Mission integrity: A case study of a Pontifical Catholic University entrusted to the Marist institute
Abstract
This qualitative research was conducted at Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR), southern Brazil. Since the university has experienced a large expansion during the last 12 years, the researcher aimed to explore to whether or to what degree the integrity of PUCPR’s corporate mission (and in this case its Marist charismatic core) has been fortified and invigorated or diluted and compromised by the enlargement of its offerings and the diversity of its locations and all the collateral necessities such expansion requires. The in-depth semi-structured interview with ten central leaders of PUCPR was used to gather data and five key questions orientated the interviews, as follow: 1. In what specific ways has the leadership of PUCPR compromised the mission of the university? 2. What evidence exists that the mission of PUCPR has been the central guide to the decisions and actions of its leaders? 3. In what specific ways has the leadership of PUCPR witnessed in word and action to the Marist charisma and the spirituality that undergirds the mission of the university? 4. What have been the strengths and the stumbling blocks experienced by leadership to maintaining and/or enlivening the integrity of the University’s mission? 5. What are the challenges of leadership in the administration of a Pontifical University with a Marist charisma and Spirituality? These questions were looked at through the lens of four major bodies of literature: leadership theory, particularly transformational theory; the history of Catholic University in Brazil; documents of the Church about education and; classical texts of Marist spirituality and mission.
Subject Area
Educational leadership|School administration
Recommended Citation
Mateucci, Rogerio, "Mission integrity: A case study of a Pontifical Catholic University entrusted to the Marist institute" (2015). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3712664.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3712664
