Sessions: Monday, 29 June

This study investigates how inclusive education reforms take root and are sustained within a large, mission-driven school system. While moral imperatives, legal mandates, and strong evidence support inclusive service-delivery, implementation remains uneven—even among schools that share policies, resources, and theological commitments. Catholic schools face a dual charge: to uphold Catholic social teaching on human dignity and the common good, and to comply with federal requirements such as Section 504, which emphasize equitable access to general-education settings when appropriate. Yet schools within the same diocese vary widely in their capacity to enroll and educate students with disabilities. Focusing on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, this multiple-case study examines schools where inclusive practices have taken deeper root, analyzes how they sustain momentum, and generates actionable insights to guide system-wide reform. It addresses two research questions: (1) What contextual conditions and underlying mechanisms explain how select schools enroll relatively high numbers of students with disabilities? and (2) In what manners do these schools implement inclusive education in practice? The study integrates Systems Theory and Organizational Learning Theory with Realist Evaluation to explain how interdependent subsystems: policy, leadership, resources, and culture, shape reform, and how collaborative inquiry and adaptive capacity activate mechanisms that sustain change. It also draws on equity-centered improvement approaches, including the Street Data framework, to ensure local qualitative knowledge informs system learning. Using a mixed-methods, multiple-case design, the study selects four Catholic elementary schools identified by archdiocesan leaders as demonstrating relatively strong inclusion practices. Data include interviews with educators and central-office leaders, classroom and routine observations, document analysis, and actor mapping, coded in Dedoose using inductive and deductive strategies. Cross-case synthesis will identify recurring patterns and context-specific dynamics to inform coherent, sustainable pathways for inclusion across Catholic and other school systems.

In many Catholic schools, girls receive direct and indirect messages that “math is not for you” (Boaler, 2016; Leyva, 2017). In Northern Nigeria, entrenched cultural norms and gendered expectations discourage many girls from pursuing mathematics and from imagining STEM as part of their future (Saliu & Aleru, 2018; Yewande, 2023; Onoshakpor, 2024). This paper explores how girls in a Catholic secondary school in Northern Nigeria navigate learning mathematics in a context where gender norms suggest that “math is not for girls”. The study investigates the Triangle Mathematics Club (TMC), an after-school program that supports students’ interest and engagement in mathematics and further shapes the way girls talk about their enjoyment of mathematics, their willingness to persist with difficult problems, and their mathematics identity. Quantitatively, the study asks whether participation in TMC is associated with increases in interest and engagement. Qualitatively, it explores how girls describe changes in their attitudes. Informed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978), the study uses a convergent mixed-methods case study design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). Quantitative data come from Qualtrics surveys with 60 students. Qualitative data include individual interviews with 15 students and focus group discussions with 60 students over a school year. Survey data are analyzed descriptively, and qualitative data are coded using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Preliminary survey results suggest increased interest and engagement in mathematics by TMC members, and girls experience the TMC as a safe space where mistakes are acceptable, productive struggle is promoted, and students support one another.

Drawing from the results of Boston College’s National Study Examining Hispanic Parent Engagement in Catholic Schools, which collected survey, focus group, and interview data from Hispanic and non-Hispanic parents in Catholic schools in 2025, attendees will be immersed in a critical and transformative look at Hispanic parent engagement in Catholic schools. Specifically, attendees will be given a brief overview about the contributions of Hispanic families to Catholic schools, their patterns of engagement, and the barriers typically faced by Hispanic families in embracing their role as primary educators (Hamman-Ortiz, Reyes, Sada, 2024; Paredes Scribner & Fernández, 2017). Attendees will walk away with actionable strategies to engage families.

This presentation offers an autoethnographic case study of initial Catholic teacher formation within the University of Glasgow’s undergraduate primary education programme. It is authored by two fourth-year student teachers, who analyse the formation of effective pedagogues and authentic Catholic witnesses by considering two strands of formation; the academic and the faith based. Methodologically, the paper employs autoethnographic inquiry and a reflective-practitioner framework, engaging hermeneutical and phenomenological lenses. We analyse how effectively the academic strand of the course equips student teachers with pedagogical knowledge and theological understanding. Additionally, we analyse aspects of faith formation through considering experiences of community, liturgy, retreat, and pilgrimage. In particular, the case study will analyse the role of pilgrimage as a unique aspect of formation that is transformative for developing Catholic educators in four ways; improving their relationships, faith formation, socio-political and intercultural understanding and ultimately, teaching practice. Additionally, we will analyse the impact of authentic Catholic mentorship and student-staff partnerships considering how such encounters inspire student teachers to place Gospel values, including love and service, at the heart of their teaching. A guiding question of the study concerns what constitutes successful Catholic teacher formation, extending beyond the attainment of a professional qualification towards conceptualisation of successful formation as transformation into a genuine Catholic witness. We also identify areas for development as the course undergoes reaccreditation. This autoethnographic case study offers a unique perspective and contribution to the field of Catholic education, through the voices of those who are entrusted with the future of Catholic education. 

