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Poland, still considered by some to be a bastion of Catholicism in Europe, is becoming more secularised every year, and its society resembles the postmodern societies of Western Europe. The changes in religiousness, which affect especially the younger Poles, are so strong that they call into question the validity of the current form of religious education, i.e. school catechesis, which is proving incapable of fulfilling its tasks, e.g. in the function of Christian initiation. Given the above context, the present article has a threefold purpose: The first step is to present the social and educational challenges of school catechesis in Polish schools. Based on these premises, the second step will outline the main similarities and differences in religious education between Poland and Germany, and then the German ‘Carousel of Concepts’ (H. Mendl) of the 1960s, which contributed to the emergence of a possible optimal model of religious education for a postmodern society. In the third and final step, ideas for the future will be formulated for the renewal of religious education in Poland, making it possible to characterise it in a guiding way as a dialogical-educational concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black men and boys have been constructed as libidinous threats to white womanhood and white racial purity since the sixteenth century. In the wake of the landmark Brown decision, white citizens fused the Black male rapist trope with segregation theology to create private segregation academies to minimize Black-white contact. These schools remain more segregated than traditional public schools. The participants in this study were recruited to a private Catholic high school where the entire Black population was made up of Black boys who played a sport and whose interracial relationships with white girls triggered resistance. Drawing from qualitative data, the purpose of this paper is to highlight five Black boys' experiences with phallic-based Negrophobia in a predominantly white and private Catholic high school. Findings reveal that participants realized they were transgressing institutional boundaries to preserve a racial order, and their transgressions were constantly policed and monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, specifically Carson v. Makin, which permit public funding for religious schools, we examine how Catholic diocese and school leaders interpret these legal shifts for Catholic education. We utilize the Catholic education sector in New York City as a case study to examine how Catholic school leaders interpret local, state, and national policy shifts in funding for Catholic education. Specifically, we examine how Catholic school leaders currently navigate public–private partnerships and how they think Makin will affect future funding of Catholic education in New York City. We find that Catholic school leaders are already participating in limited public–private partnerships and are enthusiastic about potential policy windows for opportunities such as tax-credits and religious charter schools. However, Catholic school leaders in New York face challenges in terms of state politics, Catholic identity of schools, and other school-choice advocates including public charter schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, Australian higher education has been statist, uniform, and secular. Indeed, up until 1989, even communist Poland had more Christian universities than Australia. Only in the last 3½ decades have eight different Christian universities and colleges emerged. This article first explores the origins of these new institutions and the historical factors that allowed for the emergence of Australian Christian higher education (CHE). It then employs the recently developed Operationalizing Christian Identity Guide (OCIG) to determine the extent to which these new Australian institutions use their Christian identity to guide administrative decisions. The OCIG identifies the number of publicly expressed markers that indicate whether and how Christian identity makes a difference in key administrative decisions regarding the life of the institution. These markers include things such as membership requirements for the board, president, faculty, and students; the institution's official rhetoric and mission; the number of required Christian courses; and the nature of co-curricular programming. An analysis of these institutions using the OCIG reveals that Australia's Christian institutions are observably distinct from their secular Australian counterparts in key areas such as mission, hiring practices, curricular requirements, co-curricular opportunities, and student conduct codes. All of these Christian institutions require core courses that extend beyond professional education. Within the Christian sector, significant diversity also exists regarding religious symbols, funding, and governance. A comparison of these Australian institutions to Christian institutions in the United States and Canada, however, finds that Australian institutions operationalize their Christian identities less than institutions in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 50 years, a group of Christians has cultivated a movement to revitalize Christian education at secular universities. These leaders formed centers for Christian thought (CCT) to reengage the Christian faith with the intellectual life (and vice-versa) and work with students, staff, and faculty within American universities. At present, there are at least 41 CCT in the USA, but little empirical work has been done to explore this type of Christian education. In this paper, we used a collective case study of five established CCT to answer the following research question: What are the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, and what is the nature of Christian education they offer? Each center we studied exhibited characteristics unique to its institutional context and yet shared some key educational elements with other centers. In sum, CCT used hospitality and intellectual fellowship to engage the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition to satiate the human appetite to live an integrated life. The center staff believed that living the integrated life would strengthen the global church and thereby benefit the university and society. Although CCT are distinct from Christian colleges and universities, opportunities exist for mutual learning between them that could help perpetuate the Christian intellectual tradition. For example, CCT could benefit from the faith integration conversations happening on Christian campuses, who could, in turn, learn from the holistic approaches of CCT and benefit from hiring faculty who were involved with a center as graduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevailing current context of neoliberalism has often been viewed as curtailing the prophetic expression of the Catholic identity of Catholic educational institutions (CEIs). This article proposes that only by reclaiming their prophetic identity can CEIs flourish authentically in the neoliberal era. A faith-based approach to addressing the challenges of neoliberalism is presented, drawing upon the principles of prophetic imagination described by Brueggemann. The neoliberal concept of strategic planning is presented using four nuanced characteristics of a Catholic strategic planning process to express the CEI's prophetic nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the emergence of sex education in the early 20th century is well studied, religious reactions to it remained under-studied. The paper addresses this gap by analysing the emergence of Roman Catholic sex education in the German-speaking area from the turn of the century to the 1930s. It explores official doctrinal guidelines, inner-Catholic debates, and the growing body of Catholic sex education publications. The paper argues that for the Roman Catholic Church, sex education was not a mere pedagogical problem but a topic that raised overarching questions such as how to deal with modern natural sciences, female emancipation, or the secular school system. The findings suggest that lay people and clergy working in pastoral care were the driving force for the modernisation of the discourse vis-à-vis a more conservative church authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lebanon is currently trapped in a full-scale emergency. Apart from the Syrian refugee mass influx of 2011, which had led the country to severe social and economic constraints, a civic uprising ignited in October 2019 against an incompetent government accused of sectarianism and corruption by the Lebanese people. Thousands of peaceful protesters from different religions and social classes assembled in cities across the country calling for social and economic reforms. Frustration and public anger have escalated in recent years over government's failure to manage the country's waste and economic crisis. Lebanon currently confronts a debt, fiscal, currency and banking crisis which inevitably impacted its educational sector. Unlike many countries where public schools are most commonly frequented, Lebanon relies on its private schools including Catholic Schools to educate two-third of students. The current crises are forcing working class families to pull their children out of private schools into the state system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following participation in an inaugural year-end project-based learning (PBL) ‘Capstone’, teachers in a Catholic middle school were interviewed as a focus group for their reflections on the performance of learners whom they perceived to ‘struggle’ during the academic year. A thematic analysis was conducted to extract categories and themes. Findings indicate the teachers believed PBL substantially benefited the learners, although their cognitive and academic skills were perceived as barriers to successfully meeting PBL learning expectations. Nonetheless, the PBL format was considered to have enhanced the students’ participation, motivation, senses of accomplishment, and ownership of their work. Implications for implementing PBL as a means to create inclusive and appropriate learning environments for all are discussed, as well as how teachers can scaffold ‘struggling’ learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, biographical interviews with former pupils have become important sources for boarding school history. This raises the question as to whether these retrospective sources can be combined with contemporary written material and how to go about that. This paper argues for a triangulation of written with oral sources and the related methods of historical biography research and reconstructive social research. The combination of data and methods turns boarding school history into an interdisciplinary project that poses new challenges for research. At the same time, it also offers a way to a deeper understanding of boarding school history and its long-term effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Early Third Republic (c. 1880–1914), the role of Catholic educators was called into question by the convergence of two different calls for change within French society. As the government of the Third Republic sought to reform primary-school instruction, there were renewed debates in French society about the role of Catholic institutions. Cast as untrained and partisan teachers by advocates of Republican educational reform, Catholic teachers and pedagogues sought to assert their place among modern educators. A close reading of late nineteenth-century Catholic pedagogical materials reveals, however, that objections to Republican education came from its content and not its form. The education of the senses, the progression from known to unknown, and the introduction of children to abstract concepts were all pedagogical techniques that could be reconciled with Catholic educational practice. In response, advocates for the role of Catholicism in primary education stressed their role in shaping future citizens and sought to establish their credentials as educators. This case study, which focuses on French primary education, speaks to the growth in international pedagogical norms in the late nineteenth century and the dynamism of French Catholicism's attempts to reconcile tradition and modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Congregation of Holy Cross has been working on evangelisation and education in Bangladesh for more than 170 years. This study examines the educational mission of the Congregation in Bangladesh. The study is conducted from a historical perspective. The paper is based primarily on the examination of written documents – primary and secondary – and field work involving oral history interviews. The study identifies four primary aims of Holy Cross education in Bangladesh. The paper argues that they have distinctive educational aims at the nation's elite education both through English and Bengali medium, and villages' primary and secondary level education. The study illustrates that there has been a shift of emphasis on the educational mission over the years. A significant contribution to the changing mission of Holy Cross education has been the independence of Bangladesh. Another factor that contributed significantly to changes in Holy Cross education has been the Catholic Church itself and the structure of Catholic life, as a result of Vatican II. Mission models that emerged after the Council emphasised social justice and religious pluralism. Those teachings of the Church brought changes to the educational missions of Holy Cross