Staff Formation

Framework

Enlivening all staff through formation as lifelong adult learners who nurture

education for transformation (Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Brisbane)

CONTACT USFor further information contact: Brisbane Catholic Education Office

243 Gladstone Road, Dutton Park QLD 4102 GPO Box 1201, Brisbane QLD 4001 Australia

Phone: (07) 3033 7000 Fax: (07) 3844 5101

www.bne.catholic.edu.au

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For direct contact please phone: Liz and Enza (07) 3033 7620 Professional Learning, Formation and Leadership Brisbane Catholic Education

WHAT DOES THE VATICAN SAY?“The Catholic school, far more than any other, must be a community whose aim is the transmission of values for living… faith is principally assimilated through contact with people whose daily life bears witness to it. Christian faith, in fact, is born and grows inside a community.”(THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL, 1977)

“…In the Catholic school, prime responsibility for creating this unique Christian school climate rests with the teachers, as individuals and as a community, …for the teacher does not write on inanimate material, but on the very spirits of human beings.” (THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM 1998)

“…The identity and success of Catholic education is linked inseparably to the witness of life given by the teaching staff.” (ECCLESIA IN OCEANIA 2001)

“Each day in our world, beauty is born anew, it rises transformed through the storms of history,” and “all who evangelize are instruments of that power.” (EVANGELII GAUDIUM 2013)

The Catholic school is “a path that leads to the three languages that a mature person needs to know: the language of the mind, the language of the heart, and the language of the hands.” (POPE FRANCIS: CHURCH FOR SCHOOLS DAY, 2014)

CONCLUSIONTeaching and working in the Catholic School is an important part of the Mission of the Catholic Church and it is hoped that a formation framework will help all staff to grow personally and professionally (QCEC A Guide to Develop a framework for Staff Formation 2012).

Formation is always designed around the distinctive mission of the individual who is being formed. So the formation of staff in Catholic schools must be designed around the vocation of staff in the church’s mission in the world. Catholic school staff, in the midst of the world, need a formation that addresses the unique challenges of their calling. This may include the need to be prepared to evangelise individuals, cultures, and structures that may be non-Christian.

“Since the laity share in their own way in the mission of the Church, their apostolic formation is specially characterised by the distinctively secular and particular quality of the lay state and by its own form of the spiritual life.” (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, 29)

QUALITY STAFF FORMATIONQuality Formation will have the following characteristics:

1. Authentic formation is respectful of the starting point of each person, and so is invitational at each step, respectful of individual needs and contexts.

2. The context of the adult learner varies professionally, personally and the way each one engages in learning, so formation ought be planned so that it is multi-targeted, multi-layered and multi-modal.

3. Authentic formation is not best progressed in “one off” presentations or experiences, but is rather ongoing, developmental and sequential.

4. Formation in the Catholic Christian tradition recognizes deeply the place of the community in the individual journey, and so formation ought reflect a relational culture modeled on Jesus Christ.

5. Authentic formation embodies a vision of Church, Christianity, discipleship and leadership that will inspire and express what the Catholic school community holds close to its heart, how it engages others and uses its resources. This is evident in both explicit ways and through the formative environment of the school and office setting.

6. Formation programs ought be grounded in a strong theological and ecclesial foundation.

7. Formation is a holistic undertaking, predicated on a positive anthropology of the human person and involving the ‘head, heart and hands.’

8. Formation involves an understanding of story and the experiential dimension of this process is critical in the journey of transformation.

9. Spiritual formation involves companioning – of the self; of each other and of the community - reflecting best practice in spiritual direction, adult learning and change facilitation.

10. Formation is most effective when connected to the vocational (professional) context of staff eg classroom teacher, middle manager, principal, support staff.

(Adapted QCEC 2012 & Formation of Australian Catholic Educators National Network 2010)

OUR COMMITMENT TO FORMATION

Shared Responsibilities

Formation occurs both within and beyond our educational communities. Within our educational communities, formation is a shared responsibility between the individual, the school or section

and the archdiocesan level. (BCEO)

Individual

Leader or Principal

(Schools and

BCEO sections)

Archdiocese

(BCEO

Leadership)

Responds to

invitation to

include formation

goal-setting in

annual goals.

Actively encourage

staff in individual

formation goal setting.

