Since the inception of Catholic schools within the United States, Catholic educational leaders have faced significant challenges yielding real threats to the long-term viability of the institution. Repeatedly, Catholic school leaders have had to pivot in response to challenges and adapt their behaviors and leadership style to avoid significant…

Since the inception of Catholic schools within the United States, Catholic educational leaders have faced significant challenges yielding real threats to the long-term viability of the institution. Repeatedly, Catholic school leaders have had to pivot in response to challenges and adapt their behaviors and leadership style to avoid significant…

All recent catechetical documents of the Catholic Church have in some way stressed the need to focus on the formation of adults. Lay adults certainly can be trained to be excellent catechists of other adults, but the available training usually groups together catechists for all age groups and provides little specific help to those preparing for…

This qualitative study explores how five Jesuit universities in the United States maintain their mission and identity when partnering with online program managers (OPMs) to develop and support online degree programs. Focusing on the history of online learning and Ignatian spirituality and pedagogy, and using cultural reproduction theory as a lens,…

Colombia has been immersed in wars and violence for many years; some scholars say that the country has been in conflict since 1962. The reality is that the country began its development with multiple wars and power struggles, the latter incited by political parties. In the midst of multiple conflicts, religion has played an important role in the…

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. was elected the 28th superior general of the Society of Jesus in 1965 and served in that role until 1983. As superior general, Arrupe sought to shape the Jesuits in the spirit of the vision of Vatican II, as well as the original charism of the founder of the Jesuit, St. Ignatius. The questions this dissertation seeks to…

In this hermeneutics of leadership study, my purpose was to discover and understand the phenomena of Catholic and Jesuit university presidential leadership through the lenses of seven Jesuit university leaders' emeriti and Father Theodore Hesburgh. Beyond the general backdrop of higher education in America, a systematic overview of organizational…

This qualitative, multisite case study used Dee Fink's taxonomy of significant learning as a lens through which to examine the curricular structure, academic practices, and graduate outcomes for honors programs at Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. Special attention was given to the distinctive quality of Ignatian pedagogy and…

This study explores how religious education, and in particular transformative teaching and learning can provide an opportunity to re-ground authority in the Roman Catholic Church. The research presents an educational response to the legitimation crisis. It seeks to resolve the organization problem as typified in the pyramidic-hierarchical pattern…

School choice is a research topic that is often associated with public funds supporting educational alternatives. While much of the school choice research literature focuses on this category, additional types of school choice merit examination. This study examines how Catholic parents chose high schools for their children within the geographic…

Over the past 45 years, there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of religious and priests working in Catholic schools in the United States. Currently, 96% of all elementary and secondary faculties are comprised of lay men and women (McDonald, 2010). This same phenomenon can be found in Marianist-sponsored secondary schools in the United…

With declining numbers of priests and religious sisters and brothers, principals and other Catholic school leaders need assistance in maintaining the Catholic identity and mission-related activities of their schools. One answer to the shortages of ordained priests has been employing lay campus ministers to help students in developing their faith…

Church documents recognize that the Catholic teacher's faith, mediated through a teacher's commitment, is one of the crucial factors that guarantees the success of the Catholic school (Congregation for Catholic Education, 1977, 1982, 2007). A number of researchers support this view with their findings (Ciriello, 1987; Tarr, 1992; Tiernan, 2000).…

This research explores the feasibility for a university in Bangladesh under Catholic sponsorship. The study is designed to help the leaders of the Catholic community make an informed decision for its future educational ministry. The findings indicate that the Catholic community is enthusiastic about it, feels the need for it, but may not have the…

The Catholic Church, in "The Application of Ex corde Ecclesiae for the United States," has appealed to its affiliated colleges and universities to renew their institutional missions. This includes a responsibility to cultivate and support the spiritual development of their students. In a recent national study of student spirituality, 80% of…