Who goes to World Youth Day? Some data on under‐18 Australian participants

World Youth Day (WYD) beginning in 1985 and held internationally every two or three years is amongst the largest gatherings of young people in the world. In 1995, for example, the WYD held in Manila attracted over four million pilgrims. With a high level of participation as well as longevity WYD has become a significant social phenomenon, especially in an era where there is a sustained and widespread disaffiliation of youth from mainstream Churches. Participants at WYD are mainly Catholics although the invitation to take part is extended to all. There has been little empirical work on who attends WYD and their motivations for attending. This paper will report on research conducted on Australian youth who attended the 2005 WYD in Cologne. This research will use both quantitative and qualitative techniques to try and build up a profile of WYD pilgrims and explore some of their motivations for attending.     

New Digital Technologies: A Kairos for Catholic Education in Rwanda

ABSTRACT

While the Catholic Church in Rwanda endeavors to revitalize Catholic Education, the Government of Rwanda is trying to leverage the use of digital technologies to raise access, improve the quality, and strengthen the relevance of education and training to the labor market. The purpose of this article is therefore to explore and assess the value and potentially constructive educational benefits offered by digital technologies in Catholic schools. The Catholic Church is one of the key educational development partners of the Government of Rwanda. Approximately 41% of students attend Catholic schools in Rwanda. The article scrutinizes some ethical concerns associated with the emergence of digital technologies in schools. Then it critically analyzes the position of the Catholic Church vis-à-vis digital technologies and sheds some light on their ethical and responsible use in Catholic schools. Consequently, the article suggests some actions that may be undertaken by the Catholic Church in order to assist the youth to make an informed choice among a diverse range of options offered by digital technologies in a way that aligns with the Catholic social teaching and tradition.     

Disrupting the trans-versus-Catholic dichotomy: An example from a Canadian elementary school policy

ABSTRACT

Background: Mainstream media is increasingly reporting on the relationships between Catholic and trans identities in parochial schools, particularly with regard to gendered washroom use. With greater numbers of trans youth coming out at younger ages, significant educational policy changes are being considered around how Catholic schools can or should include trans youth.

Method: This study applies trans and queer theologies to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in investigating the Wilson case, which was the first known instance of a Catholic school including some affirming policy provisions for trans youth. The authors additionally collected and coded 12 news articles from a variety of platforms to discern and discuss the theological arguments in the public square against more fulsome trans student inclusion in Catholic schools.

Results: The authors found two related theological arguments against full inclusion, namely the notion that (1) Gender is God-given and therefore cannot be chosen or changed, and (2) That transgressive bodies are not sacred parts of the divine gender plan.

Conclusion: Trans theology allowed the authors to disrupt both of the theological claims advanced by the Catholic educators quoted in the Wilson case. This created rich, imaginative space in which to reconsider the relationships between Catholic and trans identities, namely by not arranging them in a binary. Significance for policy-making in parochial schools is discussed.     

Toynbee's Frantic Quest for Survival

ABSTRACT

Data from life review interviews with elder Catholic women religious show that through prayer they are able to experience solitude and to feel connected with others. Their experience is not completely explained by either the disengagement theory nor by the newer theory of gerotranscendence. Because prayer connects them to others, they do not experience complete social withdrawal; rather, prayer functions as a modified social activity connecting them to their past, to God, to the community in which they live, as well as to the wider world. They also do not develop a new transcendent meta-perspective, but deepen into cherished life beliefs and practices, accepting and becoming more fully who they are as individuals and as older women.     

The Transformational Efficacy of Postgraduate Courses

Abstract

Considerable literature exists pertaining to transformative education and academics seek to provide a transformative educational experience for students. The purpose of this research was to examine the perceptions of graduates from postgraduate teacher education courses concerning transformative efficacy with regard to the stated outcomes of the courses. The participants were Christian teachers and school principals from Christian schools across Australia who had graduated from accredited Master of Education or Master of Education (Leadership) courses. Data collection was by way of an online survey containing Likert scales and explanatory statements. The research found that most of the graduates identified transformation at a personal level, particularly in the theological and philosophical understandings that underpin classroom or school leadership practice in Christian schools. This enabled them to be able to critique the cultural artifacts with which educators must deal in their practice.     

