Christian schools and parental values a case study in the Australian Capital Territory

Abstract

In the western world the Protestant Christian Day School Movement is now a recognised element in education systems. It is a movement which has had phenomenal growth over the past twenty years and it continues to grow. Mostly, the parents of children who attend these schools were educated in a government school. This thesis seeks to find the reasons why parents are choosing Christian Schools and not government ones as they themselves attended. A variety of values are examined; religious, academic and pastoral, and as the reader will discover, while it is not easy always to make a clear distinction between these values, some trends are so strong that the researcher believes that some valid conclusions may be drawn. A considerable amount of data was collected by the use of two surveys done at the Trinity Christian School at Wanniassa, and one survey conducted among parents of the O’Connor Christian School at Lyneham. The Biblical Values Survey provides an interesting over-view of the perceived achievement of a Christian School while the Choosing a School Survey clearly shows why these parents are dissatisfied with government schools and what they expect their child will gain from a Christian School experience. A computer analysis was done on one block of data which highlights the need for Christian School administrators to be aware of the various priority areas which do exist in the minds of the parents of their students.

Date of Award	1986
Original language	English