Since the enactment of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act in New Zealand in 1975, leadership in Catholic schools has become increasingly complex. Under the legislation Catholic schools are required to develop and maintain their "Special Character." The Director of Religious Studies (DRS) has become the position with a key…

This article describes the Catholic School Principal Support Program (CSPSP), a mentoring program for first and second-year Catholic school principals in a large urban diocese, and identifies key challenges, impacts and influences on decision-making. Ten school leaders describe their work and provide the lens by which they reflect on their role as…

Catholic schools in the United States have been in a serious state of decline, with the closing of a rising number of Catholic elementary and secondary schools, a major drop in student enrolments, and a real shortage of clergy and religious brothers and sisters to work in these schools. The purpose of this research article is to analyse how this…

Adolescents are bombarded during most of their waking hours by images on various screens: computer, television, and film. As so-called digital natives, they are aware that these images are manufactured and manipulated to elicit certain responses. But while they acknowledge the artificiality of those images, they allow the same mediated messages…

The current study examined how teacher beliefs about the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching (CST)--dignity of the human person, seeking the common good, and preferential option for the poor and vulnerable--affected self-described responses to student behavior problems. In-depth interviews with seven secondary Catholic school teachers were analyzed…

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…

This article sketches the development of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA. It does so with broad strokes, which paint a picture of the program of the Center within the context of ecclesial and papal activities and documents. The article describes how the Center entered into dialogue with…

This paper observes that an ironic tension occurs in the discussion of controversial issues in some Catholic schools. One technique that teachers use in response to student disagreement with the official Church view on a controversial issue like contraception, homosexuality, or female ordination is to present Church teaching but then suggest that…

Following 9/11 and the growth of religiously legitimated violence in Islamic countries, the focus of public discussion moved to imams and teachers of religion as actors supporting Muslim isolation and the lack of willingness to integrate--imams became central figures in the debate on Islam. With great enthusiasm, politicians discovered them to be…

This article describes a research project that examined the impact of a Lasallian mission formation program on program participants and their institutions. The study found that the program had a powerful impact on the participants personally, and 71% became newly involved or recommitted to social justice initiatives upon returning from the…

Times of war are times of crisis for theologians and educators. This article examines how Msgr. George Johnson, the vice president of the Religious Education Association and the most prominent Catholic educator in the 1930s and 1940s, dealt with the ethical and educational issues surrounding U.S. involvement in the Second World War. It argues that…

De La Salle Brothers are Christian educators operating in more than 80 countries, including Kenya. The purpose of this study was to find if the ideals of Lasallian education are being realized in the 21st century in Kenya and to establish whether the findings concur with the Lasallian philosophy of education. The study was conducted at St. Paul's…

Catholic schoolteachers face the pedagogical dilemma between remaining faithful to the doctrinal requirements of Catholic Church teaching while also respecting their professional responsibility to promote autonomous, critical thinking and consider the pastoral needs of their students. Although in practice many Catholic educators achieve a…

The history of the Catholic Church and its schools in the United States is primarily a history of bishops' and priests' actions. Chapter 1 describes this history in terms of Catholic schools: (1) prior to the Constitutional convention; (2) during controversial periods from 1885-1917; (3) in U.S. society from 1918-1964; and (4) relationships to…

The development of the National Catechetical Director for Catholics of the United States presents a challenge to Catholic teachers and catechists to make the concept of total religious education a reality. Its intent was to make the universal catechetical principles of the General Catechetical Directory (A Roman document) more specific and…