Welcome to another volume in a series of communications that seeks to provide CSA member schools with updates, findings, commentary, and important school-based implications of a diverse range of research and innovation projects and articles of interest relating to Christian schooling.
Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools Research Project: Data Collection Phase is now Completed!
The CSA capstone research project entitled: Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools has now entered an exciting new phase.
The second wave student flourishing surveys have now been completed by over 17,000 Yr 7 - Yr 12 student across 57 participating member schools throughout July and August. This is an excellent second survey response which will complement the nearly 22,000 wave one student flourishing surveys that were completed by Yr 7 – Yr 12 students at the commencement of the 2024 school year.
The researchers at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard and Research Schools International are now engaging in the rigorous analysis of these very large data sets. Furthermore, the importance of such a large number of student survey completions means that the data will not merely be a descriptive, cross-sectional analysis of each student’s responses but also will reveal longitudinal trends which will enhance the robustness, validity and reliability of student responses we are seeking to analyse and investigate.
The analysis that is currently being undertaken involves investigating the following research questions:
• To what degree are students flourishing across CSA schools?
• Are there associations between individual differences (e.g., age) and family factors (e.g., religiosity of families, church attendance of families, family structure (e.g., married, single-parent), socioeconomic status) and flourishing and/or key aspects of flourishing (i.e., physical and mental health, close social relationships, meaning and purpose, good character and virtue, and happiness and life satisfaction) in students?
• Which Christian practices carried out at school (e.g., church service attendance, reading the bible, class discussions on Christianity, praying, celebrating Christian holidays, confession, singing Christian hymns, etc.) are associated with flourishing and/or key aspects of flourishing in students?
• Which evidence-informed practices (i.e. initiatives that foster close social relationships, character skill interventions, service learning, physical activity, connecting with nature, music and the arts, play and laughter, learning activities that cultivate intrinsic motivation, meaning and purpose) are associated with flourishing and/or key aspects of flourishing in students?
Preliminary trends within the combined data sets from both surveys reveal: (NB Tentative and not for wider dissemination at this early stage)
• Regular outdoor play and outdoor activities was the practice that had the highest impact on flourishing scores in Yr 7 - Yr 12 students.
• All Christian practices had a positive effect on flourishing scores; personal prayer and devotion times and service-learning opportunities appeared to have the highest effect.
• There was no evidence in the initial data analyses that there were any negative effects on Christian practices on student flourishing scores.
• Regular church attendance by the student (irrespective of gender) seems to have on overall positive effect on a student’s flourishing score.
• The highest predictor of higher flourishing scores in Yr 7 – Yr 12 students irrespective of gender was a student receiving what he/she perceived as consistent words of affirmation by family/ adult / teacher.
Introducing Dr Noah Padgett
The researcher who is doing the project’s data analysis is Dr Noah Padgett, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Human Flourishing Program Harvard – who is the project’s statistician and data analyst. He has been engaged in the data cleaning of both waves of student survey data and sophisticated statistical analysis process.
Noah has an excellent understanding of both the complex quantitative statistical measures required for this project’s analysis as well as the important trends that need to be investigated and analysed in greater detail regarding flourishing. He is also a Christian and his understanding of Christian practices in regard to flourishing have resulted in some excellent insight and understanding regarding what to investigate and interrogate across such extremely large student data samples.
Noah is also the key analyst and statistician on the Global Flourishing Study (GFS) – a capstone research piece for the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard that is undertaking a longitudinal study of adult flourishing across 23 countries and a staggering 240,000 participants.
This groundbreaking project includes the data collection and management expertise of Gallup and the stakeholder coordination and leadership of the Center for Open Science. The study seeks to investigate: What does it mean to live well? To be truly healthy? To thrive? Researchers and clinicians have typically answered these questions by focusing on the presence or absence of various pathologies: disease, family dysfunction, mental illness, or criminal behavior. But such a “deficits” approach tells only so much about what makes for a life well-lived – about what it means to flourish.
Over the next five-plus years, the project will analyse longitudinal data on the patterns, determinants, and social, psychological, spiritual, political, economic, and health-related constituents and causes of human flourishing. The scope of this project is unprecedented and likely to yield valuable insights for global survey research using this type of methodology.
The findings of the CSA project on student flourishing will be informed and enhanced by this groundbreaking study. You can find out more about the insightful work of the Global Flourishing Study here.
Human Flourishing Program at Harvard and the Evidence-Based Parenting for Flourishing Families Initiative
The team at Harvard are also interested in providing a range of professional learning opportunities for our member schools following the final report arising from the student flourishing in Australian Christian Schools project. Details of these opportunities will be confirmed in early 2025.