“Mission integration is fundamentally a spiritual task.” This is the foundational principle that guided the creation of the Congregation of Holy Cross’s new formation program for lay collaborators in our educational mission. This session acknowledges that a diversity of people are joining our faculty and staff teams at all of our sponsored colleges and universities in the US, each with a different understanding of and perspective on Catholic education. We sought to explore how not to resort to simply training people to do their work “the Holy Cross way,” but rather truly form our collaborators hearts to think critically about the resonance between their own personal mission and the mission of the Congregation whose apostolate they are serving. This session will chronicle the creation of “Focusing on Hope Mission Reflection Model” and the successes of its implementation over the past 2 years. We will review the literature—in both theological reflection and in organizational decision making—that grounds the model, the pedagogical theories used to shape the model, the theology that informs the model, and the data we have collected over the past two years that we use to assess the Model. The Focusing on Hope mission reflection tool provides collaborators a concrete way of engaging the mission through 6 steps, which facilitate spiritual thinking for even the most novice collaborator. Experiences of adapting the model to include various settings in K-12 education and insight for other institutions and communities who are looking to create similar resources for formation will be offered.

Drawing on emerging research and lived experience at Xaverian Brothers High School, we will explore how brief, often overlooked interactions—passing in the hallway, beginning a class, informal conversations between colleagues—serve as primary sites of authentic human connection. These moments, when approached with intention and presence, cultivate belonging, trust, and shared purpose. For Catholic educators, this understanding resonates deeply with our tradition: the Incarnation reminds us that grace is mediated through the ordinary. When schools attend to these daily encounters, they not only strengthen community but also foster environments where adults feel known, valued, and supported. Participants will leave with practical strategies for noticing, naming, and nurturing these moments in their own contexts. By embedding formation into the natural rhythms of the school day, we can build cultures of authentic community that sustain teacher wellbeing, increase retention, and deepen vocational fulfillment. Ultimately, this work invites us to see our schools not as places where formation happens occasionally, but as communities where it unfolds continuously—one small moment at a time.

To enact mission-aligned, holistic formative education of students in our Catholic schools, teachers and school leaders must also attend to their own holistic formation and ongoing development. Through a unique university-network-school partnership model, the United States (US)-based Cristo Rey Network has partnered with the Boston College Roche Center for Catholic Education to offer a Teacher Leadership Academy (TLA), a professional development opportunity for network teachers to be holistically formed as teacher-leaders (TLs). The TLA is grounded in a commitment to adult learning and continuous improvement, which then impacts the formation of students in Cristo Rey Network schools across the US. 

This presentation session offers a case study of teacher-leader formation in practice through this unique TLA partnership design, including insights for attendees to consider in their respective global Catholic school contexts. Session participants include an alumnus of the TLA program continuing in a teacher-leadership role at their Cristo Rey school; the principal of that TLA alumnus who provided support during the program; and a leadership team member of the Cristo Rey Network and a team member from the Boston College Roche Center for Catholic Education who have collaborated to design and facilitate the program. 

This paper examines an underexplored area in the literature: how Catholic ethos is intentionally understood, enacted, and embodied by leaders in Catholic primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. While official Church documents outline a clear vision of Catholic school ethos, and recent studies have explored how ethos and identity are experienced in practice, there is limited empirical research focusing specifically on the role of school leaders in shaping and sustaining this ethos within their schools. Catholic primary school leaders face significant challenges in developing ethos in a systematic and purposeful way. The scale of the sector is notable, with approximately 88 per cent of primary schools having a Catholic patron, despite a declining proportion of the population identifying as Catholic. This context is further complicated by increasing cultural and religious diversity among pupils and by younger staff members who often have weaker connections to, or less confidence in, a Catholic tradition. Research indicates that while staff commonly support ethos-related values such as inclusion and environmental responsibility, fewer than half view making Jesus Christ known as a central educational aim. In addition, Catholic patrons face constraints due to reduced personnel and financial resources, limiting their capacity to provide consistent structural and formation supports for school leaders and staff. This study explores the experiences of five principals who are actively committed to nurturing and strengthening Catholic ethos in their schools. It investigates the challenges they encounter, the strategies they employ, and the policies and practices they find effective. The aim is to identify transferable models of good practice that can support other school leaders and to consider the implications of these findings for Catholic school patrons.

In the spirit of cultivating hearts and minds for wellbeing, collegiality and missionary discipleship, this presentation explores the formative potential of accompaniment as a support process for leadership vitality and resilience. Drawing from research that identified accompaniment as a salutogenic process; linking body, mind, and spirit, the work defines and applies four core capabilities within a practice-based education framework. Presence enables authentic engagement, Relationship nurtures collegial trust, Awareness expands self and systemic understanding, and Contemplation grounds discernment in faith and meaning. Together, these interrelated capabilities cultivate wholeness, resilience, and mission responsiveness, forming an integrated framework for leadership support. By integrating theological, psychological, and educational perspectives, accompaniment emerges as a transformative process that renews leaders’ sense of purpose and strengthens the culture of mission across Catholic educational communities. 

