Teachers at St. Scholastica School, a pseudonym, an all-girls Catholic high school, varied in approaches to discipline creating an unequal distribution of student citations and negatively impacting student experience. An Improvement Science approach identified two potential drivers of change: inconsistency in disciplinary policy and variation in…

This qualitative study aimed to identify and name leadership mindsets of Catholic school principals that promoted and fostered equitable school opportunities for all students, especially schools serving diverse student populations. This study further sought to understand the principal's role as a faith leader and its influence on the principal's…

This essay explores a tension in the Catholic theological classroom brought about when teachers aim at dismantling racial injustice with resources from antiracist pedagogy. Where Catholic social thinkers package together reflection, judgment, and action, antiracist educators recommend forestalling the last step--action. The essay's primary aim is…

Recent educational reform in England occasioned new interactions between the state, universities, faith communities and schools. In 2016, a suite of new public examinations testing the academic ability of English students matriculating at 16 and 18 years of age was introduced. In Religious Education, these state-driven changes deliberately…

This analytic essay builds on recent work examining the ways religiosity in U.S. education is manifest in the particular discourses that come to shape popular understandings of the possible in and through schooling. The authors analyze the function of four concepts, in light of recent constructions of religions and their relative positioning as…

Research conducted in the twentieth century found urban Catholic schools in the U.S. had a legacy of providing high quality educational opportunities for low-income students and students of color. In an era of declining Catholic school enrollments, urban Catholic school advocates have argued that urban Catholic school closures would deny these…

This study applied a mixed-methods, social-justice approach to explore how Chinese international students interpret their success and/or challenges influenced by their Chinese forms of community cultural wealth in their academic learning at a predominately White Catholic university in the Midwest of the United States for over one year. I adopted a…

This article presents the findings of a content analysis study that examined how Catholic institutional websites displayed commitments to diversity through their publicly available websites. This research project used a conceptual framework exploring the phenomenon of organizational impression management, which is concerned with how institutions…

Since the publication of Pope Francis' landmark encyclical (2015), "Laudato Si," there has been a robust discussion among religious educators concerning the notion of ecological conversion. Drawing on this rich scholarship, this paper strives to move from the "what" of ecological conversion to the "how"; that is, how…

During 2019 the accreditation of a Catholic school serving students in special education, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools report recommended implementing a Positive Behavior Intervention Supports program (PBIS). This qualitative case study aimed to build on the growing research on Positive Behavior Intervention Supports and…

Conversations regarding racial equity are uncomfortable for many Catholic school leaders. This is due to a lack of clarity between Catholic social teaching (CST) and its implementation regarding racial justice among Catholic schools. This necessitates coherent guidance to address systemic racism in Catholic education which responds to the need for…

In divided societies, the promotion of cross-cultural contact through the education system has been central to efforts to improve intergroup relations. This approach is informed by an understanding of the contact hypothesis, which suggests that positive contact with a member of a different group should contribute to improvements in attitudes…

New mothers returning to academic studies face many barriers. One of these barriers -- the continuation of breastfeeding -- can be particularly challenging. Breastfeeding is integral to the health of both mother and infant, underscoring several important tenants of the Catholic ethos; however, the literature indicates a significant number of…

This article explores the widespread use of the 'lessons' of the era of the Second World War in Europe since 1945. This usage proved to be a resilient element of European cultural values, especially in Western Europe during the era of the Cold War. However, with the emergence of a more diverse and pluralist Europe since 1989, so this form of civic…

Over the past decade, identifying how schools might reduce student absenteeism has moved to the forefront of education policy. Yet little research has examined whether school type itself is important. We focus on the influence of Catholic schools using data from the past decade--the most relevant policy context for addressing absenteeism. The…