in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the depth of discrimination against gender and sexual minority groups in Catholic schools of selected western nations is best undertaken from an international-comparative perspective. In this article, we compare the Canadian case of Alberta's 'washroom wars' and a 'gender row' over uniform changes in an Australian Catholic high school. In each case, practises inclusive of gender diversity in Catholic schools were framed as a departure from Catholic doctrine. To explore how oppressive structures exist and operate within schools, we examine media accounts of each case using Critical Discourse Analysis and contextualize this analysis by examining Canadian and Australian educational and legal settings. We find that despite differing legal frameworks, some Catholic schools continue to place Canonical law above the rights of transgender and gender-diverse students in both countries. We therefore argue that it is the Catholic system's institutional stance on gender and sexual diversity that perpetuates discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the Catholic schools established in the nineteenth century had an explicit mission to the poor. This mission was integral to the aims of Catholic schools, aims that included promoting literacy and numeracy and ensuring the inculcation of the Catholic faith and culture in further generations. By the late twentieth century, care for the poor and the preferential option for the poor described the mission to the poor in Catholic schools. The term the preferential option for the poor originated in Liberation Theology within a very specific sociological and ecclesial context, but the understanding of the term deepened as a key theme in Catholic social teaching. This article examines some key Vatican documents on Catholic education in the Conciliar and post Conciliar period and focuses on the strengths and limitations of the vision and implementation of the care for the poor or preferential option for Catholic schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a response to Pope Francis' invitation to dialogue on how Catholic educators can help shape the future of the planet by focusing on integral human development. Offering a discussion of the theological foundations of two primary beliefs of whole child education—cura personalis, the care for the whole person, and accompaniment, the process of journeying with the child and their caregivers throughout the educational process—this paper advances Pope Francis' vision for integral human development and advances a framework for practitioners and scholars to be attentive to in their practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Church statistics, 6.9 million children were enrolled in Catholic primary and secondary schools in Europe. Enrolment has remained relatively stable over the last 40 years in comparison to other regions of the world, contributing to education pluralism. This may be in part because in many countries, Catholic and private schools benefit from state funding, which helps in reducing out-of-pocket costs for parents to send their children to the schools. At the same time, public funding for private schools, including Catholic schools, often remains below the level of funding for public schools. This paper discusses enrolment trends in Catholic schools over time, compares the level of public funding for private and public schools, and looks at the relationships (or lack thereof) between such funding and enrolment in Catholic and private schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on two major issues in contemporary Catholic social justice: care for the poor and the inclusion of migrants and refugees. The care for the poor is examined in the gospels and in the contemporary articulation of the preferential option for the poor, drawing on the theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez and Jon Sobrino. Pope Francis and his 'preferential option for the migrants, refugees and asylum seekers' is examined in some depth through some key writings and homilies. Care for the poor and the inclusion of migrants and refugees are explored in relation to Catholic education, primarily in relation to Catholic schools and Catholic support for other schools. Some key historical and contemporary figures who intervened in their local context and established schools for the poor and marginalised are identified and discussed. The article provides some concrete examples of the Catholic church providing educational support for migrant and refugee children and young people in contemporary Bulgaria and Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the Catholic education of young women on personal hygiene and body odors during the 19th century in France. Topics discussed include the passage of young women to adulthood through olfactory changes in one's bodies, the advice being given by nuns regarding the cleanliness of one's clothing particularly underwear, and the difference between the hygienic practices being recommended by physicians and religious institutions during the said period.

This article examines the historical context of the growth and development of Catholic education in the United States, and the commitment of Catholic colleges and universities – viewed primarily through the lens of Jesuit Colleges and Universities – to the professional formation of educators for service in Catholic schools. It is a story of the careful navigation by strangers in a strange land to create an unparalleled system of educational institutions, securing academic recognition through accreditation, and providing service to the K-12 Catholic educational system through the delivery of distinctive professional formation programmes for Catholic school educators. These historical challenges continue to the present day and represent a particular mission-driven service of Catholic higher education to the Catholic Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the historical role of the Catholic Church of Ruteng Diocese in Manggarai, Indonesia, in developing educational services to accelerate the development of an educated society. Theoretically, this article refers briefly to the discussion around the knowledge society and looks at the role of the Catholic Church in this context. The qualitative methodology based on data collection techniques, one of which is archival studies, is used in the elaboration process of this study. This article presents several significant findings, including the historical role of the Diocese of Ruteng in pastoral education through the construction of schools, challenges in education management, and current strategies for pastoral education development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stability of leadership in Catholic education at the (arch)diocesan level