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Students in Australian Catholic schools live in a multi-cultural and multi-faith society where pluralisation, de-traditionalisation and individualisation are becoming increasingly prevalent. Given this context, religious education (RE) teachers face the challenge of implementing a pedagogical approach that is both culturally plausible and explicitly engages with the Catholic faith tradition. A recontextualising pedagogy seeks to meet this challenge. This investigation sought to ascertain the perspectives of RE teachers and leaders as to their understandings of recontextualisation and its application in the RE classroom. A qualitative approach utilising semi-structured interviews (distinguished by broad, general and open-ended questions) was employed to capture these perspectives. Whilst participants found it difficult to articulate what recontextualisation is, a key finding from this research was that they believe it is about making the Catholic faith tradition relevant to the lives of contemporary students. A second key finding was that certain strategies facilitated recontextualisation. These include: supportive, knowledgeable Religious Education Leaders (RELs); a trusting staff environment; using Scripture as Narrative; student-centred and active learning: toward a Pedagogy of Encounter; diversity; and reference to Catholic Social Teaching. It was also found that teachers' limited understanding of the Catholic Tradition and the lack of adequate resourcing that facilitates recontextualised learning are key barriers to recontextualising in the RE classroom. This research makes a significant contribution to an understanding of the purpose and challenges of recontextualisation, and some key strategies and barriers to its implementation.

The aim of this research was to get a better understanding of the work of school-based religious education leaders (SBREL) by examining the issues and challenges they face as well as how they are supported. SBREL were surveyed and interviewed, and they took part in focus groups. SBREL, in general, felt supported in their role. A major issue identified by SBREL was the implications of the changing demographics of Catholic schools, marked by growing numbers of non-Catholic students and weakening religious affiliation. Several challenges were identified. These included making Religious Education (RE) more engaging, the need for more practical assistance in delivering the RE curriculum, and providing better ongoing formation for teachers to better equip them to teach RE.

Exemplary religious education (RE) teachers were identified by school based RE leaders and interviewed as part of an ongoing study of the implementation of a new senior high school religious education program in Catholic schools in NSW, Australia. Contextualisation was provided by examining dominant social influences utilising Dobbelaere's concept of multi layered secularisation and Pollefeyt's notion of teachers as witness, specialist and moderator (WSM). The worldview of teachers in this study was not closely aligned with a secularised personal religious identity. They displayed a high level of religious salience. Participants did, however, display characteristics that were in keeping with a framework of skilled RE as WSM. A range of implications of this study were discussed including the need for; a closer examination of the pedagogical strategies used by exemplary RE teachers, a better understanding of teacher formation, further examination of the life journey of exemplary RE teachers in Catholic education.

The importance of religious questioning in establishing and maintaining religious affiliation is well recognised. Questions and how teachers respond to them is also a critical aspect of strong pedagogy and is an important part of teacher training and formation. Many curriculum documents in religious education assume that student questions are an important part of the teaching and learning process. This study seeks to examine the questions that students in Catholic schools raise in religious education class. This has been overlooked in the research literature and it is hoped that work will generate further interest in the topic. The study utilises a mixed methodology incorporating interviews with religious education coordinators as well as focus groups of experienced teachers. Results are discussed for infants (K-grade 2), primary (grades 3-6) and for secondary students (grades 7-12). For secondary and primary students, questions are categorised under three descriptive headings; metacognitive; thematic content; 'Why does the Church … ?' Infant questions are described using different categories. A range of implications are drawn from the findings including how to better prepare teachers to facilitate, encourage and respond to questions and the demands the student questions place on those involved in teacher formation and in the ongoing support of teachers.

This paper examines the experiences of six teachers from a regional, Australian diocese who attended World Youth Day (WYD). It also reports on aspects of their worldview and their experience working in Catholic schools. Overall participants were very positive about working in Catholic schools, and though not connected in an ongoing way with parish communities, they were happy to support the religious dimension of Catholic schools and were often involved in parish-based programmes when there was a connection with school activities. Their worldview could be characterised as having much in common with dominant cultural paradigms that sees religion in moral terms along with a deistic sense of God. Established social networks supported them in these views. Teacher pilgrims reported that WYD gave them the opportunity to experience a broader, more diverse Catholicism as well as the experience of going overseas and being part of a large gathering. Participation in WYD may open up opportunities for reflective discernment on the part of teacher pilgrims and a result has implications for the formation of teachers working in Catholic schools.

