In the UK, inspectors are asked to judge how far schools support children's spiritual development. Church schools are subject to the differing expectations of a dual inspection system which introduces a tension between the Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) prioritization of control and performativity and the SIAMS (Statutory…

This paper considers online pedagogy in relation to Christian adult learning and asks how this might be interpreted by theological educators. The online community of inquiry is proposed as one recognized pedagogical approach and illustrated by reference to a continuing professional development programme for online adult learners across the church…

While students of Islamic societies and cultures are aware of the influence of dynamics of honour and shame on behaviour, these factors are not always recognized by those who engage with Muslims in the UK. This paper will discuss the impact of concerns related to honour and shame on the behaviour of Muslim pupils in a Church of England primary…

Although much done in the name of discipleship and theological education pronounces lofty goals, such as movement from orthodoxy to orthopraxy, in many cases mere doctrinal assent is assumed to reflect deep change. An analysis of discipleship, worldview theory, and certain cognitive approaches to education suggests that worldview-level…

I raise the problem that religious effects on the education practices of Australian religious schooling have not been measured, despite many claims and the critical size of the sector. The paper seeks to suggest factors to be considered in shaping methodologies for researching this area. Identifying four ways that religious schooling has been…

Recent research in two New Zealand Christian schools found that despite biblical vision and mission statements and declarations of pedagogy built on biblical foundations, actual classroom practice frequently differed little from that in secular schools. Teachers could clearly articulate their respective school's vision and goals but all except one…

A senior secondary English curricular commitment to biblical relationality and narrative through Ricoeur's hermeneutics provides students a learning community where they are invited to awaken to the biblical story, to love each other and creation within their Christ given identity in that story, to think about their own narratives within the…

De La Salle Brothers are Christian educators operating in more than 80 countries, including Kenya. The purpose of this study was to find if the ideals of Lasallian education are being realized in the 21st century in Kenya and to establish whether the findings concur with the Lasallian philosophy of education. The study was conducted at St. Paul's…

The goal of this brief study is to present Comenius's notion of character formation as it is outlined primarily in his didactic writings, and to show its relevance for contemporary practice in relation to moral education. The Czech Jan Amos Comenius was a 17th-century Brethren bishop, philosopher, and educator who is celebrated especially for his…

This paper considers from an Australian perspective the tensions for Christian schooling in the notion of educational excellence and whether, ultimately, it is possible for a Christian school to promote itself as a centre for educational excellence and remain authentically Christian. The language of excellence is prevalent in Western society, and…

This paper presents new evidence from national contextualized school performance data showing that, after taking into account those factors known to affect pupil achievement, state-maintained Catholic schools in England appear to be more academically effective than similar non-Catholic institutions. Using an American analysis of the nature of…

Contemporary connotations of "teacher" don't do justice to Jesus' educating activity. "Worldview" understood as a comprehensive social environment helps us to perceive the scale of Jesus' struggle in his society and also Christian teachers' struggle in their settings. Jesus is Israel's teacher in a deeper way than we hear by the term "teacher."…

This paper draws on John Fisher's formative definition of spiritual health as comprising good relationships within four domains (the personal, the communal, the environmental and the transcendental) and uses the operationalization of these constructs proposed by Francis and Robbins (2005). Comparisons are made between the responses of five groups…

Passionate religious commitment is often viewed as a problem in education because believers are thought to impose their views on others in the belief that they are public truth. This article examines two case studies and concludes that this concern is real. An influential response is to argue that religious commitment should therefore be a private…