is essential for achieving school system wide goals. This study investigated turnover and retention of Catholic school superintendents in the USA. Ten former superintendents were interviewed. The interview findings revealed that all but one former superintendent had left their positions earlier than planned. Their major reason for leaving early was related to negative experiences with church bureaucracy and politics at the head offices of their respective (arch)dioceses. To increase retention, the authors recommend a two-year induction process that includes a well-thought-out orientation, mentoring, provision for spiritual support, and access to tailored professional development. The authors also recommend these system-level changes: an overhauled preparation programme for superintendents, new organisational practices in the diocesan main office (i.e. chancery), clear succession plan, and national standards to guide consistent implementation of these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Paul VI's Octogesima Adveniens regarding the Church's urgent response to social issues, in his speech to Jesuit alumni in Valencia in July 1973, Fr. Pedro Arrupe reflected on the concept of 'social justice' and its implications for Jesuit schools. He spoke about how Jesuit education could assist students to become 'men and women for others', men and women who can bring about change for the better in their societies. Since then, promoting 'social justice' has become one of the Jesuit educational priorities and has brought about significant reform within Jesuit educational institutions worldwide. This includes the newly established institution of a 'learning community' that addresses educational inequality for poor indigenous students in Thailand. This research paper reflects on how this institution can be a model that promotes justice in education and forms our students to become 'agents of change.' This paper begins by revisiting Fr. Arrupe's concept of 'social justice' and philosophically analyses the learning formation of a new Jesuit institution, called the Xavier Learning Community (XLC). Drawing from this analysis, I argue that the model of 'learning community' may also inspire other Catholic schools to address common social issues in Thailand based on the Christian values of continual conversion, fraternal and sororal relationship, and discernment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the years either side of Federation in 1901, Australia's Irish Catholics balanced two often contradictory impulses: their determination to retain their cultural and religious links with Ireland in the face of an often unsympathetic Protestant majority, and the desire to become 'good' Australians in order to make 'a go' of their lives in the new land. This paper explores how this process played out at St Joseph's Nudgee College, a Christian Brothers' day and boarding school in Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland, and how sport played a central role in satisfying both imperatives. This discussion will be framed by the intersection of the social/political/economic context of Queensland during the period 1891–1914. It will focus on the educational context in which the Irish Christian Brothers operated as they struggled to make the College a bastion of Irish Catholicism and a vehicle for the socio-economic advancement of their community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the correlation between religiosity and understanding of human sexuality among a selected group of young Kenyan Catholics. Our research aimed to pinpoint the contingencies between these variables with a view to reaching some conclusions and offering suggestions for religious education and pastoral care of youth and families. The present research into religiosity made use of Huber's Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS). The respondents' understanding of human sexuality was studied with the use of a survey prepared by the authors. Our research shows that an understanding of human sexuality from a Catholic point of view increases alongside an increase in one's interest in religion, in religious convictions, and the centrality of religion in one's life. The analyzed correlations occurred more frequently and were stronger among men than women. There were most connections among the youngest group of respondents, younger than 20 and currently receiving education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on an underexplored aspect of the Catholic convent school experience, namely the kinds of socialisation and regulation of emotion maintained within the convent community. Drawing on the emerging history of emotions and the concept of emotional communities first posited by Barbara H. Rosenwein, it considers how historians might better account for the emotional component of education in Ireland, using the Irish convent boarding school as a case study. Analysing records of disciplinary techniques, teacher-training manuals and personal memoirs, it considers how Irish girls were taught to channel, restrain and develop a mature emotional life. This examination of 'emotional' education suggests an alternative historical reading of the female 'accomplishments' or politesse considered so emblematic of the lampooned convent school girl. Historical analysis of the emotional component of education provides new insight into the socialisation of class and gender in the religious milieu of an Irish boarding school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation, migration, socio-political shifts, and access to the internet are increasing the religious and belief diversity of Irish society. This flux presents challenges for young people who are endeavouring to establish a secure identity. The focus of this research was to understand how the identity development of post-primary students of minority faith or worldview, is impacted by attending a school with a Catholic ethos. The research methodology was qualitative. To provide an opportunity for students to voice their experiences, 18 post-primary students of minority faith or worldview were interviewed. Thematic analysis was used to identify the findings. Reflecting on an interpretivist paradigm, the epistemology which underpinned this research was constructivism. While theories of adolescent moral and identity development alongside theories of othering, conformity, and agency supported the research study. The findings report some students struggled to find a secure identity due to conflicting societal, school, peer, and family beliefs. Perceived negative stereotyping of their beliefs created feelings of otherness with implications for students' self-esteem. Students' sense of belonging and well-being was impacted on by Catholic-centric school practices combined with current provision to 'opt-out' from Religious