Sets system

expectations for

Formation.

Takes up

opportunities

provided

including

individual,

school-based and

system-based

options.

Plans for school based

or section based

initiatives as part of

overall professional

learning connected

to Strategic Renewal

Framework priorities or

Office Priorities.

Organises whole

of system events

and system-wide

opportunities.

Models attentiveness

to formation in own

leadership.

Oversights

systemic strategy.

Follows through

opportunities

identified in earlier

goal setting.

Ensures staff have

access to formation

initiatives (both school-

based and BCEO/

other offerings) as

appropriate to role and

experience.

Provides

support, resource

personnel and

mechanisms

in an integrated

way.

The first and most important task

for Catholic schools is to maintain

and continually strengthen their

Catholic Identity. (Executive Director, Pam Betts, 2015)

INTRODUCTIONWe live and teach in a different and changing world. Formation that might have been presumed among those involved in Catholic Schools 30 years ago can no longer be so presumed. The staff of our schools today have quite different formation needs in a post-Vatican II Church and contemporary Australian Culture. Younger staff members have emerged with philosophical and cultural influences that present new challenges for the effective nurturing of their spirituality in a Catholic educational context. Executive Director, Pam Betts has named as one of her priorities, the formation of staff from induction to leadership, and the strengthening of Catholic Identity in our Catholic schools.

Formation today needs to be done through an approach that is both connective and respectful of individuals, and that relates meaningfully to their contexts and backgrounds.

The development of BCE formation programs and strategies builds on the good work already in evidence across our schools. Christian Spiritual formation is deeply personal and radically communal in its vision and praxis. While the shape of a spiritual life is, in the end, a matter of unique mystery between God and the individual person, spirituality in the Christian tradition is developed in company.

The healthiest way to view spiritual formation is to see it as a journey. So we refer to it as a path or journey to remind us of where we have been, where we are and where we are going. Not only does it mean we come to understand our own story deeply, we journey into knowing how our own story connects with a wider communal story and to the great wide and deep story of God’s reality in which we live, move and have our being.

DEFINING FEATURES The Queensland Bishops initiated a research project to identify the “Defining Features” of Catholic Schools for the 21st Century. From this data the following features of Catholic schools into the future in the Brisbane archdiocese will:

• promote the dynamic vision of God’s love manifest in the life and mission of Jesus Christ;

• recognise and nurture the spirituality of each person;

• be a place of quality learning and teaching;

• continue to act in partnership with families;

• provide an authentic experience of Catholic Christian community;

• be open to those who support its values;

• be experienced as a community of care (BCE, 2006, p. 15).

In order to maintain the strong Catholic identity of these schools, “Staff of Catholic schools will have appropriate professional qualifications and ongoing formation.” (QCEC, 2001, p. 7).

WHAT IS FORMATION? Formation is derived from the latin word ‘formare’ – which means ‘to shape’.

Within the context of Catholic education, formation is the process of bringing together the professional, human, spiritual, theological and scriptural dimensions of the Catholic school educator in a way that authentically shapes into both educational praxis and community ethos.

Formation is different from training because formation conjures images of deep learning that involves attitudes, values, commitment to particular life directions as well as knowledge and skills. (BCE, 2009)

Formation entails the integration of faith and life into the culture of community, its relationships and our educational practices. (QCEC)

MISSION FORMATION AND LEADERSHIPThe word ‘Mission’, is derived from the latin ‘missio’, meaning ‘to be sent.’ In both its cultural meaning and its religious meaning, it denotes ‘purpose’- what an individual, a group, community, organisation, or institution exists for, or believes it is sent to do. The mission of our BCE community succinctly answers the question ‘What are we about?’ It gives shape to our Catholic Identity, which is expressed and develops in ways that are individual, systemic and ecclesial.

The educational mission of Brisbane Catholic Education, as an evangelising agent of the Catholic Church, is to teach, challenge and transform the world through every aspect of its ministry.

Formation from induction to leadership is central to shaping a real and compelling Catholic Identity in our time. Thus the formation of staff across BCE is incorporated into a broad strategy which contributes towards the requirements for professional development of all staff in our Catholic schools and Office.

