Catholic School Teaching as Participation in the Common Good

Increasing rates of teacher attrition have exacerbated the shortage of teachers in regions of the United States. In response, some scholars have proposed initiatives that promote the professionalization of teaching, hoping to attract and retain new teachers through greater classroom autonomy and stronger professional development. Others have advocated for a vision of teaching as a vocation, through which teachers can find deeper meaning and thereby better tolerate challenging working conditions. While both conceptualizations of teaching hold compelling implications for the field, their lack of grounding in a broader conception of community ultimately limit the extent to which they can respond to challenges like teacher attrition. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to propose a new conceptualization of Catholic school teaching as a specific form participation in the common good – one that can counteract troubling trends facing teachers today through an emphasis on collective responsibility within a community of faith.