Educators increasingly recognize that schooling must extend beyond academic achievement to nurture students’ moral, social-emotional, civic, and spiritual development. Within whole-person educational approaches, Jesuit formative education offers a distinctive framework grounded in cura personalis, or care for the whole person, and an understanding of human flourishing that integrates intellect, emotion, ethics, and spirituality. This qualitative case study examines how Catholic education leaders and arts educators understand dance education as a pathway to whole-person formation. We ask how Catholic education leaders and their arts education partners view dance as one avenue toward formative education. Using a qualitative case study design, we examined the Dancing with the Students program, which provides ballroom dance instruction to Catholic schools with limited access to arts education. Data sources included semi-structured interviews with nine participants, four Catholic education leaders and five DWTS staff, as well as program artifacts, media materials, and curriculum documents. Data were analyzed inductively using formative education as an interpretive lens. Three themes emerged. First, dance supported integrated student development across intellectual, physical, social-emotional, and spiritual dimensions, cultivating confidence, self-respect, and reverence for others. Second, participation encouraged students to explore new possibilities and envision hopeful futures, fostering courage and perseverance. Third, dance strengthened community by connecting students, educators, families, and broader communities through shared practice and public performance. Findings illustrate how ballroom dance, grounded in formative education principles, advances cura personalis through embodied learning. This study highlights the vital role of arts partnerships and relational leadership in animating whole-person education in Catholic school contexts, revealing how movement becomes a powerful site of formation.

Catholic pre-secondary and secondary schools in the United States are unique settings where an increasing number of students who are “nones,” non-practicing Catholics, or non-Catholics, co-exist with devout Catholic students.  An increasing number of students with no prior liturgical experience or formation are expected to regularly worship in their school communities.  How can educators, campus ministers, and liturgical musicians work to  propose (and not impose) our varied Catholic rituals and diverse legacy of sacred and liturgical music in ways that are authentic, meaningful, and inviting to diverse student populations?  How can we plan and execute prayer services and liturgies in our school contexts that help students, who might be engaging in communal prayer for the first time, encounter the transcendent?  Many workshops and professional development opportunities exist for those involved in parish worship but not for school contexts, where the worshipping population is quite different.  This led to the Jesuits East inaugural Colloquium on Worship held in Boston in March 2026.  Theologians, liturgists, liturgical musicians, composers, campus ministers, graduate students, and educators from Jesuit, Catholic schools across the United States gathered to hear from keynote speakers, engage in collaborative workshops and breakout sessions, and dialogue about the future of worship in Catholic schools.  This presentation will share the fruits of the March 2026 Colloquium on Worship and discuss future exploration of how worship in Catholic schools can shape the hearts and souls of students.

This presentation explores how block scheduling can provide a good foundation for implementing formative education in settings such as Catholic education. By integrating formative pedagogy into the immersive structure of condensed scheduling, this approach can promote whole-person development, increase student engagement, and encourage meaningful (socially responsible) and spiritual learning. In this context, the block schedule allows students to take one course at a time in an intensive, three-and-a-half-week time period called a block. The presentation outlines an exploratory initiative to integrate formative education principles into this scheduling model through three essential strategies: Reflection and spiritual values, engaged learning, and faculty development. The presentation also features an example of integrating formative education into the block in a Catholic-inspired classroom setting using a business course offered by the presenter. Overall, this work proposes a scalable framework for whole-person education that is embedded in time-intensive teaching.

The Catholic Special Character Improvement Framework (CSCIF) is a newly developed model designed to strengthen Catholic special character (CSC) within Aotearoa New Zealand’s Catholic schools. Drawing on the national Education Review Office’s (ERO) School Improvement Framework and the New Zealand Catholic Education Office’s Catholic Special Character Evaluation for Development, the CSCIF aligns national expectations for student success with the mission of Catholic education. The framework brings together four key dimensions—Encounter with Christ, Growth in Knowledge of Christ and his church, Christian Witness, and Safeguarding and Strengthening CSC—and maps them onto a continuum of practice that progresses from ‘improvement required’ to ‘excelling.’ This continuum provides schools with a clear pathway for evaluating and enhancing their CSC. Embedded throughout the model are the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and culturally responsive practices, ensuring authentic partnership with Māori. The CSCIF supports both internal and external CSC evaluation processes and can strengthen improvement conversations and planning across school communities. It will equip leaders, school boards, and staff to set robust goals that ensure every student has meaningful opportunities to encounter Christ, grow in faith and knowledge, and live as authentic Christian witnesses. 

