International Studies in Catholic Education 

About: International Studies in Catholic Education is an academic journal published by Routledge. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Religious education & Faith. It has an ISSN identifier of 1942-2539. Over the lifetime, 260 publications have been published receiving 1470 citations. The journal is also known as: ISCE.

Renewing spiritual capital: an urgent priority for the future of Catholic education internationally

Abstract: When researching the responses of 60 Catholic school leaders to their demanding work in English inner-city secondary schools, I encountered evidence of a deep vocational commitment. These headteachers were clearly drawing upon a spiritual and religious resource which empowered them and which gave them a sustained sense of mission, purpose and hope in their educational work. In the concluding chapter of Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality (2002), I referred to this sustaining and inspirational factor as ‘spiritual capital’. What I did not do, as some critics have pointed out, was to provide an adequate historical and theoretical elaboration to this concept which might be used in future research and academic writing. What follows is an attempt to remedy this omission and to provide a more detailed understanding of what spiritual capital is, and of its crucial relevance for the future effectiveness and integrity of the Catholic education mission worldwide.

Framing the identity of Catholic schools: empirical methodology for quantitative research on the Catholic identity of an education institute

Abstract: In this article, a new empirical methodology is presented aimed at framing the religious aspects of the identity structure of Catholic educational organisations. Under the auspices of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, Australia, we developed three theoretical models into handy research instruments that allow us to quantify an organisation's confessional identity in a statistically responsible way: the Post-critical Belief Scale, the Melbourne Scale, and the Victoria Scale. After interpreting the results, it is possible to give recommendations concerning the policy steps aimed at a further development and enhancement of Catholic institutional identity. The normative framework of this research is the ideal of the recontextualisation of Catholic identity, based on dialogue with plurality and a symbolic understanding of religion. These empirical instruments are being integrated into an automated Web platform that will allow Catholic institutes to do autonomous research on the religious a...

Catholic social teaching should permeate the Catholic secondary school curriculum: an agenda for reform

Abstract: International research shows that the curricula of Catholic secondary schools are increasingly becoming dominated by the pressures of conforming to the requirements of nation states. These requirements are generally expressed in economic and utilitarian terms and evaluated by criteria of measurable outputs. As a result of these pressures, Catholic secondary schools are in danger of losing a distinctive religious and educational cultural programme expressed in a distinctive Catholic school curriculum. It is suggested in this article that a serious permeation of Catholic social teaching is crucial, not only for the intrinsic importance of its subject matter but also as a means to resist total cultural incorporation into state-mandated curricula. Particular attention is given to the educational potential contained in Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (2009).

Perspective on contemporary spirituality: Implications for religious education in Catholic schools

Abstract: A number of constructs like secularisation, privatisation of religion etc have been used to describe the significant change in spirituality of many of the young people in Australian Catholic schools over the last 50 years, from a more traditional religious spirituality to something that is more secular, eclectic and individualistic To some extent, this change has been acknowledged; but the religion curricula in Catholic schools still give the impression that all of the students are, or should be, regular churchgoers – as if Sunday Mass attendance was to be the end point of their education in spirituality An interpretation of change in spirituality in terms of change in cultural meanings has been developed for the purpose of understanding contemporary spiritualities in other than a deficit model Such an interpretation may be more persuasive in getting Catholic education authorities and religious educators firstly to accept, rather than condemn or ignore, the significant change in contemporary

Transmission of the charism: a major challenge for Catholic education

Abstract: In a recent address to Catholic educators in the USA (Washington DC, April 2008), Pope Benedict XVI spoke of founders and foundresses of religious orders who 'with great tenacity and foresight, laid the foundations of what is today a remarkable network of parochial schools contributing to the spiritual well-being of the Church and the nation'. This article will attempt to explore the extent to which it is possible to maintain such founding charisms in an era marked by a steep decline in the number of religious in schools. It will begin with a discussion of the term charism. The article will then go on to articulate the nature of the Salesian charism as an exemplar, before investigating the extent to which it is possible to maintain such distinctive charisms in the current demographical context of the Catholic Church highlighted recently in the latest Vatican document on Catholic education.