FORMATION FRAMEWORK

RELEVANT BCE TOUCHSTONE DOCUMENTS AND QCEC POLICY DOCUMENTS• BCE Spiritual Formation for Mission Framework Book (Third

Edition, 2015)

• BCE Leadership Framework

• BCE Guidelines for the Religious Life of the School

• BCE Renewal Framework

• QCEC Formation for Staff Members In Catholic Schools in Queensland (2010)

• QCEC A Guide to Develop a Framework for Staff Formation in Catholic Schools in Queensland (2011)

• QCEC Position Statement: Accreditation to Teach in a Catholic School and Accreditation to Teach Religion in a Catholic School (2009)

• The Religious Dimension of Senior Educational Leadership in Catholic Schools in Queensland (2010)At the heart of everything that we do in our schools... is teach the art of being human. Fully human and fully alive!

(Archbishop Mark Coleridge, July 30 2014)

MY STORY, OUR STORY, THE STORYFormation is very much about making sense of who we are and the narrative of our own lives. Our spiritual journey begins with the meaning making of our own story and experience first. We must start where we are. The BCE approach affirms the starting point of the individual, connecting to the wider Christian story and into the God narrative.

The importance today of meeting people where they are, developing a mutual trust in the journey, and committing to a sustained and sustainable journey recovers four traditional characteristics of formation work that are old but true: • Meeting people where they are, with a respectfulnesss for

the sacredness of story already there;

• Companioning, in whatever shape that takes, to accompany the seeker, open and trusting to where it may lead;

• Reflecting and changing praxis in our everyday lives as a result;

• Growing in community.

These characteristics have been recontextualised in our initiatives, but remain as fundamental to formation as they ever were.

FORMAL STUDYThis includes an extensive range of possible courses, some are listed below:

• Master of Religious Education (ACU)

• Master of Theology (BBI)

• Master of Ed. Leadership (ACU)

• Post Grad. Certificate in R.E (ACU)

• Post Grad. Cert in Ed. Lead. (ACU)

LEADERSHIP PROGRAMSBCE has a variety of targeted leadership development programs that are designed to support and develop staff at different points in their career.

Leadership Program offered include:

• Leading Learning

• Stepping Up

• Looking Forward

• Linking Learning

• Middle Leaders

• Aspiring Leaders

SPIRITUAL FORMATION PROGRAMMESThe Catching Fire Program is a whole community approach to staff formation in schools. The programs include:

• Keepers of the Flame

• Spirit Fire

• Guiding Lights

• Facilitators Formation

• Catching Fire Reunion Retreat

• Firelight Program

TARGETED RENEWAL OPPORTUNITIESSpecific renewal opportunities are offered by BCE at various times. This includes pilgrimages, sabbatical leave for senior leaders and immersion experiences:

• Los Angeles R.E. Congress

• Holy Land Pilgrimage

• Leuven Theological Program

• PALMS volunteering Program

COMPLEMENTARY PROGRAMSA range of opportunities also exist within BCE to support the formation of staff. These include:

• Enneagram

• Coaching

• Mediation

• Mentoring

• Masterclass Series

Through your joyful witness and service, help to build a

civilization of love. Show, by your life, that it is worth giving

your time and talents in order to attain high ideals, it is

worth recognizing the dignity of each human person, and it

is worth taking risks for Christ and his Gospel. (Pope Francis, July 28, 2013)

WWW.BNE.CATHOLIC.EDU.AU

HEAD HEART HANDSThis framework reflects a holistic approach to formation – a head heart and hands approach. Knowledge (The ‘Head’) is a vital component of formation. Formation must also include a strong experiential (The ‘Heart’) dimension that allows for deep and reflective learning. A genuinely Christian approach must also see an application of knowledge, skills and practices (The ‘Hands’) for the individual and the community to be a difference in the world.

The head heart and hands design also recognizes that each of us has a different gateway to the formation journey that is as unique as we are. Thus, while one person may be nurtured most easily through focused reading, another may find God more easily in their

relational connections with people. Others yet may be drawn to service activities such as street work.

Many people find the Eucharist and formal worship their deepest nurturing pathway;

still others connect with God most easily in nature, immersed in the beauty of creation. This recognition of different entry points into the dynamic of ‘head heart and hands’ is critical in the process of effective spiritual formation.

Grounded in Jesus, Communion Mission,With head heart and hands formation,

We undertake our mission to teach, challenge and transform.