CSA has also been personally invited to consider promoting to our member schools a related resource that the Human Flourishing Program is currently undertaking: The Evidence-Based Parenting for Flourishing Families initiative.
Led by Dr Christina Hinton from The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard (who is the project director for the Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools project) the initiative seeks to promote key principles regarding parenting from research in child development, psychology, neuroscience, education and parenting, and seeks to dispel popular parenting myths and offer evidence-based strategies for common parenting situations and challenges.
Research from around the world shows that parenting best promotes holistic wellbeing, including social-emotional development, mental and physical health, and academic learning, when it is characterized by warmth, structure, and autonomy support (OECD, 2020). Dr. Hinton is currently writing a book on evidence-informed parenting that is organized around these three key parenting ingredients. This initiative disseminates resources related to these key ingredients from Harvard’s Evidence-Based Parenting for Flourishing Families project as well as the work of our expert partners. They are seeking to build an international community of academics and parents to promote evidence-informed parenting for flourishing globally. You can access the overview of the project here.
Further details regarding this initiative will be disseminated to CSA member schools once the project is formally commenced.
Call for CSA Schools to Participate in National Research Project Investigating Servant Leadership in Christian Schools
I am delighted to share an exciting new research initiative spearheaded by Monash University and conducted by Doug Holtam, Principal of Mundaring Christian College, one of our CSA member schools in Perth, WA. This pioneering study explores the synergistic impact of Servant Leadership, Social Capital, and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour within Australian Independent Christian schools. Doug - a PhD candidate at Monash University – is undertaking the research with the guidance of Dr Venesser Fernandes (Faculty of Education, Monash University). *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|*Read more*|END:IF|* *|IF:ARCHIVE_PAGE|*
School staff (principals, leaders, teaching/non-teaching staff) are invited to participate in the study via the completion of a 10–15 minute anonymous online survey (see copy of Survey Questions here).
We believe that the study outcomes will offer invaluable insights and practical benefits for school principals, leaders, teachers, and support staff, enhancing the development of effective and sustainable organisational leadership practices. We highly value and seek your school's participation, which will be crucial to the success of this research.
To provide permission for your school to participate in the study please click on the Principal Permission Authorisation link. Doug will then follow up all participating schools with an email providing a link to the survey.
Warm regards and thank you for servant leadership you all display as you serve your Christian school communities for God’s glory.
Becoming More Christian in Christian Schools | Shaun Brooker
Shaun Brooker is a friend of CSA and is the principal of Hamilton Christian School and the chairman of the New Zealand Association for Christian Schools. In this thought-provoking article, Shaun explores how Christian education can be an incredibly transformative force but whilst there are many aspects of our Christian schools which are intended for good, if unexamined, and if done without intentionality, even those “good things” can actually have the opposite effect—and turn our students away from Christ.
The overriding question to prevent this is straightforward: Is the way your students experience the “Christian things” you do aligned with the purpose for which you do them? And in answering this question, we need to consider what students learn about the principles of Scripture through our actions, not just our words.
Read the full article here.
Converge 2025 – Faithfully Present, Courageously Good.
International Christian School Leaders Conference in Orlando, Florida 24-26 February 2025.
If you haven’t registered for Converge 2025, it is not too late! Hundreds of Christian educators around the globe are looking forward to gathering together on February 24–26, 2025 in Orlando, Florida to hear from a diverse group of Converge speakers who will be sharing their expertise and facilitating discussion on the theme of Faithfully Present; Courageously Good. Register NOW!
The following are two Converge 2025 blogs that seek to highlight different facets of the conference theme: Faithfully Present; Courageously Good.
Five Liturgies for Lonely Leaders |Sadie Elliot
“It would be easier for my family and my school if I wasn’t around anymore.”
“I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in six months.”
“I’m having health problems that doctors can’t explain.”
“I feel like I’m on an island.”
In the past three years, these are statements from Christian school leaders that have haunted me.
The weight of Christian school leadership is heavy. Take the internal pressures of inflationary budgeting, managing staff expectations, diffusing parent situations, addressing the growing student mental health crisis, and leading up to a board. Combine that with the external pressures of a changing customer base and the rise of the “nones” (those with no religious affiliation), increasing competition, growing religious liberty cases, and the weight of Christian school leadership sometimes seems unbearable.
Transparency is a term many parents, potentially even staff, bring up as a goal or a core value, but for leaders transparency is impossible. There are simply things you cannot share.
Read the full article here.
