The Netherlands has a unique dual education system. The government funds both public and private schools. Parents have much freedom to set up schools to realize their religious ideals. The freedom of education enshrined in the Dutch Constitution is controversial. The question has arisen as to whether the government should fund private schools.…

Imparting education by Christian missionaries to the locals of a non-literate society was not an end in itself, rather it was a means to an end. Evangelizing needed to go hand-in-hand with church planting and institutionalisation of the church establishment. To fulfil this mission, it was necessary to deploy locals but first equip them with the…

The aim of this article is to interact with Anita Gracie and Andrew W Brown's recent account of the historical development and nature of Controlled schools and of religious education in Northern Ireland in this journal. A complementary perspective is used to illustrate how the relationship between the Protestant churches and Controlled schools has…

This article is based on replies from over 2,200 parents with children in Norwegian Christian free schools. More than half of them say that they have chosen the school because it is Christian. About the same number give the reasons that the school is academically good, has a friendly atmosphere, and their child wanted to attend that school. The…

The concept of citizenship has changed and evolved over time. Spain, as part of the European Union, has been included in a paradigm shift from a focus on nationalism to the concept of global citizenship. This has spurred a national controversy over the way in which Spanish students should be educated about citizenship. This article provides a…

The Controlled Schools' sector in Northern Ireland is usually described as de facto Protestant. By examining its history and current context, this article considers the veracity of that statement. In many schools RE is often 'squeezed out' of an already overcrowded timetable. This results in the quantity and quality of RE teaching varying widely,…

This article presents an historical and critical review of the Declaration on Christian Education "Gravissimum Educationis," promulgated on October 28, 1965, during the fourth and last session of Vatican II. By considering the history and context of this document, and after evaluating the three socio-ecclesial factors that were behind…