CATHOLIC SCHOOLS AND CATHOLIC VALUES? ASTUDYOF MORALAND RELIGIOUS VALUES AMONG 13-15 YEAR OLD PUPILS ATTENDING NON-DENOMINATIONALAND CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND AND WALES.
LESLIE J. FRANCIS Welsh National Centre for Religious Education
Abstract This study employs data from a survey of 33,982 adolescents between the ages of 13-15 through- out England and Wales to prole the distinctive identity of pupils attending Catholic secondary schools within the state maintained sector. Attention is drawn to four distinct communities of values within the Catholic school as dened by pupils who are active Catholics, sliding Catholics, lapsed Catholics and non-Catholics.
INTRODUCTION
Internationally there is a well established and developing literature on the attitudes, values and beliefs of past and present pupils attending Catholic schools. This is illustrated, for example, by studies conducted in Australia by Mol (1968), Ray and Doratis (1971), McSweeney (1971), Anderson (1971), Anderson and Western (1972), Leavey (1972), Flynn (1975, 1979, 1985), Fahy (1976, 1978, 1980a, 1980b, 1982, 1992), De V aus (1981), Francis and Egan (1987), Neidhart and Hansford (1988), Carpenter (1992), Ryan and Foster (1995), Dorman (1999) and Dorman and McRobbie(2000); in Northern Ireland by Turner, Turner and Reid (1980), Murray and Osborne (1983), Murray (1985), Greer (1981, 1982a, 1982b, 1985), Greer and Long (1989), Greer and Francis (1990, 1991, 1992a, 1992b) and Francis and Greer (1990, 1992, 1993, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 2001); in Scotland by Rhymer (1983), Rhymer and Francis (1985) and Francis and Gibson (2001); and in the United States of America by Quinn (1965), Neuwien (1966), Greeley and Rossi (1966), Greeley, McCready and McCourt (1976), Treston, Whiteman and Florent (1975) and Francis and Egan (1990). Within this broader international context, over the last four decades sev- eral independent initiatives have been taken to pro le the attitudes, val- ues and beliefs of past and present pupils attending Catholic schools in England and Wales, where the provisions of the 1944 Education Act enabled
International Journal of Education and Religion III,1, 69-84 ©Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2002 70 LESLIE J. FRANCIS the Catholic Church to consolidate and to expand a system of primary and secondary schools within the state maintained educational sector (Cruickshank, 1963; Murphy, 1971; Chadwick, 1997). Four main strands can be identied within these research initiatives. The rst strand brings together three studies conducted and published during the 1960s by Brothers (1964), Lawlor (1965) and Spencer (1968). Brothers’(1964) pioneering study was designed to nd out the relationships which the former pupils of 9 Catholic grammar schools, where the head- teachers were all members of religious orders, had with the formal groupings of the church. Her data demonstrated that the parish had become largely irrelevant to many of these former pupils. Their education had introduced them to new ways of behaving and relating to the wider society. In a study of Catholic school children and students, Lawlor (1965) found what she described as evidence of an impressive, real and deep religious commitment. At the same time, she found their religion to emphasise the other wordly and to be associated with a tendency to contract out of this world and the human community and a tendency to lack concern for others. In 1958 Spencer (1968) made a study of 1,652 Catholics between the ages of 15 and 24. He found that 75% of those who had some Catholic schooling claimed to go to church weekly, but so did 74% of those who had not attended Catholic schools but had attended catechism lessons out- side school hours. In a later study conducted in the mid 1960s among 7,722 British born adult Catholics, Spencer found that a quarter of those Catholics who had not attended Catholic schools practised their faith, com- pared with two-fths of those who had always experienced Catholic schools. The second strand brings together three studies conducted during the 1970s by Michael Hornsby-Smith and his associates and summarised by Hornsby-Smith (1978). Astudy carried out with Ann Thomas compared the attitudes of girls educated in an Anglican school and in a Catholic convent school. The data demonstrated that the girls in the Catholic school were more likely to aspire to outstanding scholarship or sporting achieve- ment, were more preoccupied with the state of family life, and were more critical toward television, modern art and modern drama. Astudy conducted with Margaret Petit and repeated more fully by Hornsby-Smith and Petit (1975) employed a set of 16 items concerned with a range of social, moral and religious attitudes. Their factor analy- ses identied as many as six factors within this group of items, with most factors being dened by only two items each. The items were used to dis- cuss the differences between pupils attending Catholic and county schools, as well as to prole the attitudes of pupils within the Catholic school sec-