RT Article
T1 Revitalizing the Mission: The Challenge for Christian Education to Discover Contextual Vocation and Ethos
JF Religions
VO 14
IS 10
A1 de Muynck, Bram
A1 Kunz, Bram
A2 Kunz, Bram
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1867417308
AB In a rapidly changing world, due to globalization, individualization, economization, and secularization, the need for revitalizing the mission of Christian schools is inevitable. The authors relate the concept of mission to the often-used concept of school identity. The latter concept is distinguished as intended identity, lived identity, and perceived identity. The mission is defined as equal to the intended identity and must be understood as a contextual vocation. Revitalizing the mission means following a process in which stakeholders can once again relate prospect to retrospect. This process includes discerning about a vocation by exploring meanings in the past and the present (sense-giving and sense-making) and focusing on ethos (action formation and institutionalization). The outcome of the revitalization will differ according to the preferences in the context of the school. The authors propose a seven-step model through which the school’s vocation can be determined in any context. Although this roadmap is mainly meant to be used in an already existing school, it can also be applied to a new school to be started. In both cases, staff members need to be involved in the process of revitalization and inception.
K1 Christian Education
K1 Revitalization
K1 Institutional change
K1 institutional mission
K1 school identity
DO 10.3390/rel14101330