Faithful Presence in a Fragmented Age | Dr Darren Iselin
Our cultural moment is defined by isolation, fragmentation, and disconnection—evidenced by disconnected relationships, disconnected families, disconnected learning, disconnected purpose, and disconnected lives at every level. There seems to be dis-integration everywhere we look, and the despair of our age is that as individuals and as communities, we feel isolated and alone.
Our cultural moment is defined by isolation, fragmentation, and disconnection—evidenced by disconnected relationships, disconnected families, disconnected learning, disconnected purpose, and disconnected lives at every level. There seems to be dis-integration everywhere we look, and the despair of our age is that as individuals and as communities, we feel isolated and alone. But that is not how we were created, that’s not meant to be our story, and that’s certainly not the biblical story of a creator, triune, loving and relational God who longs to redeem His image bearers and restore and make whole a broken and dislocated humanity (Colossians 1:20).
Christian schools play a key role as agents of shalom in this divine restoration project and Christian leaders can be catalysts for bringing Christ’s life-giving hope, reconciliation, connection and community to the schools they are called to lead.
Read the full article here.
Christian School Leaders’ Perspectives on Identifying and Hiring High‑Quality Teachers | Johnson, Djita and Swaner.
In this recent study of ACSI teacher hiring and recruitment priorities from Christian school principals, Johnson, Djita and Swaner identify that teacher quality is one of the most important factors influencing a student’s educational outcomes, yet scant research has examined teacher hiring and quality in Protestant Christian schools.
In this qualitative work, the authors thematically analyse interviews about Christian schools’ teacher hiring practices with a group of 12 leaders from 10 member schools in the Association of Christian Schools International. Findings reveal that these 10 schools generally follow a standard hiring process. The qualifications they seek in teachers could be arranged into a pyramid, where the base—the most fundamental quality—is demonstration of authentic belief in Protestant Christian doctrines. After faith, school leaders desired teachers to demonstrate Christian virtue and to be a good “ft” for their school culture; at the tip of the pyramid is the category of professional and pedagogical skills. While there was some heterogeneity in the top three tiers among school leaders, all agreed on the importance of Christian school teachers having “a heart for Christ and a heart for kids.”
Read the full article here.
Reimagining Innovation: What Will Christian Schools Look Like in 2062?
SIn this blog that nostalgically references the 1960’s futuristic world of the cartoon series The Jetsons, I share 4 values that wise and prudent leaders of Christian Schools will need to embody as we head into the future .... May you, as a trail blazing and innovative Christian School leader, be led with grace, wisdom, discernment and an overwhelming sense of anticipation as you view innovation as a process; embrace continuity and change; align your innovation activities to a biblical understanding of what it means to be human; and imaginatively and collaboratively explore new solutions to human problems with wonder in this cultural moment....
Read the full blog here.
A Theology of Health and Human Flourishing: How to broaden our perspectives on health | Dr Tyler VanderWeele
In this informative article, Dr Tyler VanderWeele from the Human Flourishing Program discusses how a theology of Health helps us see the value of community, faith and love in flourishing.
Health and Human Flourishing
Humans, Aristotle observed, are political animals. We do not typically live alone, but in community.
We receive many of the conditions for our survival as a gift from others: no one chooses his or her mother tongue, or the caregivers who provide nurture and support in infancy and childhood. One result of this profoundly communal way of being is that we long for connection and belonging. We need others. We desire to be loved. Our social connections are part of who we are – they are a part of our flourishing.
There are both objective and subjective aspects to social connectedness. On the one hand, there is the set of relationships and communities that we have, the time we spend with and in them, and the objective support that they offer. On the other hand, there is also a subjective sense of connection and belonging, of being loved and cared for, and understood. Both the objective and the subjective sides of social connectedness are important. Both are a part of, and shape, our health and well-being.
Read the full article here
Gratitude Shown to Extend Longevity: Human Flourishing Program’s recent work shows that gratitude extends life expectancy | Dr Tyler VanderWeele
In spite of much around us that is difficult, undesirable, or challenging, there is also a great deal in our lives that is good that we can appreciate and celebrate. The practice of gratitude involves seeing the good in things around us.
When we fix our attention on these positive aspects of life, acknowledge that they are good, and realize that, in many cases, we are not their source, we can experience gratitude. Past research has indicated important effects of gratitude on enhancing well-being and study after study has suggested positive effects of gratitude on enhancing well-being, While studies have indicated beneficial effects of gratitude on numerous outcomes, no one has previously examined the effects of gratitude on longevity. But that is effectively what we did in our most recent study, with remarkable findings…
Read the full article here.