The contemporary Catholic teacher: a reappraisal of the concept of teaching as a vocation in the Catholic Christian context.

In unpacking the concept of teaching as a vocation in Chrisrian tradition, the research aims to articulate the essential interconnectedness between four elements: * Christ as the foundation of Christian vocation - biblical perspectives, focusing particularly on the concepts of discipleship, emulation and charism * The way in which that vocation has developed within Christian tradition - historical perspectives focusing on two Religious Orders, the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Sisters of Mercy. * Current conversations in the academy concerning teaching as a vocation - contemporary perspectives including the notion of spiritual capital, the sacramental perspective, a renewed focus on interiority, vocation as a convergence between self and service and current challenges to the concept of teaching as a vocation. * Vocation demonstrated in the perceptions and motivations of practitioners - quantitative and qualitative research. The former involved in-depth interviews with twelve practitioners encompassing a wide range of ages and stages of career progression. The interviews were patterned in three stages: personal religious commitment. Quantitative research was introduced in an attempt to corroborate the findings emergent from both the critical retireval of literature and the in-depth interviews. The research findings were then analysed in the light of the literature review and this was followed by a chapter in which conclusions were reached, structured around the principal elements of both the literature review and the empirical research. Based on these conclusions, a series of recommendations are put forward, focusing primarily on the maintenance of formation programmes both at Diocesan and Relitious Order level, the challenge to address the complementary aspects of Chrsitain vocation such as family commitments in the context of teaching, then explore futher what might be meant by 'integrity of life'. The thesis concludes strongly that the notion of commitment permeates the empirical evidence to the extent that it echoes that of the first disciples of Jesus and the pioneers within Religious Orders who constituted "an example of the unreserved and gratuitous "gift" of self to the service of others in the spirit of their religious consecration." (Congregation for Catholic Education: 1997)