The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia has exposed social fault-lines and inequities not often recognised in such an affluent country. This study explores the relevance of Bible stories about plagues and disasters for the work of preachers, teachers, and pastoral practitioners who were independent voluntary contributors to this study.…

Middle leaders play a central role in the Christian leadership of their school. This research explores how nine middle leaders in three distinct Anglican Schools in Australia enact their roles, and the conditions that influence faith expression within their schools. Findings demonstrate that middle leaders shape and are shaped by school culture…

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…

The belief that education systems across Australia can and should be standardised through the application of scientific administration 'from above' dominated education policy at both a national and state level between 1999 and 2015. During that period the teaching of religion for Anglicans in Anglican schools was influenced by State and…

This book examines and reports the findings regarding the level of satisfaction by students, teachers and parents with an innovative senior secondary Religious Education curriculum 'Religion, Meaning and Life' (RML). The stimulus for RML is found in the changing profile of students within faith-based schools and the motivation of school…

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…

This paper argues for the need to better understand the role of mothers and schooling in shaping modern conservative cultural politics. Arguing that 1970s-1980s was a critical period for anti-progressive politics surrounding schooling, the paper examines the activism of Australian Christian morals campaigner Rona Joyner. Joyner's successful…

As an effective tool used within the evocative method of phenomenological inquiry, this article details the use of the written anecdotes of Godly Play storytellers in Australia to understand children as a means of grace. The phenomenological framework out of which the evocative method emanates is described, and four examples from the author's…

The inclusion of thinking skills in Religious Education as an intentional pedagogical emphasis encourages depth of understanding as students explore theological concepts in the curriculum. The aim of this research was to investigate the ways in which teachers of Years 4-6 incorporate a pedagogy of thinking skills into Christian Studies lessons,…

A recent global reconnaissance of Christian higher education found a number of key themes that shaped current developments, such as the pressing challenges of secularization and nationalization but also the advantages of privatization and massification. This article provides an update to this older analysis by taking a birds-eye view of trends…

This article undertakes to respond to the work of the three preceding authors and to compare and contrast their observations with the Christian cross-cultural setting in Australia. Authors of the previous articles address holistic mentoring at three levels--institutional, organizational, and individual--and offer recommendations for institutional…

Acceleration of digital communication has changed the nature of reading and young people today need to engage multimodal skills for reading success in the digital world. While historically there have been social justice issues for marginalised students in terms of reading, the digital age is creating new equity issues across the globe. This…

There is little literature which provides any analysis regarding the relationship between cultural order and home education. Research reported here found that home education has grown steadily in recent decades and that parents' motivation for home education was closely associated with cultural order. It was noticeable that Christian and Confucian…

The history of religion as a school subject, as with the history of the school curriculum in general and the history of individual school subjects in particular, tend to be neglected. As a contribution to that corpus of work, a study of religion as a school subject in Western Australian Catholic schools offers some interesting insights. In…

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…