Editorial

The October 2023 edition of International Studies in Catholic Education included articles focusing on a range of topics relating to Catholic Education including the identity of Catholic schools, challenges for contemporary teachers of RE posed, primarily, by an enveloping secularisation, the contribution of Religious Orders to the Catholic Church’s education mission including case studies of three schools in Kenya, the Catholic approach to the teaching of physics to students in Catholic universities and concluded with a tripartite article, the inspiration of Founding Editor Professor Gerald Grace, focusing on gender equality.

In this edition, I am once again privileged to report that we are publishing articles from researchers across five continents, Asia, Australia, the United States and Canada, South America and Europe. The Editorial Board, therefore, continues to maintain the international reach of this journal.

The March edition begins with an article from Lebanon entitled Lebanese Catholic schools: past achievements and contemporary challenges in times of economic distress and COVID 19 pandemic. The impact of economic and political crises engulfing Lebanon on the education of young people, especially the poor, is discussed in a context in which two-thirds are taught in private education institutions including Catholic schools, founded by a variety of European Religious orders. A range of challenges for Catholic schools are discussed, encompassing financial, economic, religious pluralism and diversity and staff development, balanced by an articulation of the achievement of these schools. The second part of the article represents an analysis of a qualitative study engaged by 186 teachers from 12 Catholic Schools and concludes by outlining contemporary challenges encountered alongside a range of positive developments. Perhaps the finding with the most significant pertinence was

the accordance of all teachers with Catholic mission and values. These values including respect for diversity, love, forgiveness and empathy were the main reason for their choice of pursuing a career at a Catholic institution instead of any other school.

A quotation from Theodore and Nancy Sizer sets the context for the second article entitled Forming ‘men for others’: a phenomenological case study on the intersection of school culture and at-risk males.

To find the core of a school, don’t look at its rulebook or even its mission statement. Look at the way people in it spend their time – how they relate to each other, how they tangle with ideas. Look at the contradictions between words and practice, with the fewer the better. (Sizer and Sizer 1999, 18)

Reflecting Pope Paul VI’s iconic aphorism ‘modern man listens to teachers when they are witnesses’ (Evangelii Nuntiandi 1975, 41), this article, in essence, constitutes a phenomenological case study based on a Jesuit Preparatory school in the United States (Mid-West). The concept of service dominates the article, especially in relation to the culture of the school. The statement ‘perhaps most pertinent to current discussions in Catholic education, Jesuit Prep provides a vision where individual achievements and sacrifices for the common good are not at odds with each other’ encapsulates the central tenet of this article.

Moving from the first to the second largest Religious Order internationally, the third article represents a study of the digital skills of teachers in Salesian schools in Spain. Entitled The challenge of incorporating digital skills in the classroom: perceptions and attitudes of Spanish Salesian teachers, the article purports ‘to provide an accurate depiction of teachers’ perspectives, opinions, and attitudes towards ICT use in the educational sphere.’ The significant study sample, comprising 75% of teachers in Salesian schools in Spain, engaged in a comprehensive survey. While the negative correlations between age-experience and the use of digital tools could be regarded as expected and confirmatory of previous research, the suggestion that the model may be applicable to the comparison of digital competencies in teachers from different countries is of interest to the global leadership of ISCE. The authors could, perhaps, have alluded to St John Bosco’s offering students opportunities for educational advancement, thereby giving them reasons for living and hoping. Indeed, Bosco once stated that ‘I have always gone ahead as Our Lord inspired me and as circumstances required.’ (Ceria 1989) He refused to let himself be imprisoned within any plan or system which would have robbed him of his ability to meet the demands made by new situations. (see Lydon (2001)).

Turning from the technology to liturgy and from Spain to England and Wales, Active participation in Catholic school-based liturgy, this article casts light on the meaning of ‘active participation’ in the context of Diocesan inspectors and offers some reflections on how this term could be refined in order to make diocesan inspections more informative. Referenced 70 times in the article, the theme of ‘active participation’ is discussed comprehensively in the context of Catholic school education by means of a meta-analysis of seventy-seven diocesan inspection (Section 48) reports carried out by diocesan inspectors across four dioceses and two provinces of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The comparison of the different interpretations of ‘active participation’ among educational and liturgical scholars is illuminating and helpful. The article on this under-explored topic is certainly relevant for readers of this journal.