A new discourse on spirituality in public education. Confronting the challenges in a post-secular society

Australia is facing a new frontier in the educational discourse of spirituality as we transition into a globalised and post-secular society. Teachers are now faced with the question of how to respond to the intrinsic spiritual awareness of secondary school students and the subsequent inquiry process into matters of personal spirituality, meaning and worldview. In Independent and Catholic schools across Australia, spirituality has a dimension to learning and has a significant place in the curriculum and in the classroom, inculcated through pastoral care programmes and the teaching of religious education. However, in public schools, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This article highlights the importance of inquiry into spirituality in public education, through political discourse, and the potential for resurgence in exploring spiritual lived experience from a phenomenological perspective.     

Occupational stress,job satisfaction and physical health in teachers

IntroductionChanges within the teaching profession have been blamed for the high levels of stress reported by teachers. In recent decades, Italian schools have been characterised by continuous change, as a result of profound transitions that have affected political, social and economic development.ObjectiveThis paper investigated the relationship between occupational stress, job satisfaction and physical health in Italian teachers. Specifically, our aim is to study the role of job satisfaction as a possible mediation role between work stressors and its effects on teachers’ physical health (physical symptoms). In addition, we were interested in studying the direct effects of work stressors on the hypothetical outcomes (physical symptoms).MethodData were collected via a questionnaire from a sample of 565 teachers working in different upper secondary schools in Italy. The booklet filled by the teachers consisted of 32 items that measure perceived occupational difficulties, job satisfaction and physical symptoms.ResultsThe results showed that workload, perception of work environment, teachers’ perceptions of senior management and attitude towards change are specific perceived occupational difficulties of the Italian teachers involved in our research. In particular, workload and attitude towards change have significant direct effects on physical symptoms, and indirect effects on physical symptoms through job satisfaction. Also, job satisfaction decreases physical symptoms.ConclusionThe results suggest important implications for stress prevention in teachers. In fact, the level of stress and its consequences can be reduced and prevented through an accurate identification of its sources, with a positive effect on individual and organisational health.     

Exploring mystery: can Christian meditation at school nurture students’ relationships with God?

ABSTRACT

While there is growing international interest in meditation and mindfulness initiatives in schools, little research has focused on exploring the impact of such practices on students’ spirituality. This paper reports data from a mixed method study involving primary school classes engaged in the regular practice of Christian meditation between Years 4 to 6 in Catholic schools in New South Wales, Australia. Student focus group data (n = 114 students) and a student survey (n = 250 students) suggest Christian meditation offers an inclusive and ‘hospitable’ space for many students, where their spiritual well-being can be nurtured, including their connection to God. However, the findings suggest that accompanying dialogue with students around the purpose and possibilities of Christian meditation may help to better situate the practice as a ‘hospitable space’ thus enabling deeper engagement with the spiritual in contemporary Catholic classrooms.     

Teacher stress: An eight-year follow-up study on teachers' work,stress, and health

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare teacher stress between the years 1983 and 1991. Seventy teachers in comprehensive and upper secondary schools participated in the study. The teachers were studied first during the school year 1983–84 and again eight years later during the autumn term of 1991 by means of repeated questionnaires. During this 8-year period the general working situation among the teachers had remained quite stable: Most of them had remained at the same school teaching the same subjects at the same level. The results showed a drop in the teachers' well-being over the period. In particular, those over 55 years of age showed more emotional stress reactions in 1991 than eight years earlier. Furthermore, they evaluated their social relations with pupils as worse in 1991 compared to 1983. A half both of those with low emotional stress reactions and those high in them in 1983 were stilll in the same categories in 1991. Emotional stress reactions were reflected in simultaneous work ability and psychosomatic health data. Moreover, long-term stress was seen to lead to various psychosomatic complaints, but these were not reflected in self-rated health status. The results suggest that teacher stress is not necessarily a short-lived problem, and ways of preventing or reducing stress (e.g. continuing education, counseling, co-operation) should be employed.     

