Date of Graduation
Spring 5-16-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
College/School
School of Education
Department
Leadership Studies
Program
Catholic Educational Leadership EdD
First Advisor
Dr. David Donahue
Second Advisor
Dr. Ursula Aldana
Third Advisor
Dr. Alicia Tapia
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Michael Duffy
Abstract
This is a study of students’ voices, choices, and experiences. Its purpose is to examine the barriers and opportunities for building belonging in Catholic schools. The research is a contribution to the positive work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging currently taking place in various Catholic school contexts. It is also a response to specific issues that continue to permeate students’ curricular experience, such as the silencing of voice, the lack of choice, untapped educational agency, and the exclusion of their authentic identities. The study is designed to learn directly from students’ own lived experiences, their testimonies, and their artwork. Students were engaged through an arts-based research model that gathered their insights and perceptions about belonging in spaces both inside and outside of school; they created and contributed visual art pieces and written reflections as the study’s data. The entirety of the research process was integrated in a Building Belonging unit within a sophomore level theology and visual arts course, The History of Christian Art, at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco. The research relied on a personalized and experiential educational research (PEER) method that employed principles of critical pedagogy, critical race theory, culturally relevant pedagogy, and reality pedagogy. The findings illuminated new curricular and communal possibilities that can further activate the Catholic faith and the missions of Catholic schools. The study’s aim is to widen the ways of belonging in our Catholic schools, so that educators and students can together live the Gospel of our time.
Recommended Citation
Hill, R. (2025). The Art of Building Belonging Through Student Voice and Choice: Liberating Learning and Creating Community in Catholic Schools. Retrieved from https://repository.usfca.edu/diss/732
Included in
Art Education Commons, Art Practice Commons, Catholic Studies Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Methods Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Religious Education Commons, Social Justice Commons
