Marco Carvalho
Catholic schools helped to raise and educate several generations of local residents over the last few decades and they still occupy a central place in Macau’s educational panorama. These schools, nevertheless, have never been the subject of an exhaustive research on why thousands of families entrust them with their children’s education. Now, a young Dominican missionary proposes to understand what sort of perception students, parents and teachers have of the local Catholic schools and the kinds of values they inspire. A PhD student at the University of Saint Joseph, Father Lawrence The Reh spoke with O Clarim.
You are proposing to study, in a deeper way, the importance of Catholic schools here in Macau. Macau is a very small city. There are a lot of private schools and most of them are in the hands of the Catholic Church. Saint Paul School is a good example. What is it that you propose to do in your PhD investigation?
The aim of my PhD study is to investigate the perceptions of teachers, students and parents of the Catholic identity of Catholic schools. My purpose is, mainly, to know about their experiences and their understanding of this reality. To achieve this, I will have as a reference some of the ideas put forward by the Church and compare them with the local reality. The Catholic identity of Catholic schools is the main focus of my PhD thesis.
What sort of perception do you have in advance about the importance of local Catholic schools?
There are outlines for the teachers, made by the Church, that help to define that Catholic school “ethos,” but I am interested in their personal experience of that Catholic “ethos”.
The “ethos” you were talking about is something that clearly differentiates Catholic schools from the other schools in Macau. There is this perception that without proselytizing, without directly selling the Catholic faith, Catholic schools try to convey a specific set of values that we don’t see in other local schools …
Yes. For instance, the outward signs of the Catholic school ethos are something we don’t see in other schools. To understand how important these signs are, I will ask the participants, including teachers, about their experience, about what aspects they like in Catholic schools.
How many people are you intending to interview? And this investigation? How long will it last?
I intend to finish my thesis in 2023. My aim is to ask students, teachers and parents of five Catholic schools, which are run by different religious orders. I will focus only on five schools, but for my investigation, I will deliver all the questionnaires to all the participants in these schools. Nevertheless, I will only focus on Form 6 students. In my research, I will make use of a mixed-method research that includes quantitative research and qualitative research. In the quantitative part of the research, I will use the questionnaire survey and, for the qualitative part, I will make use of the interview. I will mainly focus on the teachers for the interview, but the survey will be given to all the participants.
Only current students? You won’t survey former students of these five schools?
I will focus only on the Form 6 students, students that are in their final year in these schools. The reason is because it is much easier for them to understand this concept of the Catholic school ethos, the values that the Catholic school promotes.
Nevertheless, we are talking about several hundred people. We are talking about a five-school universe, also the parents and the teachers. How many people do you think will be involved in your study?
In one school, like for instance Saint Paul School, the students, the teachers and the parents will probably amount to one thousand. If we focus only on Form 6 students and we include their teachers and their parents, then we will be dealing maybe with around one thousand surveys in a single school. If we count all the five schools, we will probably be dealing with four to five thousand participants. But we are not yet sure about the sampling of the research. My next step is to ask the students for their permission and only then will we be able to know the size of the sample of the participants.
Saint Paul School will be one of the schools that will be part of this survey. What are the others?
I will focus on a Dominican school, Saint Paul School, one Jesuit school, one Canossian school, one Salesian and then one Franciscan school. These are the five different congregations I will be dealing with.
Is there any subtle difference between, for instance, the way a Dominican school and a Jesuit school are run? Is it also one of the aims of your investigation? To understand what sort of differences exist between the different congregations?
Yes. Each of these schools have their own way of running their educational approach. One of the parts that I will evaluate is the way the different religious orders run the school. They have their own school vision, they have their own mission and we will also investigate this particular aspect in a little chapter of the study. For instance, in our Dominican school, we are more focused on the community life and the environment in which the school is located.
These different ways of running the schools may reflect or may lead to a different school ethos? Or, generally speaking, the way that the values that are inherent to a Cahtolic school – despite being run by different orders – remains the same?
Management matters and I am sure that schools are run differently, but I am also certain that their goal is the same: to lead the students to the message of the Gospel. One of the main aims of the Catholic schools is to evangelize, to spread the message of the Gospel. This is the main mission of these schools. As Pope Francis said, schools are encounter places. These different orders have their own way of managing their schools, but the aim is the same. And there is only one aim, according to the teachings of the Church and the identity that the Church wants the schools to convey.
How important do you think Catholic schools are in Macau? Why do you think Catholic schools are so sought after?
There were already a few studies made about this, based on three local Catholic schools. This investigation was conducted by Father Daniel Ribeiro, when he was preparing his Master thesis. Father Daniel asked the parents about their perception and about the reason why they enrolled their children in Catholic schools and they pointed out the learning environment in these schools and the involvement of the students in the school matters were decisive factors. This was one of the reasons that the parents gave. I hope, with my research, to be able to know a little bit more about the participant’s perception concerning the identity of Catholic schools.
You were saying that one of the aims of the Catholic schools is to evangelize, but it is not to evangelize in a direct sense. The aim is to promote a certain set of values. Are Catholic schools also a means to conversion?
Well, my purpose is not to… We want them to become Catholic, but the aim of the schools is to add value to the society. The main purpose of Catholic education is to allow the development of the whole, to work on whole-person education, so that the person will learn to be responsible and to keep being responsible during their whole life. These are the sort of values that students take from Catholic schools. These are the main purposes of Catholic schools in Macau. You were asking about conversion and about the need that some of them feel to become Catholics, but this is independent of what is taught in these schools. It’s something that is related to their free will. If they are willing to convert, they have total freedom to do that. The aim of the Church is not to remove their own nature. As Saint Thomas Aquinas said, it is for us to improve it. If anyone is willing to accept that, for sure they will be able to live a good life, a whole life. If they embrace the Catholic faith, the values that they receive will be good for them. This is the main purpose of the teachings of the Church when we talk about whole person education.
You were born in Myanmar, where several churches were attacked in the last few weeks. Do you fear that the Catholic Church might become a target, now that the military took over once again?
Actually, some churches were attacked in my place. Some elderly took refuge in a church and the church was attacked by heavy artillery and, as a consequence, five elderly died. There were two or three more churches that were shot at by the military and these churches were destroyed. Churches are being attacked, invaded and occupied by the military. Many churches in the Diocese of Loikaw have been occupied by the Army. Pope Francis made an appeal for the churches to be respected as a worship place. Pope Francis asked the military to respect the Church, but they don’t show any signs of doing that at all. If they destroyed the buildings, imagine what they do to the people? This is what is happening now and, if nothing is done, it will happen for the years to come.
Are you anyhow hopeful about the future of Myanmar? What we have been seeing is the army acting against the will of the people. The Burmese people keep resisting, but are paying this resistance with its own life. Do you believe that perspectives in Myanmar might improve?
We hope that one of the things that might change in Myanmar is that the military might defect and might be with the people. This is one of the things that the people are expecting. As far as we know, more than eight hundred soldiers joined the protests. Another thing that we are hoping for is that the international community might help us. If this happens, the people will win. The whole country is against the military. The people are suffering, but there’s nothing more the people can do. This is the only way the Army can be defeated in Myanmar. They are too powerful. The will of the people, alone, cannot end their rule. If the military turns to the people, if they change their heart and join the people, we might have a chance to win. If they don’t change their heart, the people won’t win, because they are too powerful. We need a change of heart and the international community’s help for our perspectives to change.
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