Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of faculty members and administrators in five Marianist high schools in the Province of the Pacific regarding four cultural aspects of Marianist education. The four Marianist cultural aspects studied were: Education of the Whole Person; Family Spirit/Community; Formation in Faith/Religious Education; and Justice and Peace issues. Five schools were surveyed by questionnaire designed by the researcher to collect the data. Responses were recorded on a Likert-type scale. Ninety-six percent of the questionnaires were returned by the participants. This descriptive study used a chi-square statistical analysis on the top two responses of the questionnaire; that is, the aspects of culture perceived "to a great degree" and "to a very great degree" to determine congruence and differences to Marianist culture among the lay teachers/non-Marianist religious, non-Marianist administrators, and Marianists within each school for research questions one and two. Research question three used the composite mean score for the entire study. No significant statistical differences were found among the three groups studied or among the five schools surveyed regarding the four aspects of Marianist culture. The study found positive perceptions of Marianist education among the three groups studied in all four cultural aspects. This was an important finding and indicated that the culture of each school was being influenced by the Marianist culture. This study should be used to provide feedback to the schools regarding the perceptions of Marianist education within each school. The school philosophy as well as patterns of actions should reflect commitment to the core Marianist values to ensure that the culture of each school in the Province of the Pacific is influenced by those values. Recommendations for further study would be to do a statistical analysis for each question on the questionnaire to determine the exact differences among the groups studied at each school and to follow-up trends spotted in the study. Finally, an attempt should be made to revise the questionnaire for student use to learn if the Marianist cultural aspects have filtered to the students.