The Impact of the First Five Rectors of St. Joseph’s College on Character Formation and Educational Leadership

Abstract Character formation and educational leadership are two essential components in any secondary school. All educative efforts, initiatives, and other formative strategies launched by school leaders contribute to building students’ character. Moreover, the progress and stability of a school largely depend on the effectiveness of the school principal. This study focuses on the impact of the first five Rectors of St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, Sri Lanka (Fr. Collin, Fr. Lytton, Fr. Nicholas, Fr. LeGoc, and Fr. Pillai) on character formation and educational leadership within the College. The two research questions explored the efforts of these Rectors, analysing how they developed the character formation of students and contributed to school development through their leadership. This qualitative study employed documentary research. The documents chosen for this study were the annual Prize Reports compiled by the Rectors from 1896 to 1960. The thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006) was employed as the research tool within this document analysis. The research findings on character formation, in the light of Church teaching and current educational literature, suggest that the development process of student character should be inclusive of the collective endeavours of school leaders, teachers, parents, students, and alumni, within a positive educational climate, where the dignity of the child is enshrined. In promoting a virtuous life, the Rectors considered the growth process of the whole child and the development of the rational element in students as vital. In addition, their efforts were focused on developing in students a sense of justice and charity for the establishment of the common good in society. They also promoted the dignity of human labour emphasising constant effort and perseverance as necessary ingredients of character formation. While researching the leadership practices of the Rectors, three distinctive approaches to leadership were identified as important when leading the school: instructional, distributed, and situational. To improve the school’s operational vitality, they utilised a combination of instructional and distributed leadership practices setting up an effective internal management structure, incorporating the collaboration of clerical and teaching colleagues. These initiatives, therefore, indicated that the school leadership has the potential to effect change when leadership is shared. However, it was through their situational leadership practices that the distinctive roles of the Rectors were identified. Their initiatives not only brought about change within St. Joseph’s College but also led to the enhancement of secondary and tertiary education in the Diocese of Colombo. These findings, therefore, contribute to establishing the value of the effective leadership role of a secondary school principal by promoting the character formation of students and signposting implications and recommendations for leadership in today’s Catholic schools.