Education classes. However, the research also found human agency resulted in a kaleidoscope of student responses to the inherent challenges of adolescent identity development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catholic education exists to attempt to transform people so that they become more responsible in their private and public life and as such the Church strives to build an education programme that enriches humanity through upholding Christian values. The investigation used in the study was based on the perceptions of school leaders and other education officials through the use of interviews in different Catholic secondary schools – a qualitative method. A number of issues emerged from the study such as the challenges in the shared meaning of Catholic education in different Catholic schools, the challenges in moral behaviours of students and the challenges in the multidimensionality ('Multidimensionality' in this study means people of different religious background in different Catholic schools) nature of Catholic education and what it teaches us. It has been found that despite these challenges Catholic schools in Zimbabwe remain focused on the Church's mission of teaching the Catholic faith in Jesus Christ, a question of evangelisation, as a priority objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As experienced researchers from Argentina, we set out to draw attention to the diversity and inequalities within the childhoods of the so-called 'Global South' that the 'Global North' uniformly addresses as 'other childhood.' Based on our long-standing ethnographic research with indigenous children in Argentina, we will present a conceptual discussion on children's agency and cultural appropriation, through a comparative study of Catholic education and appropriation processes that Toba/Qom and Mapuche children have experienced in different regions of the country. After a brief historical reconstruction, we analyse comparatively contemporary projects of different Catholic congregations towards Mapuche and Toba/Qom children, exploring simultaneously how children themselves receive such proposals. Considering these processes are not homogenous nor linear, we will argue for an approach that contextualises children's agency and cultural appropriation in sociohistorical and cultural terms, within different power relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethnic separation of the school system in Northern Ireland along Catholic and Protestant community lines limits opportunities for daily cross-community interaction between young people. Recent research has shown that, whilst the deployment pattern of teachers is largely consistent with this divide, a small proportion of teachers has diverted from the community-consistent path and are teaching in a school not associated with their own community background. Narrative interviews with a purposive sample of these cross-over teachers has provided rich insights into their experiences. The research presented here explores the extent to which these cross-over teachers felt able to reveal and engage their ethnic identity in their teaching. A mixed pattern is observed; whilst some had endeavoured to hide or disguise their identity, others had embraced their otherness and were consequently better placed to achieve agency in their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"They made neither a profession nor a commodity out of them": printing, schoolbook trading and the Brothers of the Christian Schools in eighteenth-century France From the seventeenth century onwards, there was an increase in the number of teaching communities in France taking on the management of small charitable schools for working-class girls and boys. These communities set out in their regulations the way they wanted the classes to be run. They recommended the collective lesson method, which presupposed that all pupils who were at the same level should have the same book in their hands. This practical constraint meant that different ways of organising the provision of books to pupils emerged among these communities. One community, the Brothers of the Christian Schools, stands out in particular for its highly integrated book system, which was set up by their founder, Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. It included a common corpus for all schools, contracts with printers and direct sales to pupils. This particular aspect of the Lasallian community's history is the focus of this article. The first section considers how both the educationists who served as models for La Salle and other contemporary communities dealt with the question of books. In the Ecole Paroissiale (1654), Jacques de Batencour described the collective lesson method but did not expand on the supply of books, which could be found in the bookshops of the parish of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. The Ursulines, whose schools were rapidly increasing in number, did not specify a corpus of common textbooks for the whole community, but their regulations stipulated that each school must stock up on books for resale at cost price to pupils. In actual fact, they made a small profit (20–30% of the book price) to fund book donations for the poorest pupils. This operating model could be found in many female communities, such as the Vatelottes de Toul and the Sisters of Ernemont in Normandy. In Lyon, Charles Démia (1637–1689) established a learning progression method based on the use of a small canon of books that he had part-written. He did not organise the provision of the books to the pupils, but the Office of Schools (Bureau des écoles) entered into contracts with local printers to ensure a plentiful supply of the necessary books. However, as school monitoring visits showed, it was difficult to make the teachers and families use the books listed in the Règlemens pour les écoles de la ville et diocèse de Lyon (regulations for schools in the city and diocese of Lyon) (1688). The teachers continued to use whatever syllabaries and children's devotional books their pupils brought in, such as the Heures de Notre-Dame. When La Salle founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools, he had been partly inspired by the Lyon schools model. However, he took this a step further, writing all the educational materials himself so that they corresponded with the dual catechetical and literacy mission of his foundation. This heritage did not fossilise the Brothers' pedagogical reflection during the eighteenth century. The Lasallian syllabary was contested very early on and was gradually replaced by a more classical form of syllabary combined with the common prayers. The collection of psalms used in the schools evolved in line with musical trends. Textbooks for grammar and arithmetic, which were produced in response to the needs of the