School Climate: Government and Seventh-Day Adventist Schools in Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was initiated with the objective of examining the teachers’ perception of their school climate in government and Seventh-day Adventist (Adventist) schools. Data were collected from 273 government and 97 Adventist schoolteachers and analyzed using frequency, percentage, t test, and ANOVA measures. Findings were that Adventist school climate is heathier than government schools. Differences in school climate dimensions were that professionalism was ranked first for government and academic press was ranked first in Adventist schools, but the academic press was rated the least in government schools; community engagement was ranked the least exercised dimension in Adventist schools. Also, female teachers perceived their schools to be healthier than did male teachers.     

From Theory to Practice: The Experiences of Catholic Probationary Teachers

Drawing on empirical data, this article explores the experiences of newly qualified Roman Catholic teachers in Scotland as they enter the classroom. Set within the context of a longitudinal study that was conducted over a 3-year period tracking the experiences and development needs of Catholics new to the profession, this particular article is concerned with twenty teachers in their probationary year (first year of teaching), from a mix of both primary and secondary Roman Catholic schools in Scotland. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted at the end of the participants' first full year teaching. The findings suggest that the culture and leadership style existing within such schools can have a powerful impact on the behavior and personal convictions of the individual teacher.     

Some Spiritually Significant Reasons for Gay Attraction to (Anglo-)Catholicism

Abstract

This qualitative study based on interviews with Anglican gay men suggests spiritually significant reasons for which many gay men in England, including gay Evangelicals, are attracted to Anglo-Catholicism or, more largely, to Catholic forms of spirituality. Catholic spirituality is more aware of the body and helps some of these men to make Christian sense of their sexual desires. The Catholic tradition also provides them with alternative patterns to the heteronormative ‘church family’ model of community life that Evangelical churches, in particular, like to offer. As a consequence Catholic spirituality may appear to be better equipped than its Protestant counterpart to help the interviewees re-imagine their place as gay men at the heart of the Church with a gift to offer.     

Towards a strong career learning environment: results from a Dutch longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

To prepare students for the flexible labour market of nowadays, schools are increasingly acknowledging their responsibility to guide students in their career development. The project ‘Career Orientation and Guidance in Secondary Vocational Education’ was developed to encourage Dutch schools to initiate and/or continue the creation of a strong career learning environment for their students. Central in this learning environment is a dialogue with the students, where meaning is attached to concrete experiences with work. This longitudinal study is designed to gain theoretical and practical insight into the influence of the project. Results show that, although the school’s vision on career orientation and guidance is clear to the teachers, it is not supported by all of them. It appears that the renewed vision is imposed on the teachers, and this absence of a shared and widely supported vision appears to withhold the teachers and the project managers to engage in collective action.     

A Three-Dimensional Concept of Worldview

Several Christian school associations and many Christian schools identify developing a Biblical worldview in their students as an essential component of their organizational mission, yet few report on their level of success. This study investigates the concept of worldview from an Evangelical Christian perspective. The first step in investigating worldview is to establish a working definition of the term worldview. A Biblical definition of worldview is a challenge since Scripture does not use the term, but various writers have defined the term with language that is Biblically relevant. This study used the definition of worldview as derived by James W. Sire in 2004 Sire , J. W. (2004). Naming the elephant: Worldview as a concept . Downer's Grove , IL : InterVarsity Press. [Google Scholar] as the basis for a three-dimensional conception of worldview. The dimensions are propositional, behavioral, and heart-orientation.     

Bodies and Liturgy: An Interview with Mary Deeley

Susan Ross interviewed Mary Deeley, PhD, a pastoral associate at the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Susan and Mary began their conversation by talking about the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (abbreviated here as GIRM), which was issued in 2003, and about other ways that bodies are a central part of the liturgical experience. The GIRM speaks of the dignity of the liturgy, the significance of movements, postures, singing, and silence and the roles that these play in liturgical practice.     

Sex,gender, and intersex: anthropological,medical, and ethical critiques and proposals

ABSTRACT

The problems of intersex have received little attention from both Catholic Magisterium and theologians. Early in 2019, the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education issued a document intended to be a pathway for a dialogue on the issue of gender in education. This essay responds to that document as a contribution to filling theological gaps in the consideration of intersex. It first explains and critiques the theological anthropology underlying the Vatican document and then analyzes and critiques Western cultural, medical approaches to intersex persons. It dialogues with the experience of intersex persons and the social sciences that document it and concludes by proposing ethical principles to guide intersex persons, their parents, and their physicians in the care and treatment of intersex.     

