This article will focus on the perennial impact of the Salesian education vision in in Salesian schools in the UK. Following an introduction outlining the history of the Salesian presence in the UK, the Salesian education vision will be explored, focused on its classical characteristics, reason, religion and loving kindness. The decline in the…

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…

"New Thinking, New Scholarship and New Research in Catholic Education" gives a forum to many established and leading scholars to review and critically appraise the research contribution of Gerald Grace to Catholic education. The book demonstrates the way in which the field of Catholic Education Studies has developed under the influence…

This paper draws on the findings of a small-scale research study based on interviews with twenty serving Catholic headteachers from the primary and secondary phases and from the maintained and independent sectors. The focus of the study was to explore the concept of 'spiritual capital' among the headteachers and to evaluate the impact of two major…

There has been a rise in claims of LGBTI youth in schools generally across the UK with a surge in young people self-identifying. This is a 'theme' or 'matter' or 'question' that has been insufficiently ventilated in relation to the Catholic school. It is shrouded in inhibition, confusion, evasion or fear. Burying our heads in the sand is not…

Covid-19 and the subsequent worldwide lockdowns have had a major impact on families and school education. The lockdowns have highlighted and exacerbated the disadvantages experienced by those children who suffer from child poverty. This article focuses on food insecurity and the digital divide, or digital exclusion, and argues that these have…

This article examines why liberation theology needs to be a core resource in religious education settings, especially in Catholic secondary schools. It will first touch on key tenets of liberation theology and the reasons why it was silenced and underused. It will then analyse poverty in the Jewish tradition as an interfaith resource and…

The Good Friday Agreement (1998) between the UK and Irish governments, and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, heralded a significant step forward in securing peace and stability for this troubled region of the British Isles. From the new-found stability, the previous fits and starts of education reform were replaced by a…

This article argues that contemporary conceptual frameworks for understanding religion may not be adequate for the arena of religion and school choice. Successive published research suggests that people are choosing religious schools for reasons other than religion. But what if the reasons why people might be religious and their motivation for…

This article is an attempt to highlight some main themes in the "International Handbook of Jewish Education", which may resonate with themes that are pre-occupying Catholic educators, and which may help Catholic educators understand some of the pressing issues and concerns of Jewish educators and Jewish education. Its intention is to…

The National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education were organised by the National Association for Pastoral Care in Education (NAPCE) for the first time in 2020. The purpose was to give work in pastoral care the recognition that it deserves. A respected group of judges had the difficult task of deciding who the winners would be in each category,…

This literature review sketches a landscape of scholarly debates about the curriculum in Catholic primary and secondary schools in the United States and the United Kingdom since 1993. This landscape has three main characteristics. First, scholarly debates about the curriculum in Catholic schools have been few, particularly empirically based…

After 2005, approximately two million Poles emigrated, choosing mostly Britain as their destination. Quantitative reports paint a picture of the typical Polish immigrant as a person between the ages of 31-39, who, with a vocational (or equivalent) education, is active on the labor market. This paper reports on a qualitative study of six typical…

This article reviews recent research looking at the socio-economic profile of pupils at faith schools and the contribution religiously selective admission arrangements make. It finds that selection by faith leads to greater social segregation and is open to manipulation. It urges that such selection should end, making the state-funded school…

This article examines an action research project on inter-faith dialogue within the sensitive context of Catholic pupils being taught Catholic religious education in state-funded secondary schools. Twenty pupils in S3 and S4 (Year 10 and Year 11) participated in a series of three paired conversations that focused primarily on science and religion,…