urban middle classes, were added in the 1770s. La Salle combined his specification of this corpus with the commercial organisation that was lacking in the Démia schools (but present, for example, in the Ursuline schools), whereby the Brothers sold the books that the children were to use. Drawing on local archives, the second section of this article examines the many objections generated by this "school bookshop". Booksellers were the main opponents of this system. They appealed against the unfair competition to the royal administration, since it was theoretically forbidden for non-booksellers to practise bookselling. There were also objections from schoolteachers, who tried to discredit the Brothers by accusing them not only of making a profit on the sale of school supplies but also of favouring children from the urban middle classes over the poor, who were the supposed focus of their mission. Finally, the families themselves opposed this system because they were unhappy about the forced purchases, which conflicted with the domestic recycling practices that prevailed where school supplies were concerned. The third section of this article highlights the major breakthrough that this community-run system for producing schoolbooks represented. Production was concentrated in the community's three provincial capitals, namely Rouen and Avignon from the early eighteenth century onwards and Nancy from the 1770s onwards. In all three cases, the provincial capital was located in a centre that was very active in terms of publishing, thus facilitating a large-scale supply to the schools. This was not just a fortuitous coincidence, because the dynamics that drove the Christian schools were not unrelated to those that maintained the prosperity of the local printing houses. In these three "letterpress capitals", the Brothers entered into contracts with the printers, negotiated prices and acquired real expertise in printing matters. Schools located in and around these cities could be easily equipped with the corpus of books specified by their founder. For schools further afield, it is possible that the corpus was adapted according to the titles available from local printers and booksellers, as shown for the schools in Reims, Montauban and Grenoble. Although Lasallian pedagogical practice did not always adhere fully to the plan set out by its founder and while the children did not always work through the entire corpus of La Salle's books, his schools nevertheless became the models to be followed and imitated in the closing decades of the century. With their printing presses and their bookselling teachers, the Brothers' schools thus marked a considerable milestone in the slow diffusion of the simultaneous method of teaching in small French schools right up to the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformational leaders are leaders who 'transform and inspire followers to perform beyond expectations while transcending self-interest for the good of the organisation'. 'Discernment' is defined as the individual and communal practice of decision-making that is oriented on the future (educational aims), conditioned by the personal qualities of leaders (purity of heart), and which emphasises teleological ethics as source of reliance. In line with this concept, a scale of discernment was constructed and tested in a research study on 198 leaders of the Catholic schools of Don Bosco in India. Transformational leadership was measured with an existing scale which is part of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. The results show that discernment (as measured) is the strongest predictor of transformational leadership, while controlling for background variables (such as age, gender, religious background, leadership position, type of school, and private or government-aided schools). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between RE leaders in Catholic education and their schools and their religious communities may be ambiguous. RE leaders often appear disconnected from both 'ordinary' teacher issues and 'ordinary' leadership issues because of their religious responsibilities. In this innovative research project, the authors have explored RE leader connectedness and disconnectedness in Catholic schools around the world. Visual research methods are used, as respondents make use of artistic representations of both connectedness and disconnectedness, to describe (by explaining their choice of picture) the nature of their connectedness. Responses from Australia, Hong Kong in China, the USA, the UK and Germany are presented here, generating an initial account of the lived reality of RE leaders in Catholic schooling systems. Responses range from those who seem to integrate their accountabilities to school and church systems to those who seem more 'torn' between those systems and disconnected from one or both of school and church. The authors suggest this has implications for practical-empirical theology, and education more generally, based on the idea of the 'bi-dimensionality' of the RE leader role in Catholic schools, and on the role of the school in Catholic theology which, according to D'Souza, 'cannot help but be one of the intersecting points where the problems and challenges of society are encountered' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In education systems that support pluralism, students or parents can choose the type of school or university they attend. Given heterogeneity in priorities for what should be taught, education pluralism has a value in itself. It may also boost schooling and learning. The fact that there is heterogeneity is clear, otherwise we would not have different types of schools. What is less clear is the extent to which education systems are pluralistic. Rather than looking at inputs for pluralism such as laws and regulations, this article introduces a measure of education pluralism based on outputs, i.e. enrollment in different types of schools and universities. The normalized education pluralism index is inspired by the literature on market concentration. Estimates are provided based on data for public, private non-Catholic, and Catholic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is not a lot of support in the international community today for the role played by the private sector, including faith-based schools, towards achieving the fourth sustainable development goal (SDG), which calls for ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education. Yet, education pluralism is called for in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a separate paper published in this journal, a measure of education pluralism was suggested to reflect this idea. In this paper, that measure is combined with data on educational outcomes to assess whether taking pluralism seriously may affect assessments of the fulfillment