Model of Governance Examination - Essay Example

? EDLE 639: Assignment 2 Model of Governance Examination Model of Governance: purpose, issues and concerns St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School has a vision of spreading the Catholic education to the society with the strategies of partnership and faith. The foundation of faith, learning and transformation are the pillars for the spread of spread of education by the school. The school provides quality teaching and education and also spreads the message of faith among the communities by working in association with the church. All these activities in the process of learning and in spreading the message of faith in the communities require establishment of a model of governance. The governance is a new term in the field of catholic education over the last ten years. The word governance in general depicts authority or exercise of control over the over the operations of the school. However, governance in broader sense would mean management of the legal and moral responsibilities by the stewards of the school. The stewardship model of governance is being designed for the school, St. Mary’s Catholic Primary Education (Leavey, 2000). The management of the activities of the school are governed by the board members. The governing body identifies the critical issues related to the activities of the school and evaluates them to decide whether such activities are in line with the mission of the school in spreading education and learning. The Board controls the allocation of staffs, teachers and other resources to impart quality level of teaching to the students. The purpose of the model is to streamline the activities of teachers, staffs and the overall process in imparting education and learning, spreading the message of faith to the societies. The code of conduct of the teachers and students are evaluated as a part of this model. It is judged whether the teachers have deviated from their actionable. The disciplinary aspects and the alignment with the beliefs of the Catholic Church in spreading the message faith in the communities are also observed under this model of governance. The level of involvement with the communities by the school and the degree of association with the Church also falls under the areas of evaluation. The purpose of the stewardship model of governance is fulfilled when the feedback on the deviations observed in the activities of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School are provided to the teachers and the involvement with the communities by working in association with the Church leads to the spread of learning and faith. The stewardship model of governance of the St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School operates under the federal state law and imparts the teachings of the church as integral part of its curriculum (Diocese of Wilcannia Forbes, 2010). The issues addressed by the model of governance centre around the beliefs of Christianity, the authority of the Church and its ideology and teachings. The issues of the Church law, the differences between the Church law and the Civil law, the importance of the Bishop and the religious order are critical issues considered by the stewardship model of governance. The concerns of the stewardship model of governance are to ensure that the governance follows good principles of governance model and also provides effective teachings of the Catholic Church as an integral part of educational quality imparted to the students. The areas of contradictions of the Church law to the civil law are areas of concern for the model of governance. The adherence to the policies of the Board is an essential criterion that should be implemented by the governance model of the school. It is the concern of the governing board to ensure that the activities for the spread of education by the school do not miss out the messages of the Catholic Church (Tuohy, 2004). The overall governance model has the final objective to ensure that the mission of the school and the church are fulfilled in the long run and that the school represents the mission of the Catholic Church in the spread of education and learning. Evidence of good governance practices and Catholic teachings The current model of governance in the school under the structure of stewardship and control resembles good governance practices and also reflects the teachings of the Catholic Church. The signs of good governance practice are present in this model of governance as the activities of the church are supervised and controlled by the governing board which consists of senior and experienced members representing the Catholic Church and the academic system. The system of governance has a strong influence on the activities of the school. This is evident from the fact that the quality of teachings provided to the students are of high level for which the school has earned a name for itself in the communities of New South Wales. The school has an institutional base which is guided by policies which is based on the ideologies of the Catholic Church. The governance model fixed accountabilities on the operations of the school which is to be valued by the outcomes (Arthur, 1995). The good practices of governance resemble the effective implementation of the wide range of academic programs which is possible mainly due to the responsible roles of the teachers and the staffs. The policy framed by the governing body is implemented under the direct supervision of the director or principal of the school. The teachers play a responsible role of imparting the teachings of the Catholic Church as integral part of the learning process. The model of governance monitors the role of different functions and evaluates them to provide necessary feedback to the stakeholders. The good governance practices are driven by the fact that the board