A report timed to coincide with the U.S. visit of Pope Benedict XVI highlights what it calls the "crisis" of a steadily shrinking pool of urban Catholic schools and outlines measures--some of which are already being tested on a limited scale--to arrest and possibly reverse the trend. Since 1990, more than 1,300 Roman Catholic schools in the United…

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…

This is the second in a series of four papers which seeks to articulate theologically and practically the consequences of the ecclesial identity of the Catholic school. The series is based on the principle that the "marks" of the Church--one, holy, catholic, and apostolic--are also marks of the Catholic school, since the Catholic school is within…

The impact of faith schools on the performance and progress of their pupils has been studied using data from the National Pupil Database (NPD). The value-added analysis was carried out using multilevel modelling, controlling for prior attainment as well as a range of background variables, including ethnicity, sex, eligibility for free school meals…

Although well documented from a British perspective, empirical research exploring the spiritual lives of primary school children in the Australian context is a field in which scholarship is beginning to emerge. This article reports on one particular finding which emerged from an Australian study seeking to identify some characteristics of…

The article offers a case study of the ways in which a Catholic primary school located in the centre of a large South-Asian community in Leicester, UK, responded to the religious and ethnic diversity of its surroundings. The school, Our Saviour's, engaged in shared activities with a neighbouring school which had a majority intake of Hindu, Muslim…

The struggle to provide primary education for the Catholic poor in England and Wales dominated the agenda of English Catholic leaders in the last half of the nineteenth century. This effort occurred within the larger framework of a national educational revolution that slowly pushed the government into providing public education for the first time.…

Three questions are addressed here. First, why should theologians promote inter-connectedness in the Christian university? Interconnectedness is here understood as the promotion of dialogue between subject areas. Second, why is the promotion of interconnectedness problematical? Third, how might we conceive of this being done, in particular with…

Ireland is in the grip of a postmodern cultural deconstruction on many levels. The traditional "grand narratives" are increasingly viewed with suspicion and disenchantment as Ireland struggles to understand its evolving identity. There is a growing need for comprehensive interdisciplinary research that will facilitate teaching and…

In taking its theoretical impetus from hermeneutic phenomenology, the qualitative research reported in this paper aimed to identify characteristics of children's spirituality in Australian Catholic primary schools. The videotaped life expressions of two groups of six children in each of three Australian Catholic primary schools formed the texts of…

This paper describes a partnership between an alliance of nine urban Catholic schools and an urban university in San Francisco, California. The development of the partnership is described in part, but the details of the actual collaboration and involvement of university faculty with school leaders and teachers are the central foci. This…

The phenomenon of Catholic Studies cannot adequately be understood without a prior consideration of certain fundamental tensions that mark modern higher education as a whole. These broader tensions characterize Catholic universities in specific and important ways. At the University of St. Thomas, Catholic Studies has proven to be a remarkably…

While identity has long been a prominent focus of education, and religious education, in Europe and Britain, little explicit attention has been given to it in Australia, even though its importance as an educational goal is implied. This paper reports on a project concerned with "education in identity" which attempted to address this…

The classroom teacher plays a pivotal role in any formal educational environment. More specifically, how this individual is involved and how s/he structures activities and discussions about a topic depends on the preferred learning style, personal demeanor, and educational philosophy of the teacher. For teachers that employ service-learning…

Survey data provided by 361 headteachers regarding religious education provision at Key Stages one and two within schools in Wales are modelled to distinguish between three main approaches to religious education, characterised as concerned with spiritual development, world religions, and Christian nurture. No differences in emphasis on these three…