Priests' Leadership and Commitment to Fostering Catholic School Identity: Mediating Effect of Work Engagement
Abstract
This study uses priests’ servant leadership style to investigate its impact on their level of commitment to fostering Catholic school identity mediated by work engagement. Servant leadership is an inner desire to serve others. The purpose of this study was to explore priests’ perceptions of the need for and value of Catholic schools, Catholic school identity, educational and professional experiences, support for Catholic schools, demographics and cultural backgrounds to aid those in leadership positions with priests’ preparation and ongoing formation, and to enhance leadership skills and competence. The study analyzed the data of 160 priest participants in the northeastern dioceses. The mediation analyses were conducted on eight research questions using Hayes’ PROCESS model number 4 version 3.5 in IBM SPSS version 25. The result indicates a statistically significant indirect effect of priests’ servant leadership on the level of commitment to fostering Catholic school identity through work engagement, b = .26, 95% BCI [0.12, 0.42], with slightly large effect size, b = .13, BootSE = .04, 95% BCI [0.06, 0.20], ES = .35. The results also reveal that priests are happy in and proud of their priesthood and are still convinced of the importance of Catholic schools in American society. However, they are concerned about the weakening of Catholic identity, lack of funding, and leadership. This study contributes to the growing knowledge of priests’ servant leadership and their role in Catholic school education regardless of ministry. Implications for practice and research were discussed.
Subject Area
Educational leadership|Religious education|Education philosophy
Recommended Citation
Gringco, Charez Bandao, "Priests' Leadership and Commitment to Fostering Catholic School Identity: Mediating Effect of Work Engagement" (2022). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI28866737.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28866737
