Teachers in Catholic schools: A study of the attributes of teachers that foster the identity of the Catholic school in the elementary schools of the Archdiocese of Omaha

This study focused on those attributes of Catholic elementary school teachers that foster the identity of the Catholic school--to proclaim the message of the gospel, to build faith community, and to lead others to service. The primary purposes of this study were three-fold: (1) to ascertain the extent to which each of the attributes--message, community, and service--were present in teachers working in elementary Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Omaha; (2) to determine potential differences among religious, lay Catholic, and lay non-Catholic teachers in the extent to which these attributes--message, community, and service--were present; (3) to examine selected demographic data about religious, lay Catholic, and lay non-Catholic teachers related to their length of service, personal attendance of Catholic schools, and teaching religion classes. The study was accomplished by surveying elementary Catholic school teachers in the Archdiocese of Omaha. The survey instrument was developed by the researcher. Subjects were asked to respond, on a Likert-type scale, about themselves and their teaching. First, means were used to ascertain the extent to which the attributes--message, community, and service--were present. Second, analysis of variance was used to determine whether potential differences among religious, lay Catholic, and lay non-Catholic teacher categories were statistically significant. Third, demographic data from respondents were examined to better understand the differences among religious, lay Catholic, and lay non-Catholic teachers. Findings indicated a significant presence for all three of the attributes that foster the identity of the Catholic school among religious, lay Catholic, and lay non-Catholic teachers. Statistically significant differences were found among all pair-wise comparisons of religious, lay Catholic, and lay non-Catholic teachers for the message, community, and service attributes. Finally, a detailed examination of selected demographic data provided understanding of the differences that were shown to exist among the three categories of teachers