There Arose a Generation That Did Not Remember: The Challenge of Maintaining Distinctively Christian Institutional Cultures in an Era of Change

Abstract

The preservation and perpetuation of core institutional vision, values, ethos and identity to succeeding generations are critical imperatives that confront all Christian educational organisations. Christian institutions have historically been prone to the dis-integration of their respective cultural distinctiveness through processes of rationalisation and secularisation, and many do not remain distinctively Christian in vision, ethos or identity beyond the second and third generations. This paper will provide a review of the literature relating to the preservation of core ideology within Christian educational institutions and will identify a range of forces that promote and inhibit the preservation of distinctively Christian identities within an ever-increasingly complex and market driven socio-cultural milieu.