The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia has exposed social fault-lines and inequities not often recognised in such an affluent country. This study explores the relevance of Bible stories about plagues and disasters for the work of preachers, teachers, and pastoral practitioners who were independent voluntary contributors to this study.…

The question of 'native' education became urgent in interwar Britain in the context of imperial expansion in Africa. Simultaneously, debates concerning black education were central to a global pan-African nationalist movement demanding black rights and liberation. In this context, education became a site of competing ideas regarding black…

This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on the rationale and purpose of religious education (RE) in Catholic schools. RE in Australian Catholic schools has always been a feature of the curriculum and the expectation is that all students take part in this. Several salient features of contemporary culture that impact on faith-based schools…

The contrast between student-centred and knowledge-centred teaching is explored through a qualitative case study exploration of the pedagogies (Bruner's 'folk pedagogies') of six teachers of Jewish studies. These teachers, based in orthodox Jewish schools in the UK and Australia, discussed their roles as teachers in the context of their…

School chaplaincy in Australia is highly contentious. The federal government funds a chaplaincy programme in Australia's secular public schools, which, combined with the declining influence of institutional Christianity, places Christian chaplains at the nexus of debates on the public role of religion. Yet little is known about how these chaplains…

The belief that education systems across Australia can and should be standardised through the application of scientific administration 'from above' dominated education policy at both a national and state level between 1999 and 2015. During that period the teaching of religion for Anglicans in Anglican schools was influenced by State and…

This book examines and reports the findings regarding the level of satisfaction by students, teachers and parents with an innovative senior secondary Religious Education curriculum 'Religion, Meaning and Life' (RML). The stimulus for RML is found in the changing profile of students within faith-based schools and the motivation of school…

Religious education leaders promote the religious identity of the school as well as foster a sense of connectedness through building school community. However, these leaders who play a key role in this area are at times the ones who feel the least connected to the school community and are more likely than other leaders to resign from the position…

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…

This paper argues that Aboriginal children's engagement with education in the central Australian region of the Northern Territory in the mid-twentieth century can be understood as strategic engagements with formal western education systems and assimilation policies. It addresses a methodological problem stemming from a project that focuses on the…

The planned integration of Catholic social teaching (CST) across the curriculum was the primary focus of the 'Identity and Curriculum in Catholic Education' (2013-2018) initiative in Catholic schools in the state of Queensland. Initial reconnaissance involved a survey of teachers' views regarding the identity, purposes and characteristics of…

This case study explores the perceptions of students regarding their engagement in interreligious learning and teaching in one Australian Catholic Primary School. The study probes the learners' understandings of what interreligious learning and teaching looks like in their context and how it might relate to their understandings of their evolving…

As an effective tool used within the evocative method of phenomenological inquiry, this article details the use of the written anecdotes of Godly Play storytellers in Australia to understand children as a means of grace. The phenomenological framework out of which the evocative method emanates is described, and four examples from the author's…

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…

Research on teacher formation emphasises the need for teachers in Catholic schools to be involved in ongoing, purposeful, professional and spiritual formation (Franchi and Rymarz 2017). Contextually, Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) requires teachers of Religious Education (RE) in Catholic schools to participate in ongoing professional…