The question how (denominational) schools for secondary education influence the religious identity development of adolescents is central in this article. Quantitative empirical research focusing on the religious commitments and explorations (as indicators of religious identity development) of adolescents and on the relationship between these…

Recent research has exposed the potential of quality teaching to exercise a positive influence on student achievement. Extending beyond surface and factual learning, quality teaching has posited conceptions of "intellectual depth", "communicative competence" and "self-reflection" as being central to effective learning. Implicit in these…

This paper reports the results of a survey study on attitudes towards religion and the environment, carried out with 1000 undergraduate students enrolled in two universities in Bangkok and Chiangmai, Thailand. There is a positive relationship between students' religious outlook and their attitudes towards the environment, a finding that underlines…

This article describes the underlying theological and educational issues which were addressed when incorporating an item of religious content within the "Gift Approach" to Primary Religious Education. It suggests that the significance of laying bare this process is in demonstrating how theological concerns (whatever the religion) will always be a…

Spiritual well-being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, others, environment and/or God. This paper ties together several studies of SWB among teachers and students in primary and secondary, state, Catholic, other Christian, and independent schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers' lived experiences…

This paper presents findings from a recent study investigating young children's (aged 10-11) conceptions of Jesus in England. The overall picture revealed by the study is that whilst there was a general assent amongst pupils in our sample towards an ethical and humanistic conception of the historical Jesus, there was less of a consensus about…

This paper offers that liberal and communitarian concepts of the common good are exemplified in the Catholic school's policy of the inclusion of non-Catholic students. In particular, the liberal concepts of personal autonomy, individual rights and freedoms, and the principles of fairness, justice, equality and respect for diversity--as democratic…

Faith schools and divisiveness is one of the key issues in the faith school debates in both England and Wales and Scotland. In Scotland the faith school debate is focused on Catholic schools. This paper, based on a review of relevant literature and the findings of a series of expert interviews, argues that the complexity of this issue of the…

The subject of this article is Dutch Jewish education since 1945, attended by some 20% of the Jewish children in the region of Amsterdam. I consider the motives of the advocates of Jewish day schools, for whom the Holocaust was an important argument from a psychological, educational, social and cultural perspective in rejecting multi-religious…

This article looks at the contemporary rationale for faith-based universities. There has certainly been a new openness to issues in religion within higher education more generally. Religious influence and involvement in higher education continues to be extensive and manifests itself through the presence of believing Christians, Jews and Muslims in…

In this paper the relationship between religious identity and engagement in citizenship is examined from an educational point of view. The Dutch systematic theologian Erik Borgman refers to the development of European citizenship as a project of "fellowship of fate": we will need to rediscover a common vision on humanity for Europe as fellow human…

Whereas a consensus used to exist that universities had the responsibility to make students more fully human, today one finds scholars claiming that universities should form only certain aspects of a student's identity or should draw primarily from only certain aspects. In other words, scholars support the claim that the university should or…

The curricular accommodation of religious education is almost always dissociated from the latter's political significance and the teaching of religious worldviews is often limited to serving social, (multi)culturalist and epistemological purposes. When RE is made relevant to political identity this occurs strictly within the confines of a liberal…

Debate in the Catholic community in Australia often centres on how the Catholic school best expresses its Catholic identity. Is it in closing its doors to all but Catholic families or does Catholic identity require an openness to all Christians, those of other religions and those of no religion? This paper argues that if the school is to be truly…

The aim of this article is to introduce and summarise the main feature of the new Birmingham City Council Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2007), consider the relevance of its commitments and conclusions to ongoing debates within British religious education, and, finally, offer some kind of provisional assessment of its strengths and…