of the right to education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a qualitative survey conducted in 2019, in which 2.558 catholic religious education (RE) teachers working in state schools participated. The results indicate the existence of various forms of microaggressions towards religion teachers at school. First, the article analyses the relation between RE teachers and the management within the school environment – therein parents, other teachers and students – concerning possible cases of discrimination activities, taking into account relevant variables (as professional experience, workplace). Then, it introduces examples of prejudices against this group and the institutional support suggested by the respondents on part of the state and the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uncovers the meanings that secondary teachers working under the religious structure of Jesuit institutions attach to their work. I draw on theoretical insights coming from organisational behaviour. I use cases of teachers who worked or work in Catholic high schools run by the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuit order. I interviewed 105 teachers, lay and Jesuit priests, who teach in the United States, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The findings reveal that the participating teachers create meaning of their work using the building blocks of the self, others, the work context, and the spiritual life and that Teachers in the study showed a relatively similar pattern of making meaning in their work using four sources of meaning: others, the work context, the self, and spiritual life. There is no evidence that neither the professional status (being a Jesuit teacher or a lay teacher) nor the geographical setting of the teachers, mark a difference within the different meanings attributed to being a teacher in this particular educational context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Absent randomization, causal conclusions gain strength if several independent evidence factors concur. We develop a method for constructing evidence factors from several instruments plus a direct comparison of treated and control groups, and we evaluate the methods performance in terms of design sensitivity and simulation. In the application, we consider the effectiveness of Catholic versus public high schools, constructing three evidence factors from three past strategies for studying this question, namely: (i) having nearby access to a Catholic school as an instrument, (ii) being Catholic as an instrument for attending Catholic school, and (iii) a direct comparison of students in Catholic and public high schools. Although these three analyses use the same data, we: (i) construct three essentially independent statistical tests of no effect that require very different assumptions, (ii) study the sensitivity of each test to the assumptions underlying that test, (iii) examine the degree to which independent tests dependent upon different assumptions concur, (iv) pool evidence across independent factors. In the application, we conclude that the ostensible benefit of Catholic education depends critically on the validity of one instrument, and is therefore quite fragile. for this article, including a standardized description of the materials available for reproducing the work, are available as an online supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fields of sexuality and Catholic theology are often seen in the public eye as polar opposites—and not from an unfounded base. While there are many topics the Catholic church and the field of sexology (the scientific study of sexuality) can disagree on, we rarely discuss the fundamental agreements between them. In the following text, I describe the evidence of agreement between Catholic teachings and sexual science on five main points: sexuality is integral to the human experience, consent is paramount, parents should be the primary educators of their children on matters of sexuality, sexuality education should be positive and developmentally appropriate, and that sexuality is an avenue for deep personal wounding. I summarize some of the calls for this collaboration, some functional barriers in addressing it, and suggest possible avenues for scholars to examine pertaining to sexual science and Catholic theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1960s, the teaching force in Catholic schools in Ireland that for so long had been composed primarily of members of religious orders began to change as a large number returned to the secular world and recruitment levels dropped rapidly. Concurrently there was an outpouring of order-focused hagiographic works. During the 1980s, a range of related publications by professional historians also appeared. These included books by a group of secular historians and books by those who can be termed religious historians. This paper is a critical review of key works by key scholars in each group. An underlying assumption is that while for the first group the prospering popular religious atmosphere of the period studied and the work of the female religious as part of it constituted a phenomenon to be understood, for the second group this atmosphere and work largely constituted a 'natural' state of affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Catholic RE curriculum documents from 2 jurisdictions to assess how well they present Jews and Judaism. It finds that their representations of Jews and Judaism rely on structures of thought, reinforced by normative Catholicism, that enable the conditions to reproduce supersessionist thinking and attitudes. Its conclusion argues that current Catholic RE curricula must confront the question of how to coordinate strong and generous presentations of Jews and Judaism with Christian teachings on fulfillment. No less, they must also confront the question of how to consider Judaism and Christianity as different only in kind, and not by degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education forms a very significant activity within the Roman Catholic Church. The cultural and ethical formation of young generations and thus the future of society and the Church depend largely on it. Catholic schools grant the opportunity to base formal education on Christian anthropology and to shape students' personality in the light of the Gospel. The pontificate of John Paul II made a significant contribution to the development of Catholic education, and its theoretical foundations in particular. Due to the importance of the Pope's teaching and its timeliness for contemporary Catholic education, we carried out scientific reflection devoted to it. This study is primarily of a source nature, based on an analysis of the statements of John Paul II and the dicasteries of the Roman Curia during his pontificate. It can certainly