Catholic Studies is a religious education course used in senior high schools in New South Wales, Australia. The course is not counted for university entrance but meets the requirement for students to undertake religious study whilst in catholic schools. This paper examines the perceptions of teachers on why students take the course and what parts of it they find most and least engaging. In addition, the perceptions of teachers about the course are also reported. The results are discussed in the context of the wider literature of effective teacher student engagement. It argues that two aspects of effective teaching are the capacity of teachers to deal with the content of a course and also the ability to understand and engage with the learning needs of students. One conclusion is that for teacher and student learning in Catholic Studies to be improved, more focused support for teachers needs to be provided. This support would include specialized classroom resources as well as the opportunity for teachers to engage with their peers in a supportive learning community.

Religious education always takes place within a cultural context. In recent decades, this context has changed significantly and Catholic schools now engage with a world that is very different from the immediate post-Vatican 2 era. This changed cultural context shapes the views, beliefs and practices of students in Catholic schools. One way of exploring this contextualisation is to describe the worldviews of young people and to discuss some of the major features of these. This paper reports on an ongoing study of students in Catholic schools. It records how they see themselves, their involvement in Church and their religious expression. Results indicate nuanced responses that invite sophisticated analysis of young people and worldview. One clear trend to emerge is the changing perception of students as they progress through the school system. This finding is in accord with a view that describes religious engagement of young people reaching a plateau at a relatively early age. Some of the implications of this study for religious educators in Catholic schools will be drawn out and discussed with a number of recommendation made for practitioners.

This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of religious plurality using a range of conceptual lenses and then to draw out some implications for a dialogical approach to religious education in Catholic schools. While what was, until very recent times, seen as conventional religious affiliation has certainly weakened in Australia and elsewhere, this does not necessarily lead to a multiplication of communal beliefs, practices and values. Following Smith, Inglehart and others, what has emerged is a dominant cultural hegemony which has a range of characteristics, but the most pertinent for the discussion here is the loss of the transcendent imperative and the subsequent decline in the knowledge of, and identification with, narratives associated with once-dominant religious communities. An understanding of diversity in the current cultural milieu in Australia needs to consider this hegemony as expressed in a commonality of beliefs, values and practices regardless of expressed affiliation, religious or not. Understanding diversity in this framework establishes a basis for better considering what a dialogical approach to religious education would involve. A dialogical approach to religious education is taken as a settled norm and not one that is heavily contested. A number of the implications of the proposed understanding of diversity for religious education are given. These include following a Vygotskian scaffolded approach to pedagogy and seeing an important place for the articulation of the home religious tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The much documented sociological and cultural developments which offered significant challenges to Catholic education in recent decades have played no small part in changing the composition of the Catholic teaching force. A weakening of religious practices and an increase in more personalised understandings of spirituality are now especially prominent in the younger generations of Catholics. As this is the pool from which Catholic teachers of the future will come, it is vital to look afresh at the way we offer support and faith formation. More formal Catholic teacher education processes have to address these challenges by making a commitment to thorough theological education in a range of institutions which are both academically rigorous and pastorally supportive.

Students in Catholic schools make up a significant sub group of the Australian population. As such, studies of this group provide valuable information about the religious beliefs and practices of some Australian youth. Many students in Catholic schools express traditional religious views and have relatively high levels of religious behaviours. Over time these levels diminish but in a fashion that invites careful analysis and comparison with standard theories of secularisation. An important finding suggests that student responses are indicative of a loosening of religious affiliation rather than a complete disengagement. These results suggest a more nuanced view of students in Catholic school be adopted with implication for the conduct of Catholic schools in secular cultural contexts.

This paper seeks to gain a better understanding of religious education coordinators (RECs) in contemporary Catholic schools. This is done by using life history narratives to explore how participants came to be RECs. This study takes place in a wider cultural context that sees strong religious commitment, manifested by taking leadership positions in Catholic schools, as becoming increasing contested.

