The institutional environment of U.S. school systems has changed considerably over a quarter century as standards and test-based accountability became central ideas in policy texts and discourses about improving education. We explore how U.S. school systems are managing in this changed environment by focusing on system leaders' sense-making about…

Religious education in Australian Catholic High Schools is the raison d'etre for the Catholic education system and religious education teachers are critical to this mission. This paper offers a framework for investigating the self-efficacy of religious education teachers.We first describe the nature and context of religious education in Australian…

The ethnographer's embodied action during research is a complex of habit, belief, social and institutional positioning, and intention. This article examines what urban anthropologist Wacqaunt calls 'carnal sociology' and considers its implications for ethnographers of religious educational spaces. Contemporary ethnographers of education have…

Of the 900 religiously affiliated colleges and universities in the United States, a sizable portion (approximately 118) are members of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). As members of the CCCU, these institutions have a shared commitment to the academic and spiritual development of their students. However, relatively few…

High school religion teachers in Catholic schools are central to the mission of such schools and teach in every Catholic high school. Research on effective teaching has not traditionally included this subset of teachers. The overall purpose of this study was to research the best instructional practices for high school religion teachers in…

The institutional environment of US school systems has changed considerably over a quarter century as standards and test-based accountability became central ideas in both policy texts and discourses about improving education. We explore how US school systems are managing in this changed environment by focusing on school system leaders'…

School discipline has traditionally endorsed the use of exclusionary practices (i.e. suspension and expulsion). Such practices can have a negative short- and long-term impact on student lives, and tend to be enforced disproportionately with certain student populations. Although public school discipline policies have received increased scrutiny in…

Crowning the second semester of geometry, taught within a Catholic middle school, the author's students explored connections between the geometry of regular polygons and architecture of local buildings. They went on to explore how these principles apply famous buildings around the world such as the monuments of Washington, D.C. and the elliptical…

It has been contended by various authors that the Catholic school is confessional in the sense of being indoctrinatory and so there has been an attempt to provide a non-confessional programme. On the contrary, this article argues that the Catholic Church sees its schools as "confessional" but not "indoctrinatory." However, to…

After a brief historical reconstruction of the emergence of the market economy as a model of social order in Europe, dating back to the eleventh century--the century of the commercial revolution--the paper focuses on the decisive contribution of the Franciscan school of thought to furnish the theoretical infrastructure of the new mode of…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to outline the evidence-based development of a learning approach to school renewal that employs information from key members of a school community (teachers, parents, students) to promote school-based discussions about school renewal. Setting: The study took place in an independent system of Catholic…

The importance of change to any organization is essential to growth, and it is the responsibility of leadership to explain both why change is required and how the change will take place to the organizational culture. Leaders should always be available and should seek out those essential methods of communication with the culture around them in…

Restorative justice is an emerging topic related to college student behavioral issues and offers a personal behavior alternative strategy. It is used predominantly to address crime, misconduct, and injustices in criminal justice, K-12 education, and higher education arenas. Restorative justice addresses harm through dialogue with goals of…

There is a growing societal need for civic-minded leaders, and undergraduate students are poised to become the future leaders and decision makers for a global society. This dissertation explores the demographics and experiences of undergraduate students and their perceived civic-mindedness at a predominantly White, urban, Jesuit-Catholic, liberal…

In 2002, in light of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church, The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops established "The charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" that mandated safe environment training for clergy personnel, and volunteers working in the Catholic church. In this study, under the auspices of a…