Many Catholic schools recognize the need for renewal, yet school leaders often struggle with the most pressing question: how does cultural change actually happen? Articulating a vision for Catholic education is one thing; guiding educators and schools into a coherent, lived Catholic culture is another. This presentation offers a practical framework for cultural renewal drawn from the Diocese of Columbus’ system-wide efforts. At the core of this work is a clear conviction: Catholic identity cannot remain aspirational or programmatic. It must become an incarnational culture—visible, coherent, and consistently practiced. Renewal in Columbus has focused on three interconnected priorities: establishing a shared mission rooted in the Church’s understanding of the human person; developing a common language that enables educators to articulate and apply a Catholic worldview; and building system-wide structures that support culture in daily practice. These priorities draw on the Church’s teaching on Catholic schools, the Five Essential Marks, and the contemporary call for educators to serve confidently in an apostolic age. This framework is distinguished by its attention to how change unfolds. Cultural renewal does not occur through mandates or one-time initiatives. It requires accompanying educators through the predictable stages of change—enthusiasm, resistance, uncertainty, and eventual integration—using clear expectations, sustained formation, and incremental steps. In Columbus, this has included a new diocesan Religion Course of Study, aligned assessment practices, a mission-focused Office of Catholic Schools, and multi-year educator formation. Equally important is an iterative approach: acting, assessing, refining, and adjusting. Renewal has endured not because initiatives were perfect, but because leaders committed to learning alongside teachers and principals. This presentation offers a transferable framework, practical tools, and guiding questions to help leaders foster authentic Catholic culture with clarity, confidence, and hope. 

This proposal straddles paper submission, presentation, and workshop in a  truly ‘otherness’ (Babar) way seeking to share,  replicate and progress curricula best practice within a global vision for Catholic Educators to ‘see’ differently with and for marginalised,  visually impaired (VI) and blind communities of learning. The session has four overarching aims: 1. to bring an awareness of VI barriers to learning, lack of opportunity and employability from a synthesis of international research evidence,  2. to chart the development of and present a peer reviewed academic  ‘formula’ to colleagues and the research community for reflection in direct answer to the needs of VI individuals and communities locally and internationally,  3. to showcase immediately replicable and locally adaptable project-based learning opportunities underpinned by the academic formula aimed at creating measurable outcomes acknowledged as being connected through  ‘social capital’ ( i.e. lower crime, better health, increased employment ) and driven through creativity and innovation,  4. to highlight the unique, natural synergy between Church, Catholic Social Teaching and Social Action empowering the co-construction of future outcomes driven curricula generated between schools, universities and new venture creation businesses.

Sports in Catholic schools have often been a lightning rod issue. Opponents argue that sports distract from academic and religious learning and minimize the value of Sunday worship at the parish level. At their worst, sports can promote the cult of the body, glorify a celebrity culture, and endorse a materialistic lifestyle. Despite these critiques, sports have continuously been a part of Catholic schooling over the past two centuries. Their resiliency continues in global Catholic schooling: from recreational programs to high-octane high school sport.

This paper will examine the future of sports in Catholic schools in two parts. First, it is valuable to identify how church teachings have responded to the ever-evolving sporting world. Sports have undergone significant changes over the past century and risk becoming increasingly club-focused, skills-driven, and all-consuming in the lives of sporting youth. Vatican II and post-conciliar teaching about sport has responded to these concerns with a spirit of hope in what is best about sports: sport as a universal phenomenon, as a means of peace and fraternity, as a coming together of spirit and body, as a celebration of human and team spirit, as joy and fun, and as a means to excellence and discipline. Second, this presentation will provide North American and UK examples of educators in Catholic schools engaging sports in ways that counter an over-commercialized sporting model and endorse an approach that centers on the development of human persons living in community as a unity of body and spirit. 

In “Drawing New Maps of Hope,” the 2025 Apostolic Letter that marked the sixtieth anniversary of Gravissimum Educationis, Pope Leo called Christian education a “choral work.” There, he appealed to music’s ability to create community, foster cooperation, and instill a sense of unity.  In this sense, Pope Leo is consistent with his predecessors who appropriated musical language to convey significant truths.  Pope Francis, for instance, likened the synodal church to an orchestra; Pope Benedict compared Christ to a divine conductor; and Pope John Paul II has consistently reinforced music’s ability to convey Beauty as a path to God. 

While Pope Leo did not discuss music curriculum in that document, this paper proposes that music pedagogy can be a way to expand and deepen Pope Leo’s ideas.  Even if one does not actually conduct choirs or teach harmonic theory, principles from music educational methods can broaden approaches to teaching and learning in Catholic schools.  To accomplish this, this study will interface with three music educators in order to add, and thereby enrich, the education “constellation” which Pope Leo has sketched.  From the musicologist and music educator Christopher Small, we will see how music making attunes individuals to relationships.  From the composer James MacMillan, we can appreciate how music promotes participation, inclusion, and belonging.   And from the choral director James Jordan, we will see how an ethic of music making can help foster an internal spiritual disposition of kenosis. 

By invoking music imagery, Pope Leo unlocks music’s potential to inform and broaden methodologies, so that all involved in the enterprise of Christian education—regardless if one makes actual music—might find their own respective voice and draw wisdom from the wellspring of pedagogies.