The aim of the fifth article, How do Catholic religion teachers approach death education in Chile?, is stated clearly in the abstract - to examine the teachers’ perspectives regarding the disposition they have when approaching death with their students, what theological knowledge they possess on the subject of death, and what relationship exists between the domain of this theological knowledge and readiness for education about death. The article comprises a balance between theological and pedagogical reflection and a quantitative analysis of two questionnaires, the first focusing on perception and disposition on death education and the second on the Catholic Church’s official teaching. The four conclusions are worthy of serious consideration, for example that death education requires solid theological training in eschatological issues. It could be argued that the hypothesis that death education engaged by teachers of Religious Education is more related to their own experiences and beliefs about death rather than the Catholic Church’s official teaching is worthy of testing in future studies.

In Integrating faith-based perspectives across the curriculum in Queensland Catholic schools: the potential of Catholic social teaching, Jim Gleeson, who has been published in this journal previously, makes an important contribution to the current debate around embedding Catholic Social Teaching in the curriculum of a Catholic school ‘at a time when neo-liberalism and market values are dominant’. Gleeson, helpfully, cites a definition of ‘neo-liberal’, an over-used and often ill-defined term alongside a discussion around market values and performativity. Adopting an action research approach, Gleeson arrives at some challenging concluding comments, for example ‘the prevailing predilection for generic rather than faith-based school purposes and characteristics raises significant challenges for faith-based education at a time when schools of all denominations and none aspire to educate for social justice and human rights.’ (OECD) He does, however, link his concerns with a positive reference to Pope Francis’ Global Compact on Catholic Education. This contribution to Catholic education studies internationally draws attention to the need for more projects which research the possibilities and challenges of integrating Catholic Social Teaching within curriculum content and new learning and teaching approaches.

An article in a Canadian context, Nonviolence and Catholic school sport: recommendations for supporting mission as drawn from a historical case study, links with the latter article in terms of the underlying holistic approach to education embedded in the provision of extra-curricular activities in all schools and, in particular, Catholic schools. This study is underpinned by an exploration of the contribution of a Basilian priest, Fr David Bauer, who regarded extra-curricular engagement as an important aspect of his Order’s charism. The author’s citation of Pope Francis’ reference to sport as ‘a place of personal encounter for people, a formation in virtue and fraternity’ connects integrally with Bauer’s conviction that engagement in sport reflected Jacques Maritain’s ‘true humanism’. The perspective of the education philosophy of St John Bosco is also signposted in relation to the ‘accompaniment’ dimension of sporting activities. The seven recommendations follow logically from the analysis.

Three book reviews conclude the March 2024 edition of ISCE. The Jesuit academic Fr Brendan Carmody SJ. has reviewed the following:

• A discerning Church: Pope Francis, Lonergan, and a theological method for the future: by G. Whelan, New York, Paulist Press, 2019, Pp. 1-xix; 1–232, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8091-5446-3 (pbk)

• A prophetic public church: witness to hope amid the global crises of the 21st century: by M. Doak, Collegeville, MN, Liturgical Press Academic, 2020, 234 pp., $29.95 (paperback), ISBN 9780814684757

A third review, detailed below, was submitted by Bernard Richard Nainggolan and colleagues from the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia & Universitas Kristen Maranatha, Bandung, Indonesia :

• Human development and the Catholic social tradition: towards an integral ecology by Séverine Deneulin, London & New York, Routledge, 2021, 118 pp., £48.99 (hardback), ISBN: 978-0-367-63961-7

The Editorial Board of ISCE is deeply grateful to academics who give generously of their time in agreeing to review articles.

Once more I hope that readers find the articles in this edition to be inspiring in the context of maintaining the integrity of their specific mission which forms part of the Catholic Church’s global education mission internationally. As indicated in this editorial, the articles incorporate a range of themes in relation to the Catholic Church’s education mission, combining vocation and profession. All present challenges which are applicable beyond the contexts within which they were written. Responses to articles are welcome and could, potentially, be included in future editions of International Studies in Catholic Education.