is accountable to the parents for the education imparted. The finances are also controlled by the accounts section in a fair manner and no discrepancies in the preparation of the statement of accounts are tolerated. The shot term expenditures incurred and the level of current assets required to finance the requirements as well the short term asset position and the long term asset position are recorded in a fair manner in the financial statements. The model of governance also makes the board of governance accountable for the financial management of the school. The governance model values the importance of knowledge in the field of teachings (Hofman, Hofman and Guldemond, 2002). The teachers and the staffs who are highly knowledgeable and play an important role in the improving the quality of education is recognized by the governing board members. The teachers and the staffs are encouraged to engage in a wholesome manner with the community and spread the knowledge among the rural members of the society. The good practices of governance are reflected in the sustenance of the educational activities of the school which has embraced the rural communities in its efforts of imparting the message of the church. The message of participation and faith is spread by the school by working in association with the church. The involvement with the church and dissemination of the catholic teachings in the process of spreading education to the rural section of the society is an evidence of the good governing practices of the school. The values and ideologies of the Catholic Church are given priority in the policies framed by the governing body. The roles and responsibilities of the teachers and the staffs are monitored and evaluated and necessary feedback is given to them in order to ensure effective implementation of Catholic teachings (Jordan, 2008). The catholic teachings imparted by the school educate the rural section of the society with the lesson of the church and the ideologies promoted by the Catholic Church. It is through good governance practices that the catholic teachings have been integrated with the course curriculum that contributed to build the quality of education imparted to the rural community. Political concepts and policy processes in the governance model The governance model under stewardship of the governing board members of the school takes into consideration the distinction between the church law and the civil law and the various political concepts that should taken into account for determining the policy process. The policy process in the governance model has been explained as follows. The school abides by the church law in establishing the political ideologies of the church in which the bishop or the priest is only allowed to open the school. There are many views that integrate stewardship with the governance of the school. The parish or the owners of the school set up the structure of governance and the activities of the school are governed by the members of the board. The governing board members follow the church law and set up an association of the members who are the people responsible for operation of the college. The association of the members are the juridical members as recognized by the archbishop. The association allots five aspects of on-going responsibilities to themselves and delegates the remaining activities to the board to ensure efficient operations of the school (Dunn, 1981). The constitution of the school is approved by the archbishop so that there is nor barrier in the spread of catholic education by the school. The financial accountability lies with the governing and any deviation from the governance policy processes are to be answered by the governing board members. The policy processes are framed by the owner’s association and the governing board. It is viewed that the governance activities are directly related to the ownership of the school. As policies related to the governance model, the board enforces certain duties on he director. The director is entitled with a fiduciary role and is not supposed to view the interests of the school before the interests of self. The duties of a director are mentioned under the Corporations Law. The policy requires the heads of the school to deliver his duties with diligence. By acting with due diligence in the role of the head of the school, the director would need to spend minimum time in the activities of the school (Howlett and Ramesh, 1995). The head of the school also need to have due supervision in all the activities undertaken in the school. The sustenance of the activities of the school as per the policy guidelines are ensured by the director so that the activities are in line with governance model. The director is also a person who should not take advantage of its position and should not take advantage of the privileges attached to the position. The position of the director should maintain the aspect of confidentiality and should not resort to unethical use of information and data. The school is not allowed to incur debts and should meet the short term needs by leveraging on the current assets. The policy processes also requires the school to be free from political influence and ensure fairness in the activities of the school operations like admission, promotions, recognitions, etc. The licences are to be renewed on a daily basis. The accounting statements are prepared on fair basis and financial statements are reviewed in a periodic manner (Rodney, 1984). The preparation of annual financial statements and audit of the financial statements are conducted. The activities of the school are monitored by the governing body and it is ensured that the policies of the governing body are strictly followed by the school. These are the concepts and the processes that are followed as per the policy of the governance model of the school. Effectiveness