Much of the public discussion of Catholic schools has focused on their students' performance but ignores the values that have always supported them. Thirty-five years ago, the experiences and successes of Catholic schools in low-income American communities began to inform a significant part of what came to be called the school reform movement. The…

This qualitative phenomenology investigated the job-related experiences of early career Catholic elementary school principals (N = 13) in the Mideastern region of the United States. Data were collected from an introductory survey, semi-structured interviews, two focus groups, and a participant designed plan for professional development. The…

The objectives of this study were to: 1) construct a training course of spiritual leadership for those preparing to become administrators in Catholic schools in Thailand; 2) implement and utilize the training course, and 3) analyze, evaluate and enhance the training course. The sample used in this research was 32 young participants who were…

This article explores conditions and enablers for teacher professional learning in religious education in Catholic schools. It examines the impact on religion of the pluralising and secularising influences in Australia today and identifies what this asks of religious education and religious educators in response. New pedagogical approaches which…

The development and implementation of a trial Religious Education (RE) curriculum within a Catholic diocese of Australia was characterized by the scriptural metaphor "into the deep." Commentary (5300 words) from teacher developers (n = 40) and implementers (n = 85) were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings…

The ethnic separation of the school system in Northern Ireland along Catholic and Protestant community lines limits opportunities for daily cross-community interaction between young people. Recent research has shown that, whilst the deployment pattern of teachers is largely consistent with this divide, a small proportion of teachers has diverted…

Jesuit schools, in particular, have been known for a long time to be centres of learning in Chotanagpur area, India, where tremendous efforts were made to achieve a high level of academic excellence; yet it appears that this legacy is not being sustained among rural, tribal, vernacular schools of Chotanagpur these days because of varied reasons.…

This paper analyses the approach to experimental pedagogy adopted by the new Spanish pedagogy which arose after Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. To this end, it first outlines the spiritualist and anti-scientific approaches which prevailed in the new pedagogy of the postwar era, before charting the survival, lying beneath this…

In June 2019, the Vatican published its first-ever document on gender theory. This document was directed at Catholic educational institutions and draws on theology and philosophy, while excluding science on gender identity and testimonies from transgender people, to suggest gender theory is an ideology endangering the family. The case of Jane, a…

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…

Every four years, the International Office of Catholic Education (OIEC in French) organizes its World Congress as an opportunity for participants -- including school teachers and principals, to share their experiences and achievements, as well as the challenges they face. In June 2019, the Educatio Si Congress took place in New York in partnership…

In this grounded theory study, qualitative data from 11 educators in six diocesan high schools in the New England region revealed an interrelated framework for lay educator faith formation. Dimensions of that framework include the educator's relationship to the Church, interconnected processes of prayerful reflection and personal encounter,…

Many Midwestern Catholic schools have implemented professional learning communities (PLCs) to enhance teacher quality and attain school goals. However, not all schools have aligned practices essential to increase maturity in the five PLC dimensions, as defined by Hord. Guided by Hord's framework, this research study investigated teachers'…

Little is known about the experiences of non-heterosexual educators in Catholic schools. This international analysis reveals previously unreported data from Australian and Canadian qualitative studies that examine the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) teachers, and LGBTI Allies from Australia and Canada who…

In an earlier essay (Sibley, Angus. 2016. "Can there be a Catholic economics?" "International Studies in Catholic Education" 8 (2), 211) I observed that 'the Church has a long record of consistently criticisng the obsession with competition that has such a dominant place in orthodox economic thinking and practice'. Inordinate…