The setting up of the Courtyard of the Gentiles by Pope Benedict XVI has provided the Catholic Church with an official forum for dialogue with atheists. The intellectual energy surrounding this initiative can be harnessed to focus on how the contemporary Catholic school addressed its responsibilities to the Catholic community while offering a good…

It is a commonplace for Catholic schools to claim that they educate the "whole" person in the faith, yet exactly what this means and how to accomplish it is harder to say. Though these matters of holistic formation and Catholic identity are always important, they are especially so at present given ongoing efforts to implement the U.S.…

This article draws from a larger dissertation study that applied ethnographic and historical research methods to explore the intersection of culturally responsive pedagogy and Catholic schooling in immigrant communities. In particular, this article presents qualitative data analysis to describe student achievement expectations at a contemporary…

While the U.S. Bishops' Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework provides robust content guidelines for a national high school Religion curriculum, its successful implementation will depend largely on concurrent development of, and training in, pedagogy suited to Christian education. This paper directs educators to existing catechetical…

The contemporary challenges facing Catholic schools and Catholic school leaders are widely known. Effective and systemic solutions to these mounting challenges are less widely known or discussed. This article highlights the skills, knowledge, and dispositions associated with mission driven and data informed leadership--an orientation to school…

These proceedings include selected presentations on Catholic identity by six participants of the 2011 Catholic Higher Education Collaborative (CHEC) Conference on Catholic Identity at The Catholic University of America (CUA). The conference, jointly sponsored by CUA and St. John's University, is the fourth in a series of five national conferences…

This paper suggests a way of creating a distinctly Catholic economics education by integrating a social justice perspective into the curriculum through writings from Catholic Social Thought (CST). In so doing, we argue that students of economics will gain a more thorough understanding of the economics discipline. Moreover, a grounding in CST will…

In contrast to current education policies that conceptualize pupil learning largely in terms of standardized exam scores, we offer an alternative view, one that conceives of pupil learning as a source of insight for pupils and teachers alike. Drawing on survey data and a qualitative study of the teacher candidate experience, we explore the…

Understanding how teachers' motivational levels respond to the course content is particularly relevant in Catholic schools, where instructors are routinely required to teach courses both within and beyond their certification area because of budgetary constraints. Students in the ACE alternative licensure program face this challenge during their 2…

Church documents, theology, leadership theory, and sociology come together in this article to present a pedagogy for Catholic schools that is deeply rooted in a personal faith and a contemporary understanding of the person. In order to construct a conceptual model of a pedagogy grounded in Christian spirituality, the meaning of the term "pedagogy"…

How is the commitment to social justice sustained over a lifetime? This would seem to be a matter of character, and that calls attention to the Aristotelian tradition in ethics. No one provides as much insight into the challenge of the contemporary appropriation of this tradition as Alasdair MacIntyre. Although a moral philosopher rather than a…

This article describes a particular endeavor, the Bridge Builders Academic Mentoring Program (BAMP), a partnership between a school of education in a Catholic university in the Northwest and a community-based rites of passage program for adolescent African American males. The partnership exemplifies tenets of Catholic social teaching, in that it…

The Catholic school system in Ontario, Canada, is fully funded by the government. Recently, Ontario's Ministry of Education mandated an induction year, the New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP), for all new teachers. This legislation provides an opportunity for Catholic school boards to take the lead and shape creative and effective programs for…

Catholic institutions of higher learning compete mightily for students, faculty, and research dollars with other colleges and universities. Yet, the history and tradition of many Catholic institutions offer a unique faith perspective from which to understand and appreciate the role of the Catholic university as serving the common good. Catholic…

Underneath teaching there lies a conceptual framework through which we view its role and purpose. Different frameworks vary in outlook and imply contrasting attitudes and values. Which one we adopt impacts on what and how we teach. This study explores what it means to think of teaching as a profession versus a vocation. Its focus is restricted to…