The Basic Goods Theory and Revisionism: A Methodological Comparison on the Use of Reason and Experience as Sources of Moral Knowledge

In Roman Catholic moral theology there is an ongoing debate between the proportionalist or revisionist school and the traditionalist school that has developed what is referred to as the ‘New Natural Law Theory’ or ‘Basic Goods Theory’ (BGT). The stakes in this debate have been raised with Pope John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor (1993) on fundamental moral theology that condemned ‘proportionalism’ or ‘teleologism’ as an ethical theory while utilizing many of the ideas, concepts, and terminology of the BGT, thereby implicitly endorsing that ethical theory. While absolute norms and intrinsically evil acts have frequently been the focus of debate between these two schools, what is it that divides them fundamentally, on the level of ethical method? It is the role and function of reason and experience as two sources of moral knowledge, in part, that distinguish these two versions of natural law on the most basic level. While the BGT has a strict hierarchy of the sources of moral knowledge that posits the hierarchical magisterium as the definitive interpreter of reason and experience, revisionists posit a more dialogical relationship between reason, experience, and the magisterium. On certain ethical issues (e.g., artificial birth control), the experience of the faithful as well as the rational arguments developed by revisionist Catholic moral theologians challenge some of the normative claims of the magisterium. This paper investigates the methodological use of reason and experience in each theory's interpretation of natural law and how and why these two sources of moral knowledge lead to fundamentally divergent normative claims on particular ethical issues.     

Habemus Corpus: Women's Embodiment,Feminist Spirituality and Catholic Theology—An Essay in Memory of Kevin Gordon

Abstract

The argument presented in this paper is that women's sexual experiences have been excluded from the formative traditions of the Catholic Church. Official church teachings are in fact predicated upon this exclusion and have thus prevented a vital aspect of human experience from being reflected within the authoritative understandings of the faith.

There is no common experience of sexual desire and imagery and symbolism generated by men who critique the Catholic tradition may not resonate with the understandings of women. Precisely because sexual experience is pluriform and particular it is important to give attention to the concrete specificity of lesbian women's lives. As their perspectives are articulated an alternative ‘language of desire’ is created which stands in tension to the monolithic, unchanging view of sexuality presented by the hierarchy of the church.     

The dialectic of Australian Catholic education

Australian Catholic schools are enjoying extensive popularity, with schools in general experiencing maximum enrolment capacities. The irony in this phenomenon is that Catholics are being attracted to non‐Catholic schools, and many non‐Catholics are seeking enrolment in Catholic schools. Moreover, the vast majority of Catholics in Catholic schools (parents, students, teachers) are not practising and those that do often hold a plurality of views in faith and morals that are inconsistent with Church teaching. Given this reality, the aims of the Australian Catholic school need to be re‐examined.     

Project Destiny

Abstract

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders present significant challenges to educators and community professionals in contemporary practice. At the same time, parents of middle school students experience parenting as a difficult time period that is laden with a variety of feelings. A central strategy for assisting both parents and professionals during this developmental period is to work collaboratively with one another. This sharing of ideas and strategies is helpful in attaining goals for students that are usually not met in the absence of cooperative team work. Furthermore, the recommended direction for service provision for these youth is to work through a coordinated, interagency approach across the community.

This paper presents the first year's methods and initial findings from Project Destiny, a three year study that is attempting to enhance the knowledge and strategies of professionals, parents and community teams for working with middle school students having emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD). Initial results from the project's work in three communities suggest that teachers at the middle schools have been interested and able in acquiring new knowledge and skills for working with the youth. These gains were evident in self-evaluations completed by the teachers. Additionally, 60% of parents of youth with EBD were recruited and participate regularly in parent support and advocacy groups. Efforts to integrate the project with local interagency teams have been somewhat less successful due to the current political and economic climate that has eliminated essential resource personnel on local teams. The Project Destiny model has merit for further replication and further analysis of student performance and will be completed in the final year of the project.