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…

The purpose of this mixed-method research study was to determine the extent that servant leadership was correlated with perceptions of school climate to identify whether there was a relationship between principals' and teachers' perceived practice of servant leadership and of school climate. The study employed a mixed-method approach by first…

This paper will explore the underlying requirements of canon law for establishing and administering Catholic schools, with a view toward helping to arrive at creative solutions to the question of how best to structure these schools civilly and canonically in order to ensure their temporal, spiritual, and religious well-being, and to assure that…

Charter schools, which are public schools of choice, are typically operated as not-for-profit organizations, essentially functioning as independent districts consisting of single schools, by private groups including parents either independently or occasionally in conjunction with public institutions such as universities. In return for being…

Catholic schools achieved the greatest social transformation in American history, pulling impoverished Irish immigrants out of the underclass and into the working and middle classes, writes Patrick McCloskey, author of The Street Stops Here--an account of a year in the life of a Catholic school in Harlem. These schools now provide a lifeline for…

This article is a qualitative study of the practice of leadership in Catholic schools in Australia. Within an interpretivist framework, a multiple case study of six lay principals was employed. Findings suggest that successful leadership in Catholic schools is highly influenced by the cultural and spiritual capital that a principal brings to a…

Maintaining Catholic identity is a struggle that takes on many forms. For schools with historical ties to founding religious communities, this question often takes the form of how to preserve and grow the charisms of the religious community in the absence of any members of that community on the school faculty or staff. This article, first of a…

The sacrament of reconciliation has fallen into disuse among Roman Catholics. For the Holy See this signifies a loss of a sense of sin and reconciliation, rightly connecting moral consciousness and faith in salvation with sacramental celebration. Cultural studies underscore the importance of ritual practices as an essential element of religion's…

This article, written by a student of curriculum history, has attempted to provide a framework for understanding the context of Catholic Studies within the framework of the education curriculum of higher education. In the articles that follow, Father James Heft outlines the development and debate surrounding Catholic Studies programs, the value of…

There are good reasons to be very careful about generalizations about Catholic higher education in the United States. Recall that the 220 or so Catholic colleges and universities are of very different kinds, very different sizes, with different student bodies, and are located in different parts of a country that sometimes have quite different…

The phenomenon of Catholic Studies cannot adequately be understood without a prior consideration of certain fundamental tensions that mark modern higher education as a whole. These broader tensions characterize Catholic universities in specific and important ways. At the University of St. Thomas, Catholic Studies has proven to be a remarkably…

Many Catholic high schools have transitioned to a president-principal administrative structure. This article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the model, revealing pertinent issues that must be addressed while operationalizing the model. Recent research supports some aspects of the model, but it is no panacea. Clear job descriptions, role…

In Part I of this two-part series (published in the March 2009 issue), the author traced the evolution of the Brothers of the Christian Schools' (Christian Brothers in the United States) understanding of how they related to the lay people with whom they increasingly shared their apostolate of Catholic education. From a stance of wary distance in…

This article describes a research project that examined the impact of a Lasallian mission formation program on program participants and their institutions. The study found that the program had a powerful impact on the participants personally, and 71% became newly involved or recommitted to social justice initiatives upon returning from the…

Catholic elementary schools must continue to invest in the professional development of math and science teachers in order to prepare students for the challenging work that lies ahead of them. The purpose of the study was to examine the degree to which the Initiative for Catholic Schools (ICS), a 2-year professional development program for science…