Religious education (RE) in Catholic high schools in Australia and Canada is compared by examining some of the underlying structural factors that shape the delivery of RE. It is argued that in Canadian Catholic schools RE is diminished by three factors that distinguish it from the Australian experience. These are: the level and history of government funding which in turn leads to a relative lack of autonomy of Catholic schools to control their own RE curriculum; external political and social influences on the RE curriculum which is apparent in the popular election of Catholic school trustees; and most decisively, the absence of strong, ongoing bureaucratic support of RE.

There are a range of communities within the Anglican communion that seek to maintain a more orthodox or Catholic emphasis. One of these is the Traditional Anglican Communion. In 2009 the Vatican announced a special accommodation to allow these Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church and to retain key aspects of their Anglican usage and practice. As such many of these communities have sought to formalise their links with Rome. At this important historical juncture this study utilises a qualitative narrative approach to explore the life histories of members of a small community of Canadian Traditional Anglicans. It explores in detail the salient beliefs of these individuals and as such contributes to the growing discourse on the importance of beliefs in the sociology of religion.

In 2008 Quebec introduced a new ethics and religious culture course. This marks a significant development in Canadian education as the mandated curriculum is intended for use in publically funded secular schools. In the past such courses have been in the domain of denominational schools. This new approach is examined in the context of the profound changes in Quebec society in recent years, typified by the sudden decline in the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. An overview of the curriculum is given, noting its basis as a particular type of phenomenological approach to the study of ethics and religion. The curriculum is analyzed against the theoretical perspectives developed by Moore and Wright. A number of issues on the scope of the study, the significant demands it places on students and teachers, and how it critically engages with religious truth claims are examined. (Contains 4 footnotes.)

This paper proposes a new model for Catholic educational institutions in secular culture. This model is premised on the reality that secular cultures place considerable challenges before religiously-affiliated colleges and universities. Following Hunter's concept of cultural change, this paper proposes that the best way for religious institutions to both flourish and to positively influence culture is by offering a strong, coherent, alternative, described here as a model of faithful presence. This approach recognizes that the key to cultural change is usually not a well-supported grassroots or popular movement, but rather the development of strategic social structures which are able to articulate and carry forward a distinctive program in a diverse ideological marketplace. This strategy is especially appropriate in dominant secular cultures that place great pressure on religiously-affiliated colleges and universities to assimilate at a time when many, due to the debilitating impact of secular contagions, have weak religious identity. By stressing "faithful presence" rather than relevance, Catholic colleges and universities have the potential to be transformative cultural agents.

A key concept in contemporary Catholic educational discourse makes a distinction between religious education and catechesis. This distinction is based on the assumptions of faith commitment on the part of catechesis and the focus on cognitive outcomes on the part of religious education. Many official documents on Canadian Catholic school education, however, reflect an understanding that closely associated catechesis with religious education or fail to sufficiently distinguish between the two. The article argues that changes in contemporary culture make catechetical models of religious education problematic and that Catholic schools in Canada would be well served by an approach that emphasizes the educational goals of religious education. This is not to say that catechesis has no place in religious education but this is best achieved by making use of cognitive and effective outcomes in lesson planning and realizing that the school as a whole has many opportunities to foster catechesis.

In three Canadian provinces Catholic schools receive full government funding. This funding is premised on Catholic schools providing a distinctive educational environment based on the religious beliefs and practices of, among others, the teachers who work in these schools. A variety of official documents underline this notion of teachers playing an irreplaceable role in animating the religious dimension of Catholic schools. Contemporary culture, marked by a rise in a more secular and personal religious affiliation, places significant challenges before schools. These are especially pertinent when coupled with a generational shift in the staffing of Catholic schools. Some of these challenges include the need for schools to find a critical mass of suitably committed teachers and the need to reconceptualise the catechetical intent of schools and how teachers in schools are supported. (Contains 4 notes.)

Being highly active within a religious tradition has often been associated with an increased sense of well-being. In contemporary culture in much of the Western world, however, the level of engagement of young people, especially, within many religious traditions is declining. This paper will examine a number of factors associated with nurturing high levels of religious engagement and commitment. The overriding framework for this discussion is that if individuals see religious belief and practice as plausible, then they are more likely to become committed to them. No single factor is more important in encouraging and sustaining high levels of religious commitment than the support of a social network or community that upholds such plausibility. Such a community provides a strong affective experience, serves as a place for questioning, exposes youth to mentors, and establishes boundaries.