This paper presents the design, vision, and theological grounding of the Folláine Formation Programme, a six-month professional formation initiative developed for Catholic school leaders in Ireland. Rooted in the Irish concept of folláine—meaning wholeness, flourishing, and soundness—the programme responds to a growing need for leadership formation that is ethically grounded, spiritually nourishing, and contextually responsive. Drawing explicitly on Pope Francis’ Global Compact on Education, the paper explores how Folláine seeks to re-centre leadership on the human person, renew relationships, and cultivate cultures of dialogue, inclusion, and hope within Catholic schools. The programme integrates Catholic anthropology, Gospel-inspired leadership, contemporary educational research (including GRACE studies), and the lived wisdom of school leaders navigating increasingly complex and secularised contexts. Structured around monthly leadership virtues—such as Faith, Leadership, Áitíocht (radical hospitality), and Integrity—Folláine combines reflective practice, discernment tools, relational mapping, and mission-focused planning. Rather than offering techniques alone, it prioritises formation over performance, attending to the interior life of the leader as inseparable from ethical decision-making and communal flourishing. The paper outlines the conceptual framework underpinning the programme and reflects on its potential to foster faith-rooted leadership, support personal and collective discernment, and embody the aims of the Global Compact on Education in practical, culturally resonant ways. It argues for the urgent importance of renewed formation pathways for Catholic leaders and offers Folláine as a concrete model of participation, encounter, and transformation in contemporary Catholic education.

Research shows data-informed leadership matters for school improvement and student achievement, but less is known about how leaders use data efficiently and effectively toward such outcomes and how they can build a strong data culture within a school, particularly in the Catholic school context. Although Catholic schools in many places are not required to meet accountability standards, they have a natural entrée into this data work as they share a commitment to a whole child approach to education as well as common ideals of honoring the dignity of each individual and helping them to fully flourish as students and people. Thus, the effective use of data by a school community can help ensure that the needs of all students are met and that the Catholic school is fulfilling its mission to offer an excellent academic education. Through a descriptive year-long case study, we examine data culture and practices within one urban Catholic K-8 elementary school committed to inclusion and recognized for high student growth and achievement. Our findings provide a nuanced understanding of the factors associated with data culture and illuminate specific strategies and practical routines that help develop and sustain a productive data culture in the Catholic school context. Importantly, while recent scholarship suggests school leaders may view data-informed leadership as dissonant with a broader mission of holistic formation, this case provides a model of successful intersection between mission and measurement anchored in service to human flourishing.

Catholic schools seek to educate students holistically—intellectually, morally, socially, and spiritually—through a distinctive commitment to formative education. While this mission is articulated through curriculum frameworks and system priorities, its enactment depends largely on teachers’ capacity to embody and mediate formation within classroom practice. This is particularly evident in Religious Education (RE), where teachers are expected to integrate theological understanding, pedagogical skill, and personal witness of faith. This paper offers a theoretical exploration of teacher formation in Catholic schools, drawing on international and Australian literature in theology, religious education, and teacher professional learning. The analysis is situated in the Australian context, where Catholic schools employ predominantly lay teachers, most of whom hold generalist teaching qualifications and limited formal theological training. Research indicates that many primary teachers feel underprepared and lack confidence in teaching RE, despite diocesan systems mandating comprehensive curricula and adopting frameworks designed to sustain Catholic identity. This tension between system expectations and teacher readiness provides the starting point for the study. The paper develops its argument in four parts: first, outlining the theological and educational foundations of formative education; second, synthesising literature that highlights gaps between mandated curricula and teachers’ lived classroom confidence; third, examining professional development as holistic formation rather than technical training; and fourth, exploring the role of spiritual formation in supporting authentic faith education. It argues that student formation is deeply dependent on the ongoing formation of teachers. The paper concludes by proposing a conceptual framework for teacher formation that integrates curriculum, professional learning, and spiritual growth, offering insights for leaders and policymakers seeking to sustain the mission of Catholic education in contemporary contexts. 

Catholic schools face a formative crisis: while we excel at articulating holistic student development, we often neglect parallel formation of educators themselves. This workshop presents summer sabbaticals as an innovative K-12 professional development model that embodies Catholic anthropology through whole-person educator renewal. Drawing on the Roche Center's Whole Child Framework and professional capital theory, we demonstrate how intentional sabbatical investments yield extraordinary returns across spiritual, cognitive, social, emotional, and physical domains. The presentation will highlight compelling case studies from an Augustinian school, including a theology teacher's Rome pilgrimage during Pope Leo XIV's historic papacy and a drama educator's Broadway immersion. Participants will examine concrete evidence of transformative impact on vocational commitment, curriculum innovation, and institutional culture. The workshop provides practical implementation frameworks addressing financial sustainability, equitable access, and mission alignment, empowering leaders to design sabbatical programs suited to their contexts while honoring educators as bearers of Imago Dei deserving generous investment. 

