With the reform of the Irish Junior Cycle since 2015, the discourse around school ethos in Ireland is gaining momentum. This paper explores one particular quality of Catholic ethos highlighted by Pope Francis since the beginning of his papacy -- the quality of mercy. His articulation of mercy as core to all Catholic ministry reminds Catholic…

In the Early Third Republic (c. 1880-1914), the role of Catholic educators was called into question by the convergence of two different calls for change within French society. As the government of the Third Republic sought to reform primary-school instruction, there were renewed debates in French society about the role of Catholic institutions.…

This article presents an analysis of why advocates of RE in English Catholic schools have managed to avoid seriously engaging with confessional Religious Education. The arguments presented here are set against the context of curriculum change in RE with the impending introduction of the "Religious Education Directory" in England and…

Societal developments and phenomena such as diversity, secularisation, individualisation and the marketisation of education challenge Catholic schools in their striving for good education. Issues related to these developments and phenomena put their distinctive articulation and interpretation of values and ethical commitments to the test. It is by…

Catholic schooling in the United States is suffering from a persistent enrollment crisis that has triggered the need for system-wide organizational reforms. However, most of the changes that the sector has experienced has taken place in individual schools making decisions about how to operationally sustain their individual school community. In…

The Congregation of Holy Cross has been working on evangelisation and education in Bangladesh for more than 170 years. This paper examines and discusses the educational aims of highly reputed institution of Holy Cross Congregation, Notre Dame College (NDC). It also examines how NDC negotiated historical changes -- internal and external -- and how…

A recontextualising approach in religious education has been adopted in the newly revised religious education curricula of the four dioceses in Victoria: the dioceses of Melbourne, Ballarat, Sandhurst and Sale. This approach requires a radical change to the teacher's role from knowledge transmission to one which supports students to grapple with…

In the spring of 2020, schools of all sectors across all nations were forced to close their doors as COVID-19 rippled through communities. Drawing upon the concept of liminality, which refers to a stage, state, or period of transition (Soderlund & Borg, 2017), this study investigated the intersections of the experience of liminality during the…

Purpose: Diocesan systems of Catholic schools in the USA have been trying to make urban elementary schools more sustainable in an era of declining enrollment. This paper sought to better understand how system and school leaders conceptualize what it takes to "sustain the legacy" of these schools. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted…

Drawing upon 15 semi-structured interviews with teachers at a Catholic school in the British city of Hull, we offer new qualitative insights on the effects of students' unequal access to digital tools when switching to distance learning in the context of COVID-19 school closures. During the 2020-2021 academic year, this school serving pupils from…

Social efficiency shaped much of public schooling in the United States during the early twentieth century. Simultaneously, Roman Catholic schools proliferated and became increasingly regulated by state departments of education. This led to increased influence of public education reform movements on Catholic schools. This article examines the…

Recent policy reforms regarding Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales have provoked a variety of reactions among faith communities, ecclesial stakeholders, academics, practitioners, senior leaders and students themselves. In this article, we assess the situation in the Catholic context using empirical and analytical tools which shed light…

The question: 'Education: Commodity or Public Good?' (Grace, G. 1989. "Education: Commodity or Public Good?" "British Journal of Educational Studies" 37 (3): 207-221. doi:10.1080/00071005.1989.9973812) is more prescient than ever, and this paper probes the ways in which Catholic school teachers experience market-oriented…

This article, emerging from a wider study on the professional development needs of women teachers working in Catholic convent schools in the Republic of Pakistan, explores the perspectives and experiences of school leaders and Principals who developed professional development programmes. This area, which has been under-researched in the…

Our paper represents a conceptual framework designed to (a) help current stakeholders within the University Consortium of Catholic Education (UCCE) critically reflect on their respective programs' support of Latinx Catholic school teachers and (b) provide guidance for Catholic education researchers in their future inquiry into the UCCE model of…