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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

This paper critiques the idea that secular education policy can neutrally recognise children's non/religious identities at school. It also empirically analyses how one child becomes restricted by, and eludes, classed, gendered and adult-centred moral codes enacted through local school recognition. The concept of "policy assemblage" is…

In what are often described as modern Western school systems, the supervision of elementary schools generally shifted from the hands of clerical administrators to genuine state officials during the nineteenth century. The Prussian state, like other predominantly Protestant states, relied on clerical personnel and church supervision structures to…

The COVID-19 global post-pandemic and what it symbolises for current generations question us in what we should do to reverse its harmful effects in different parts of the world. This essay aims to assess the actions pursued and necessary to be pursued, by the Catholic Church in the promotion of the educational community during the times of the…

This article reviews and updates a previous work published in 2007 as a chapter in the "International Handbook of Catholic Education" (Aristimuño, A. 2007. "Challenges for Catholic Schools in Uruguay." In "International Handbook of Catholic Education: Challenges for School Systems in the 21st Century. Part One,"…

Rather than choosing between either catholic identity, or openness to otherness, the catholic dialogue school envisages, through the dialogue with the other, to stir the (re)discovery of one's own identity, and to introduce once again the Christian voice within the conversation. After introducing this project, I reflect more extensively on how to…

Background: COVID-19 has dramatically changed how school communities operate. Many schools have had to navigate enforced closures and modify their usual teaching and learning practices. Furthermore, they have had to rethink how they address student well-being issues. In Australian Catholic schools, there is little data on the concerns of Catholic…

In 1972, this journal published opposing views of the state of education in the period running up to the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act. J.C Myers painted a pessimistic picture of the national system based on the parish school and dominie whereas Donald Withrington presented a positive assessment of the contribution of non-parish schools. Both…