An examination of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) informs the substance and manner of educator preparation, grounding a College of Education in the mission of the University. A CIT-formed educator is capable of critically interacting with both harmonious and dissonant contemporary movements in K-12 education to produce judgments of…

As higher education emerges from COVID-19 restrictions, the post-pandemic transitional moment provides Catholic institutions the opportunity to reconsider their reliance on adjuncts in core curricula. As tenure-track positions decline nationwide and universities increasingly source out coursework to temporary or part-time adjuncts and other…

Catholic elementary and secondary schools across the country recently adopted standards reflective of the Common Core State Standards to align instruction with state and national guidelines requiring the revision of curriculum and the adjustment of instruction to meet the new standards from an ideological model. This article describes a…

Throughout the twentieth century, Catholic higher education in the United States modelled its institutional structures and intellectual life on the best standards and practices of the secular academy. The question for Catholic higher education became: How can we remain distinctively Catholic while engaging in these projects? Yet the situation…

Over the past four decades, the United States has witnessed the rise of an economy of growing inequality and exploitation, and this economic transformation has entangled Catholic institutions of higher education in what Pope Francis has called "an economy of exclusion and inequality." In recent years, some institutions have taken steps…

For many American Catholic universities, mission and identity are shaped by the charism and charismatic traditions of the founding religious congregations. But the use of this language raises several questions in the face of changing dynamics in higher education, the church, and society. Is the language of Lasallian, Vincentian, Dominican, or…

The 1960s saw rapid decentralization of authority in Catholic higher education as virtually all U.S. universities legally separated from the Church. This has raised questions about how to facilitate long-term cooperation between Catholic universities and the Church that no longer formally owns them. Around the same time, world governments were…

The Land O' Lakes Statement set the stage for dramatic changes in the life of Catholic colleges and universities. Not least among these changes was the introduction of primarily lay-led boards of trustees. In the 50 years since the statement's publication, these institutions have faced dwindling numbers within their sponsoring religious orders, as…

Catholic colleges and universities face significant challenges in the present context of American higher education. Yet, there are opportunities to be found in the midst of this crisis when one carefully examines the intersections between the Catholic mission and objectives of an institution and current culture and academia. A return to the…

The last two decades have witnessed the emergence of privately owned higher education institutions in Nigeria, including those owned by religious bodies and even by their individual members. One is led to ask, why this sudden development? An attempt to respond to this question informs the underlying interest for this paper, namely, to explore the…

This paper (1) explores the reasons why philosophy was accorded a special role in Catholic higher education in the United States in the decades prior to Vatican II; (2) explains why many of those reasons are now widely seen as attenuated or obsolete; (3) briefly discusses recent changes to the environment of Catholic higher education that have led…

The core curriculum is essential for the flourishing of a Catholic college or university, as it is one of the most visible ways in which a distinctive vision becomes incarnate. Catholic colleges tend to offer some mission-centered majors and minors, but the core is what is present for all students. The core is not only significant, but also…

In 1965, the Jesuit-run Central American University (UCA) was launched in El Salvador as the wealthy family's educational alternative to the increasingly leftist National University. But within a decade, the UCA would shift its focus to the inequalities and injustice experienced by the country's popular majorities and to its own role as society's…

Catholic colleges and universities traditionally are grounded in liberal arts education, yet many Catholic institutions also educate future scientists and engineers. We propose that a distinctively Catholic science and engineering education should include an emphasis on Catholic concepts of the common good and social justice, liberal arts…

Reviewing and revising core curricula at Catholic colleges and universities is often fraught, primarily because the core symbolizes so centrally these institutions' identities. Situating core revision as one dimension of a larger shared task in which all Catholic institutions are engaged today-living into and articulating the meaning of being…