of the governance model: sustainability and fulfilment of mission of Church The governance model has been quite effective in ensuring sustainability for the organization in terms of operations in the educational field and also in terms of contribution to the society. The governance model has also been has also been effective in fulfilling the mission of the Church in terms of imparting Catholic teachings to the society. The school is located in a remote and rural area in New South Wales and has a vision of providing education to the rural communities. The school is also a centre for learning and faith which has a mission of transforming the lives of the people through education. The schools have the objective of fulfilling the mission of the Catholic Church (Duncan and Duncan, 1997). The Catholic Church has the vision of restoring due respect for Jesus and the ancestors who have lived in the land and also provide opportunities to the children and younger generations which provides them complete education and develops the belief system in accordance with the ideologies of the Catholic Church. The school is connected to the catholic faith and undertakes the responsibility of spreading the message of faith to the communities. The governance model has been effective in sustainment of the activities of the above mentioned activities of the school. The roles and responsibilities of the teachers are monitored on a periodic basis and the issues and concerns related to the spread of education are discussed by the governing body. The model of governance also monitors the level of involvement of the teachers and the staffs with the society, especially the rural communities in order to see whether the policy of the school is implemented in an effective manner (Gann, 2003). The integration of the teachings staffs with the church and the lessons imparted to the rural community is reviewed by the school’s administrative body. The governing body also ensure that the message of faith as required in the church law is imparted to the rural communities and the students. This activity is ensured to be followed in the course of time that determines the effectiveness of the model governance on the sustainability of the organization. Looking at the performance trend of the organization in implementing the policies of the administrative body, the model of governance could be said to be effective for sustainability of the organization. The model of governance has also ensured that the mission of the church is fulfilled. The Catholic faith is imparted as a part of the policy of the school which has connection to the Catholic faith of the church. The activities of the school in imparting Catholic learning and being a centre for transformation of lives through education fulfil the mission of the church (Soguel and Jaccard, 2007). The school imparts education in active participation with the parents and in doing so is able to strengthen the identity of Catholic Church. The lessons imparted in the form of education reflect the growth of the Catholic identity and thereby fulfils the mission of the Church. Looking at the decline of traditional family structures, the school is looking to consolidate the Catholic beliefs in line with the mission of the Church by establishing respect for the ancestor generations and at the same time providing educational opportunities for the young generations. The message of faith spread by the school on behalf of the Catholic Church fulfils the mission of the Church. It is believed that the integration with the Holy Spirit and Jesus would transform the lives of the young people and would help them to mature into a complete individual. These activities are ensured by the model of governance put in place by the school and are quite effective for the sustainability of the organization and the fulfilment of mission of the Church (Manna and McGuinn, 2013). References Arthur, J. (1995). Government policy and Catholic voluntary-aided schools 1979 - 1994. Oxford Review of Education. 21(4), 447-455. Diocese of Wilcannia Forbes . (2010). St Mary’s primary School. Retrieved from: http://www.wf.catholic.edu.au/vision-mission/vision.php. Duncan, D.J. and Duncan, J. W. (1997). Rights and duties of school boards. Australian schools and the law. Sydney: LBC. Dunn, W. N.  (1981). A framework for policy analysis. In Public Policy Analysis:  An Introduction.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall. Gann, N. (2003). Improving School Governance: How Better Governors Make Better Schools. USA: Routledge. Hofman, R. H., Hofman, W.H. and Guldemond, H. (2002). School governance, culture and student achievement. International Journal of Leadership in Education. 5(3), 249-272. Howlett , M. and M. Ramesh. (1995).  Agenda setting: policy determinants and policy windows. In Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Subsystems.  Ontario:  Oxford University Press. Jordan, R. (2008). Governing a faith-based organization: Addressing unique challenges in the boardroom. Board Leadership (Jan-Feb). 2(1), 5-7. Leavey, C. (2000). School Governance Project. Retrieved from: http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au.ezproxy1.acu.edu.au/ereserve/copyright/documents/Leavey7660.pdf. Manna, P. and McGuinn, P. (2013). Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century: Overcoming the Structural Barriers to School Reform. UK: Brookings Institution Press. Rodney, M. (1984). Toward an Integrative Theory of Power and Education Organization.  Educational Administration Quarterly. 20(2), (Spring), 25-42. Soguel, N. C. and Jaccard, P. (2007). Governance and Performance of Education Systems. USA: Springer. Tuohy, D. (2004). Leading Life to the Full: Models of Governance in Catholic Education. Sydney: Keynote address Australian Catholic University Leadership in Catholic Education Conference. Read More