Catholic education and socialization of values. An analytical approach based on Systems Theory

Abstract

Academic debates regarding systems theory are usually developed on an abstract basis, from which arises a difficulty when evaluating its usefulness to analyze empirical problems. This article is basically an exercise to prove its relevance, by outlining a research on the socialization of moral values in schools. The general hypothesis guiding this inquiry is that the students express moral communications, which are differentiated by the kind of school they attend; classified as lay or catholic. The following text exemplifies the construction of a research problem through the kinds of social systems proposed by Niklas Luhmann: a) functional, in which we can identify the religious and the educational systems; b) organizations, in which we can identify schools; and c) interactions, which in this case are developed among the students and among them and the researcher, and through which the students express their moral values.