Christ - Centred Teaching: School Leadership through the use of Catholic Meditation

This dissertation is written in the context of imparting sound Catholic education. Catholic meditation is a spiritual practice that focuses on the development of Christ consciousness. The primary focus will be on teachers who lead from the centre of what the school should be doing as part of their mission to develop the whole child and maintain the integrity of gospel values. The secondary focus will be on children who may come from difficult home backgrounds, unduly pressured by parental expectations of academic success. In this investigation, I will closely examine the benefits this meditation may achieve based on silence and stillness. Will they enjoy the fruit of building a personal relationship with Jesus through silent prayer? The research will explore relevant scholarship written in the field by various authors in the literature review. This will be followed by a small-scale research project based on the Catholic Meditation practised in a small Catholic primary school. The methodology for gathering the data will be interviews. This work will end by making several recommendations, which I hope will be of value to all practitioners especially senior leaders instrumental in guiding and preserving the Catholic distinctiveness of the school. I shall conclude by saying that it is possible for all teachers to use Christian Meditation as a powerful practice to their full advantage in focusing on a Christ Centered education.