This paper explores how teachers in Italian Jesuit schools envision the future of education when engaged in strategic foresight processes. Inspired by UNESCO’s Reimagining Our Futures Together (2021), the study investigates educators’ perspectives on future developments in Jesuit Education in the Italian context and their responses to global educational challenges. The research adopts a mixed-methods design articulated in two phases. The first phase consists of a survey administered to teachers to collect quantitative and qualitative data, including reflective responses to prompts derived from the UNESCO 2021 report. These prompts address global challenges, educational responsibilities, and desired transformations. The second phase involves foresight workshops in which teachers engage in binary scenario-building methods adapted to educational contexts and integrated with reflective practices informed by the Ignatian pedagogical tradition. The theoretical framework integrates three perspectives: futures studies, with particular attention to futures literacy, systemic thinking, and the exploration of multiple possible futures; the conceptual framework of the UNESCO 2021 report, especially its proposal for a renewed social contract grounded in justice, cooperation, and sustainability; and the Ignatian educational ethos, emphasizing holistic formation, discernment, and responsibility for the common good. The contribution will present the methodological structure of the study, key findings from the survey, selected scenarios developed during the workshops, and a reflective discussion on how teachers negotiate the relationship between UNESCO’s call for a renewed social contract and the identity, mission, and pedagogical commitments of Jesuit schooling. By examining how educators imagine educational futures supported by anticipatory frameworks and Ignatian reflection, the study contributes to international debates on educational futures and long-term transformation in holistic education.

This presentation explores how student discipline is understood and enacted within a Catholic high school guided by the mission and charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. Drawing on data from a qualitative case study conducted at a Brothers of the Sacred Heart high school in the Northeastern United States, this presentation examines how teachers and administrators interpret discipline as a formative process rooted in reflection, relational trust, dignity, and hope in student potential. Participants will be invited to reflect on how their own school’s mission and charism influence disciplinary approaches and how discipline can serve as a powerful tool for whole-person formation. This session is particularly relevant for those seeking to align disciplinary practices more intentionally with their school’s identity. 

Shown, Known, and Grown is an actionable model for integrating virtue formation into school life. Drawing on the experience of Northmount School, a Catholic independent boys’ school in Toronto, the session will show how a school can cultivate environments where virtues are demonstrated by adults, explicitly taught, and deliberately pursued by students. Shown focuses on witness, modeling, and the formative power of culture. Students learn virtue most deeply when they regularly see it lived out. At Northmount, faculty understand themselves as formators whose daily interactions serve as an implicit curriculum. Their example points students toward Christ, the perfect model of human virtue. Known highlights the importance of explicit and intentional instruction. Virtue formation requires clarity and structured opportunities for reflection. Northmount’s “Character Corner” curriculum provides this foundation through lessons, stories, discussions, and practical applications that help boys understand each virtue and recognize its relevance in daily life. Grown addresses the internalization of virtue - the point at which students begin to take ownership of their moral development and actively seek to form virtuous habits. Drawing on contemporary insights into habit formation, Northmount structures routines, mentorship relationships, service opportunities, and goal-setting practices to help students move from externally encouraged behaviours to internally anchored habits. Taken together, Shown, Known, and Grown offers a holistic framework for virtue formation. It presents a practical pathway for Catholic schools seeking to place character at the heart of their mission and operations. Participants will leave the session with a clear vision, actionable strategies, and program models that can be adapted to a variety of school contexts - helping educators form students who do not simply learn about the virtues but begin to live them as the foundation for a flourishing life.

The concept of formation, which broadly construes the purposes of education as holistically promoting students' growth, is a global phenomenon (OECD, 2017). Formation attends to academic, socioemotional, and ethical, moral, and spiritual dimensions of personhood (Wortham et al., 2020, 2021), and is a particularly salient framework in the field of Catholic education (Wyttenbach et al., 2023). Formation becomes critical when it focuses on confronting systemic inequities. Critical formation is a powerful and underutilized strategy for educators to advance educational equity (Scanlan, 2023). In this paper we explore how critical formation influences the education of students with disabilities in Catholic schools around the globe. We examine two questions: Internationally, to what degree do Catholic schools describe commitments to educating students with disabilities in manners reflecting critical formation? To what degree are these commitments substantiated by empirical evidence? To address these questions, we are conducting a systematic review of literature. We are reviewing articles in peer reviewed academic journals and formal reports from public and private agencies published from 2000 - 2025. We are organizing our findings into three pools of schools, based on three predominant funding models found in the field of Catholic education around the globe: Primarily state-funded models (e.g., Netherlands) rely almost exclusively on public funding from the government, and do not charge tuition. Partially state-funded models (e.g., Australia, Canada, Chile, some of USA) rely on significant public funds, sometimes in the form of vouchers, alongside private funding from tuition and philanthropic sources. Privately funded models (e.g., much of Asia and Africa, some of USA) rely exclusively on private funding from tuition and philanthropic sources. Across these three models, we first describe espoused commitments, as evidenced through official documentation (e.g., Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science; Australia National Catholic Education Commission), policies (e.g., Provincial Education Acts, Canada) and other guidance (e.g., National Standards and Benchmarks of Effective Catholic Schools, USA ). We then examine the language of these commitments vis-a-vis the concept of critical formation. We then report published empirical evidence, either from reports or academic publications, regarding educating students with disabilities. We organize our findings accordingly: first comparing and contrasting the espoused commitments to educating students with disabilities across these three models, then comparing and contrasting the empirical evidence substantiating these commitments. We conclude our paper by discussing implications for research, policy, and practice. To ground these implications, we highlight an example of an exemplary school within each of the three funding models. For a primarily state-funded example, we discuss St. Christopher’s Primary School, an elementary school in Dublin, Ireland. For a partially state-funded model we describe Divine Savior Holy Angels, a secondary school in Milwaukee, USA. For a privately funded model we feature St. Joseph’s Marist College, a combined elementary and secondary school in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 1999 the National Catholic Educational Association (USA) published my text, Character and the Contemplative Principal as part of their leadership monograph series. This monograph was the result of my years as a practitioner (teacher, school counselor, principal) and an attempt to link theory and practice. After more than 25 years of refining the key concepts of contemplative leadership introduced in the monograph: the integration of leadership decision making, reflection, and the Catholic worldview, I have better articulated the desired outcome of contemplative leadership: a formative faith learning internship school community. Explaining and clarifying this school community and why it serves the faith formation mission of our Catholic schools, continues the concept’s development. As with all internships, the faith learning internship requires that students (“trainees”) experience faith living witnesses (“mentors”). All adults within the school community; teachers, staff, coaches, parents, and benefactors, become the agents for students to not only learn faith knowledge, but experience how mature witnesses demonstrate the faith through virtuous living. Comparable to an immersion language learning program, the faith internship is an immersion into faith living. A description of my research and life experiences that informed contemplative practice as a leadership model, what I have learned over the years visiting many Catholic schools in the USA and abroad, and how I observed a faith internship implemented---though perhaps without that designation--- will be points of discussion. Further research on contemplative leadership and a faith internship community will be encouraged. 

