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…

This work focused on increasing Year 3 students' use of critical thinking and taking the "second-person perspective" (2ndPP) when interpreting and resolving life issues. Previous research indicated the Personal Viewpoints Pedagogy (PVP) elicited social thinking that exhibited strong perspective-taking and precursors to critical thinking…

A recontextualising approach in religious education has been adopted in the newly revised religious education curricula of the four dioceses in Victoria: the dioceses of Melbourne, Ballarat, Sandhurst and Sale. This approach requires a radical change to the teacher's role from knowledge transmission to one which supports students to grapple with…

Teacher self-efficacy is understood as a teacher's belief in his or her ability to successfully accomplish a specific teaching task in a particular context. Studies have been undertaken to determine preservice teachers' self-efficacy in particular curriculum areas, but none have been completed that relate to the teaching of Religious Education…

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…

The mandated early childhood framework in Australia requires educators working in early childhood services to attend to children's spirituality. Also, one of the five outcomes in this framework tasks educators with promoting children's connectedness with and contribution to the world, including natural environments. In this paper I present…

This study is located in a lesser-known educational context and investigates aspects of migration, religion and multilingualism. Focusing on the discourse of second-generation adolescent migrants in a Tamil Hindu temple school in urban Australia, I discuss how flexible language practices manifest in this migrant faith setting. I argue that the use…

Australian students' perception of a trial Religious Education (RE) programme is the focus of this paper. Students (N = 1478) from 37 schools, primary and secondary, completed an online survey that included six Likert style items that aligned with six RE development principles that guided the development of the trial. Curriculum development was…

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…

Regardless of what method is chosen for formal religious education, the fundamental principle of all catechetical activity in the Catholic Church is fidelity to the Word of God and the concrete needs of the faithful. This article will argue, however, that fidelity to the Word of God falls short of the requirements of the Catholic Church in the…

Agentic orientation, critical thinking (CrT) and taking the fourth-person perspective (4PP) are described as teachable attainments. A Personal Viewpoints (PVs) Biblical Studies curriculum challenged Year 7 students to resolve socially problematic situations through group discussion and perspective-taking. A life-issue scenario was used to pre- and…

Philip Phenix's (1964) book "Realms of meaning: A philosophy of the curriculum for general education" started the ever growing movement concerned with how school education might help young people in their search for meaning, purpose and values in times of rapid cultural change. Today, in globalised, digital, secularised culture, the…

This article reports on students' and faculty members' experience of their pluralistic Jewish day school's educational mission to nurture students' Jewish identity exploration within a broader social and cultural world. It articulates these stakeholders' perceptions of the ways teaching and learning of Jewish values, customs, and knowledge are…

The purpose of this paper was to explore bilingual educators' perceptions of their strategies to maintain their cultural and religious identities within a multicultural society. This multiple case studies of three institutions employed semi-structured interviews and documents. The research question guides this study: What are strategies that have…

This paper originates from an earlier comparative study of professional learning in a Christian, a Jewish, and a Muslim Australian independent school, in which teachers and school leaders were asked to engage in critical reflection as to the school's distinctive characteristics. The paper recognizes the tension that may arise in all schools from…