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…

This article attempts to show an adolescent boy's continuing process of self-realisation through his disillusionment with the bleak reality of Dublin in the early twentieth century in the short story "Araby" by James Joyce. Brought up in the drab and deadening surroundings with his uncle and aunt in conservative Catholic cultures, the…

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…

The Scientific and Educational Department of the Jesuit Fathers in Khyriv (Zaklad Naukowo-Wychowawczy OO. Jezuitów w Chyrowie) existed for 53 years (1886-1939). Over 6,000 students studied in this elite male school. The alumni of the secondary school belonged to the elite of Polish society. There were among them people from different walks of…

This article explores the role of state-funded Catholic schools in debates about the causes and manifestations of sectarianism in Scotland. It suggests that debates between proponents and opponents of state-funded Catholic schools (and indeed faith schools more generally) have been largely aspatial, focusing on the teaching ethos within…

This reflective-narrative essay ponders and explains effective strategies employed by the author in his own second language classroom. He cultivated the skills, talents, and ideas of his own students by blending various strategies and methods that clearly define the standards and meet the demands of modern literature education. All situations and…

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…

This paper seeks to explain why the policy history of school funding in regard to Australian Catholic Education looks and sounds the way it does today through the production of a genealogy of the subject. The questions addressed are, first, why has the funding of Catholic schools in Australia become an occluded historical site since the 1970s,…

In this paper we respond to Staver's article (this issue) on an attempt to resolve the discord between science and religion. Most specifically, we comment on Staver's downplaying of difference between Catholics and Protestants in order to focus on the religion-science question. It is our experience that to be born into one or other of these…

The kindergarten was, in all countries but Germany, a foreign import. The most familiar aspect of its diffusion to American scholars is the spread of Froebel's teachings into England and the United States by emigrants who had left the German Confederation after the failure of the revolutions of 1848-49. Familiar as well are the propaganda efforts…

Debate in the Catholic community in Australia often centres on how the Catholic school best expresses its Catholic identity. Is it in closing its doors to all but Catholic families or does Catholic identity require an openness to all Christians, those of other religions and those of no religion? This paper argues that if the school is to be truly…

The decline of religious observance in Irish society has coincided with the strengthening of the exclusionary prerogatives of state-funded denominational schools. The implementation of a "Catholics first" policy in many schools, as underpinned by legislation, suggests that increasing religious diversity in the State has led to an…

This paper is a reflection upon the research findings of Rebecca Allen and Anne West in relation to religious schools in London. While welcoming this contribution to the systematic study of faith schools (a neglected area of empirical inquiry), the paper argues that the use of "religious schools" as a unitary category is problematic for…

Although well documented from a British perspective, empirical research exploring the spiritual lives of primary school children in the Australian context is a field in which scholarship is beginning to emerge. This article reports on one particular finding which emerged from an Australian study seeking to identify some characteristics of…

Discusses changes in Catholic religious education since the second Vatican Council. Addresses the contribution of classroom instruction to young people's religious education and identifies some aspects of shared praxis and appropriation of the faith tradition. States that improvement of religious education requires an upgrading of its role in the…