Grace's aim is the impact of marketisation on education. In this sense, the principals that he interviewed for his study merely exemplify the underlying themes of the book. But they are important 'exemplars' nevertheless, because in contemporary education, in which 'leadership', invested in an individual, is seen as the catch-all solution to so many problems, it is principals who are at the sharp end of change. The clash of values between those hitherto held in education, at least in the official ideology of schooling and in the hopes and ideals of teachers and those of the market are well documented by Grace; theoretically, through the use of Bernstein's important insight that with the advent of marketisation: 'Knowledge, after nearly a thousand years, is divorced from inwardness and is literally dehumanised' (Bernstein, 1990, p. 136) and empirically, through the voices of his principals: 'School is not a business ... Education is not about getting money ... It's about helping people'. As is to be expected when value systems clash, paradox and irony abound. For example, Grace is careful to include the question of women's leadership styles in his research, yet they were largely silent on the issue of gender in relation to educational leadership. He also notes the Jesuitical reasoning of Catholic principals who strive to reconcile the teachings of Rome with the demands of the market. Perhaps the most 'optimistic' irony is that principals seek to subvert the market, something also found by the Smithfield team in New Zealand (Waslander & Thrupp, 1995).

Reviews

Structuralism and Education. By Rex Gibson. Pp. viii, 166. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984. £3.95. Dimensions of Moral Education. By Robert E. Carter. University of Toronto Press. £23 cloth, £8.50 paper. 242 pp. The Development of Social Knowledge. Morality and Convention. By Elliot Turiel. Pp. viii, 240. Cambridge University Press, 1984. £20.00 (Hardback), £7.95 (Paperback). Personal and Social Education in the Curriculum. By Richard Pring. Pp. 184. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984. £4.25 Development, Experience and Curriculum in Primary Education. By W.A.L. Blyth. Croom Helm Teaching 5–13 Series. 1984. Pp. 172. £6.95 Education and the City: Theory, History and Contemporary Practice. Edited by Gerald Grace. Pp. xiii, 302. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984. £8.95. Education As Social Policy. By Janet Finch. Pp. viii, 284. Harlow: Longman Group Ltd., 1984. Navajo Infancy: An Ethological Study of Child Development. By James S, Chisholm. Pp. XII, 267. New York: Aldine Publishing Co. 1983. $29.95. Soviet Education in the 1980s, Edited by J.J. Tomiak, Pp.x, 326. London, Croom Helm, 1983. £17.95. The Crisis of the University. By Peter Scott. Pp. viii, 277. Beckenham: Croom Helm, 1984. £16.95 hardback, £8.95 paperback. The Mathematicians’ Apprenticeship: Science, Universities and Society in England 1560–1640. By Mordechai Feingold. Pp. viii, 248. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. £22.50. A Guide to English Educational Terms. By Peter Gordon and Denis Lawton. Pp. xvii, 220. London: Batsford, 1984. £7.50.

Schools in Cities: Consensus and Conflict in American Educational History. Ronald K. Goodenow , Diane RavitchEducation and the City: Theory, History and Contemporary Practice. Gerald Grace

<i>Schools in Cities: Consensus and Conflict in American Educational History</i>. Ronald K. Goodenow , Diane Ravitch<i>Education and the City: Theory, History and Contemporary Practice</i>. Gerald Grace

Book reviews : Education and the City: theory, history and contemporary practice Gerald Grace (ed) RKP, London 1984, £8.95 pbk

Book reviews : Education and the City: theory, history and contemporary practice Gerald Grace (ed) RKP, London 1984, £8.95 pbk

Teachers, Ideology and Control. Gerald Grace

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsTeachers, Ideology and Control. Gerald Grace Warren ButtonWarren Button Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 24, Number 2, Part 1Jun., 1980Part 1 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/446124 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1980 The Comparative and International Education SocietyPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Teachers, Ideology and Control: A Study in Urban Education. Gerald Grace

<i>Teachers, Ideology and Control: A Study in Urban Education</i>. Gerald Grace