This paper presents a work-in-progress doctoral study examining how governance structures within Catholic post-primary schools in Ireland enable or inhibit the enactment of mission and formation. Catholic education has long understood formation as the integration of intellectual, moral and spiritual development. In the Irish context, this formative purpose is mediated through Boards of Management, which hold significant responsibility for school governance while operating within a highly regulated state system. Situated within a pragmatic paradigm informed by interpretivist and constructivist assumptions, the study approaches mission as a lived and contextually mediated reality rather than a fixed doctrinal principle. Drawing on contemporary literature in Catholic education, governance and trusteeship, the paper explores how Board members interpret Catholic mission, how it is prioritised within governance practices, and what structural or relational factors shape its enactment in leadership and decision-making. The research employs a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, beginning with a national survey of Board members, followed by in-depth qualitative interviews. While data collection is forthcoming, this presentation outlines the study’s conceptual framework, methodological design, and key themes emerging from the literature. These include tensions between compliance and mission, variability in governance formation, and uncertainty regarding how ecclesial guidance informs practical decision-making. The Irish case is used to illuminate broader international questions concerning trustee-led governance models, Church–state relations, and the capacity of Catholic school governance to sustain authentic formation in contemporary educational contexts. 

In this theoretical paper, I explore the nature of a uniquely Benedictine approach to the spiritual formation of teachers in Catholic education. I argue that Benedictine teacher formation is ultimately rooted in, and structured by, the monastic practice of lectio divina. Basing teacher formation on the method of lectio divina entails bringing the teacher to envision the presence of God in all things. In this way, a Benedictine approach to teacher formation is seen less as a means to intellectual progress, and more so a path to the spiritual growth of the teacher. In the first part of the paper, I explain the method of lectio divina as a form of textual exegesis and then show how lectio forms the basis of an approach to teacher formation. Such an approach culminates in the transformation of the teacher as one who understands and experiences the process of learning, ultimately, as the human expression of the desire for communion with God. The second part of the paper is less theoretical and more practical as I report on the Pietas teacher formation program coordinated by the Portsmouth Institute for Faith and Culture. I show how this program is nourished by the method of lectio divina, bringing teachers into a contemplative celebration of the Catholic intellectual and liturgical tradition. I conclude by suggesting that the spiritual formation of teachers in Catholic education would benefit from a variety of approaches rooted in the various charisms of the faith. 

My presentation will delve into the exploration of whole school wellbeing initiatives, with a specific emphasis on the implementation of the Resilience Project within our context and how it aligns our school values. I will highlight the various strategies and activities that have been introduced to enhance student wellbeing and emotional intelligence to build a stronger, more connected community. In addition to student wellbeing, we recognize the importance of prioritizing teacher wellbeing in the current educational environment. I will also discuss the challenges teachers face and the essential measures needed to support their mental and emotional health so that they can create a sustainable future in this important vocation. Finally, I will emphasize the significance of leader wellbeing through another real-world example of how Brisbane Catholic Education has worked with Ford Health to provide Executive Health Checks for all system leaders. By showcasing successful strategies for student, teacher, and leader wellbeing within our Catholic school communities, I aim to foster authentic dialogue to share best practices. This approach will help us build sustainable systems and processes for overall wellbeing. 

