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…

This paper examines the religiosity, sexuality, and attitudes towards same-sex relationships among young people who were students at religiously affiliated schools in Australia and the staff who work in these schools, drawing on a national representative survey. It demonstrates that students are increasingly nonreligious, and accepting of…

While there is growing international interest in meditation and mindfulness initiatives in schools, little research has focused on exploring the impact of such practices on students' spirituality. This paper reports data from a mixed method study involving primary school classes engaged in the regular practice of Christian meditation between Years…

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…

Drawing on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey (NCLS), this study was designed to assess peer and parental influence on frequency of church attendance, attitude toward church, and attitude toward Christianity among a sample of 6256 young churchgoers between the ages of eight and 14 years, attending a range of denominations,…

Australia is a culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse country, however, learning about the religious dimensions of this superdiversity is inadequately reflected in the national school curriculum, notwithstanding recent attempts to address this at the state level in Victoria. Debates regarding the role of religion in school have raged…

In 2001, more than 1.2 million worshipers in over 12,000 congregations in four countries participated in the International Congregational Life Survey (ICLS). The ICLS was an expansion and revision of previous surveys conducted in Australia (the National Church Life Survey) to include congregations and worshipers in New Zealand, England and the…

Following previous work on the spiritual health of secondary students, the author wondered if it was possible to develop a spiritual health measure for younger children. Taking Fisher's model of spiritual health as the basis, items were developed to reflect relationships with self, with others, with the environment and with a god. The children's…