inspire Catholic educators throughout the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the revitalisation of Catholic education in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet system and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's emergence from the underground. It speaks of the reinstitution and the 25 year work of the Ukrainian Catholic University – the easternmost Catholic university in Europe, and the only Catholic university in the territory of the former Soviet Union. The article provides brief historical information, an analysis of the general crisis, needs and problems of education in present-day Ukraine, and shows how a small academic institution, founded upon the principles of regard for human dignity, faithfulness to the Church, and a sense of social responsibility, can be an agent for positive change in society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews and updates a previous work published in 2007 as a chapter in the International Handbook of Catholic Education (Aristimuño, A. 2007. "Challenges for Catholic Schools in Uruguay." In International Handbook of Catholic Education: Challenges for School Systems in the21st Century. Part One, edited by Gerald Grace and S. J. Joseph O'Keefe, 149–163, Dordrecht: Springer). Its purpose is to review and analyze the transformations Catholic education has experienced since then in the small and secularised country of Uruguay, and by doing so, to identify its main contemporary challenges. It incorporates new literature and findings related to Catholic education globally (Grace, G. 2016. Faith, Mission and Challenge in Catholic Education. The Selected Works of Gerald Grace. London: Routledge; Lydon, J. 2009. "Transmission of the Charism: A Major Challenge for Catholic Education." International Studies in Catholic Education 1 (1): 42–58), to new ways of religion that are growing in Latin America (Da Costa, N. 2017. "Creencias y descreencias desde las experiencias cotidianas. Una mirada desde Uruguay." Estudos de Religiao 31 (3): 1–21; Morello, G. et al. 2017. "Lived Religion in Latin America and Europe. The Roman-Catholic Experience in Everyday Life." Quaderni del Csal-4, Centro Studi per l'America Latina, IX (17). Trieste: Edizione Universita di Trieste), new empirical research about the current situation of Catholic education in the country (Census AUDEC, 2016 and 2017), and the voice of several new Catholic education leaders who run influential educational organisations in the country. These new sources and findings show that in spite of some demanding social and global changes, what sustains and inspires the work of the protagonists at the heart of Catholic education in Uruguay continues to be its 'spiritual capital', defined as 'resources of faith and values derived from commitment to a religious tradition' (Grace, G. 2002. Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality. London: Routledge Falmer, p. 236). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges that face Catholic schools in the 21st century are not unique. Companies and other organizations have faced similar periods of disruption, which the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) should learn from in order to effectively address the issues of today. A national association, NCEA has a rich history of supporting Catholic schools but it must re-think how it provides guidance, support, and training to schools in order to specifically meet the needs of principals and teachers today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides estimates of the contribution of faith-based schools to human capital wealth using recent World Bank data. Wealth is the assets base that enables nations to generate future income. Estimates suggest that human capital wealth accounts for two thirds of global wealth, a much larger proportion than natural capital and produced capital. This paper's analysis relies on an assessment of the share of human capital wealth attributed to educational attainment, and the share of contribution of Catholic schools to educational attainment. The analysis suggests that Catholic schools contribute at least US$ 12 trillion to the changing wealth of nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that faith-based schools serve tens of millions of students (the estimate for the Catholic Church is at 62 million students enrolled in K12 schools globally in 2016), the role of faith-based schools remains largely ignored in policy discussions. The articles and essays in this symposium aim to inform current debates on the role of faith-based schools, and particularly Catholic schools. The focus on Catholic schools is driven by the fact that they are the largest network of faith-based schools globally. It is clear however that many issues faced by Catholic schools are also faced by other faith-based schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the International Office of Catholic Education (OIEC) is to represent the Catholic education movement at the international level and help promote exchanges between Catholic schools and their leaders globally. How effective is OIEC in representing the Catholic education movement at the international level and promoting quality education for all, particularly in the context of the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)? The objective of this essay is to explore this question by contrasting how the network and the strength of Catholic schools may be perceived from the outside, and how difficult in practice it is for OIEC to fully plays its essential, but challenging role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many decades, public and Catholic schools promoted rival understandings of character and human flourishing. Contemporary public schools have largely abandoned such goals, and there is evidence that many Catholic schools have also neglected them to focus on academic achievement. This trend is both practically unwise and civically irresponsible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One prominent issue in developing education systems globally has been the relation between state and non-state actors. In this country case study, we explore how social, economic, and political changes in Kenya are impacting the mission, focus, and operations of faith-based—and specifically Catholic—schools. Drawing primarily from four focus group discussions with head teachers from 36 government-aided, Catholic-sponsored primary schools, we explore the question: How is the Kenyan state's growing capacity to regulate education impacting Catholic-sponsored schools in pursuing their distinctive mission(s)? We find many head teachers have concerns that increasing state control may decrease autonomy in ways that threaten the integrity of the schools' faith-based mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]