Staff in Special Schools are seldom the focus of research, yet work with a student group some might consider demanding and stressful. Staff who work in Catholic special Schools are under-represented in the academic literature. The motivation and efficacy of Special School staff were studies in 7 Catholic Special Schools. These staff were observed…

Maintaining a distinctive Catholic identity is a challenge for Catholic schools today. Religious identity must be nurtured and it must be contextualized for the 21st century. This paper suggests marks of contemporary Catholic character. Also, it proposes looking at religious identity through the lens of student experience and graduate outcomes.…

The most pressing challenges facing American Catholic educational leaders today are funding, Catholic identity, and leadership. Funding is the most pressing issue and it involves recruiting and retaining teachers, balancing affordability with quality, and justifying the worth of Catholic schools. Catholic identity issues include reconciling the…

Archbishop Mar Ivanios (1882-1953) was a visionary and his educational vision has relevance for today. He emancipated the socially marginalized and disenfranchised people of his time through his educational vision and practice. This article is the story of a small community of Christians and their leader who made a difference in their society.…

The phenomenon of the "middle-years dip" in mathematics engagement and achievement has been a cause of concern for over a decade. This paper presents an example of one upper-primary classroom identified as having higher than average levels of student engagement, with the purpose of documenting specific teaching strategies that align with…

This paper examines primary school-aged children's lived experiences of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. NAPLAN emulates the neoliberal accountability agendas of English and US education systems, with results published on the My School website. Research on the impact of NAPLAN to date has focused predominantly…

Standardised testing has received a lot of political and public attention recently in Australia. This paper describes the sense-making of Year 3 students as they interpret items from the 2008 NAPLAN. Results show that student performance changed dramatically when the terminology of an item was modified and subsequently were not a true indication…

As part of a longitudinal case study on engagement in middle years mathematics, 20 students attending their first year of secondary school in Western Sydney were asked to provide views on their experiences of the transition to secondary school in relation to mathematics teaching and learning. Differences in teacher-student relationships caused the…

This investigation examined the course experiences of Bachelor of Education Primary students across each year of the course. The aims of the study were to identify gaps in what we know about our students; to identify relevant domains in student experiences and to assist with course improvements. A reflective inquiry paradigm was adopted for…

The Catholic Church has a responsibility to create an environment in which the practice of the faith makes sense to Hispanics, and enables their religious vitality to express itself within the Church of the United States. Over the next one hundred years the Catholic population of the United States will be predominantly Hispanic. The Church and its…

Proceedings of a symposium held at the University of Notre Dame, January 11-13, 1976 are presented. Subjects of discussion included: partoral issues for the church today; Christian scholars and the work of the church; the role of a Catholic university or college in advancing evangelization in the American context; relation between the American…

This paper examines research conducted on Catholic school administrators. The basic questions used to identify and categorize data were: (1) Who are the researchers and from what types of universities do they come? (2) What types of Catholic school administrators are studies? (3) How are these administrators studied? and (4) What is the focus of…

Protestant and Catholic missionary organizations contributed to the development of American schooling. On the Protestant side, the American Home Missionary Society and the American Sunday School Union provided missionaries who frequently became active in school activities. More importantly, these agencies, typical of the evangelical alliance of…

This paper assesses religion teaching as a profession in light of selected characteristics that scholars agree are common to all professions. Evidence was drawn primarily from church documents and survey data from "The Next Generation: A Study of Catholic High School Religion Teachers." The findings indicate that religion teaching meets two of the…

Catholic education is a ministry of the Catholic Church and a primary means of evangelization. The ministry of development, an integral part of Catholic education, is basically one of developing people and helping them to grow. The chief administrator is pivotal in this ministry and is responsible for quality Catholic education, sound business…