Discussions bearing upon the provision of intermediate (post-primary) schooling in Ireland in the nineteenth century were inextricably interwoven with debates regarding Catholic autonomy there. The establishment, in 1878, of the intermediate system, cannot be understood outside the context of Irish Catholic grievances, imagined or otherwise. This…

In the years either side of Federation in 1901, Australia's Irish Catholics balanced two often contradictory impulses: their determination to retain their cultural and religious links with Ireland in the face of an often unsympathetic Protestant majority, and the desire to become 'good' Australians in order to make 'a go' of their lives in the new…

This study investigates the role of religious politics in the dismissal of Mason in 1845. Related questions are (a) How volatile an issue was religious sectarianism during the early days of music in the Boston schools? (b) What were the religious backgrounds and convictions of the School Committee members responsible for dismissing Lowell Mason in…

The public schooling system is supposed to be neutral regarding religion. Constitutional provisions prohibit government from interfering with, or establishing, religion, and ensure equality of all people under the law. This article examines whether public schooling meets these requirements. It first briefly reviews the history of American…

Adoption of policies supporting school choice, in most Western democracies, has served to settle social and political conflicts related to religion. Conflicts related to racial integration played a similar role more recently in the United States where, contrary to other countries, religion has served to retard rather than to advance public support…

The world of private fundamentalist education grew prodigiously throughout the late 1970s and into the early 1980s. These schools needed curricular materials and guiding educational philosophies. The impassioned debates among leading fundamentalist educators directly affected the education of hundreds of thousands of students. Concern over the…

The "foreign languages" considered in this paper are the non-European contemporary tongues whose study was encouraged by the Crusades and related projects for recovering the Holy Land from the Muslims, Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac (Chaldaic), of which Arabic held pride of place. No-one was more significant in advancing the study and…

Planning for shared schooling in Northern Ireland requires a re-consideration of the decision-making processes that underpin the choices made by parents and a re-thinking of the nature and purpose of alternative modes of educating young people from the different communities together. The article provides evidence that demand for existing…

It is common in the literature to refer to British colonial education policy as if it were "a settled course adopted and purposefully carried into action", but in reality it was never like that. Contrary to popular belief, the size and diversity of the empire meant that no one really ruled it in any direct sense. Clearly some kind of…

As we think about current religious diversity and conflict in U.S. schools, it is important to note that religious conflict is not a new phenomenon in the history of U.S. schooling. This article briefly outlines the current and historical connections among religion, ethnicity, and K-12 education in the U.S. in order to note its persistence as well…

Argues that grammar and secondary schools did not suffer greatly during the period immediately after the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. The author provides figures to show that, contrary to popular opinion, few dissenting teachers were dismissed during that period. (JF)

Today, Zambia has a comparatively unified, somewhat exceptional, approach to religious education despite a wide variety of predominantly Christian denominations. This article retraces the history of the development of religious education from when it was entirely confessional to the present time when it has become largely educational. In so doing…

This essay presents the views on national education for both Catholics and all Americans by Orestes Brownson, a Catholic educator and publicist during the 1800s. Journal available from Notre Dame Journal of Education, P.O. Box 686, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556. (ND)

In Cincinnati, Ohio, between 1836 and 1853, controversy over religious education resulted from religious, ethnic, and political factors. Debate began between Catholics (mostly German and Irish immigrants) and Protestants over which Bible should be used in the public schools. (It was accepted that daily Bible readings were to be a part of religious…