The basis for the Paper, ‘Mentoring beginning teachers of religious education: the historical insights gained from beginning teachers, principals and executive leaders on the formation of Early Career Teachers (ECTs) in Catholic schools’, is a historical, comparative study stemming from the original Ph D study undertaken by the author in 2017, based on the trial initial ECT program. More recently, the author’s involvement in studies exploring the most recent iteration of the ECT program has found old challenges resurfacing for the mentoring of Early Career Teachers as well as new discoveries (Topliss, Lavery, Hicks and Dickson, 2025). The initial Mixed Methods PhD study identified and explored the mentoring experiences in the transition from graduate to Early Career Teacher (ECT), in selected Catholic primary and secondary schools in Western Australia. The research addressed a significant deficit as, the lack of a system-wide framework for the mentoring of ECTs, the cessation of the trial ECT program and the limited training of mentors, resulted in less-than-ideal mentoring experiences for ECTs. A chief finding was that the guarantee of a mentor does not necessarily alleviate every problem faced by an ECT.  Arising from the latest study involving teachers in the new ECT Program, challenges originally found in the initial trial program continued to persist for today’s teachers, including job security, mentoring support, classroom management difficulties, mentor availability, and lack of formal mentor training. On the basis of findings arising from author’s PhD and recent research investigations, principles for a new mentoring framework are proposed. 

Today there is increasing recognition that school communities are a formative experience to enable students to become good human persons. Developing student’s character is necessary to enable students to flourish. Character education then permeates the entire school community and subjects. It aims to enable students to acquire the virtues to develop the capacity to make good choices to live well. Consequently, several school-based programs have been created to help students to develop character strengths. Empirical evidence demonstrates how developing character strengths are significant for learning, academic achievement, and social-emotional development. These empirical studies provide invaluable insights, however, they often rely almost exclusively on the scientific method, neglecting the wisdom of philosophy and theology for the spiritual dimension of the human person. This paper seeks to provide an enriched framework for Catholic character formation in schools that is derived and inspired by an Aristotelian-Thomistic understanding of human nature and education. It will combine insights from the theology and philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas with the best of contemporary psychological and educational empirical findings and theory. It aims to demonstrate that to educate the whole child it is necessary to draw upon biophysical, psychosocial, and spiritual elements of cognition, emotion, and social development. For Catholic Christian educators, human flourishing in the classroom begins when students become aware that they are infinitely loved by God and called to a unique purpose and meaning in life. It will conclude by providing pedagogical approaches to promote the development of virtues across the curriculum. 

Competing interpretations of Catholic identity, culture, and ethos present significant challenges for supporting school leaders who aim to be compelling witnesses to Gospel values. While Catholic education is inherently transformative, school communities encounter daily demands, including teaching and learning, administrative responsibilities, financial management, and communication with parents. These pressures are further exacerbated by societal influences and cultural clashes, which complicate the school environment. One way to address these challenges is by establishing solid foundations rooted in the theological convictions of Catholicism. Returning to these core beliefs enables schools to identify, proclaim, protect, and celebrate their shared faith within the educational setting. This approach fosters a unified sense of purpose and community, providing a conceptual framework for transformative Catholic education. Through this framework, teachers, leaders, and parents can build meaningful connections between home, school, church, and society, creating relationships that are both life-giving and inviting. Recent research has outlined various standards, benchmarks, and criteria for Catholic schools, complemented by official Church teaching, which offers a broad range of ideas and propositions to guide Catholic education. Despite these resources, Catholic schools display considerable variability due to cultural differences, many of which are influenced by the availability of public funding. Limited human and financial resources contribute to the diverse character and texture of Catholic schools across different locations. At the heart of every Catholic institution are the central mysteries of the faith, which are the non-negotiable elements of Catholic theology. These foundational truths articulate the essential tenets of Catholic beliefs that must operate within every Catholic school. The Incarnation, the Trinity, the Paschal Mystery, and the Eucharist form the bedrock of the Catholic theological tradition. For Catholic educational leaders, understanding, appreciating, and embodying these mysteries remains a universal and ongoing challenge.  

This paper will begin by referencing briefly the notion of detraditionalisation—referencing scholars such as Lieven Boeve, who has written extensively on the issue. By way of contrast, accompaniment constitutes a perennial theme in a Christian context, best encapsulated in the Emmaus story (Luke 22:13–35), when Jesus accompanies the two disciples on what could be described as a journey of discernment. This journey paradigm, which underpins many religious education programmes, constitutes a central feature of the Salesian education vision known as the Preventive System. St John Bosco (1815–1888), the founder of the Salesians, was concerned with the transformation of the lives of every young person with whom he came into contact, resonating with ‘the dignity (uniqueness) of the individual’, one of the key principles of Catholic education canonised in post-conciliar documents published by the Congregation for Catholic Education and rooted in a sacramental vision. (now the Dicastery of Culture and Education). This principle is encapsulated in the Congregation’s 1977 document, The Catholic School. According to one of his first Salesians, Bosco encouraged them to ‘go to the pump’, to meet young people where they had gathered and to engage in a genuine encounter. At the water pump in Valdocco, Turin, near the site of Bosco’s first Oratory [youth centre], young people often came together. Bosco expected his educators to be where the young people gathered.  .Such encounters in a non-formal context have the effect of building up trust which forms the basis of every educational practice or encounter. As Fr Carlo Loots (2018:5)  suggests, ‘this practice teaches that it is best to follow first to be allowed to guide later.’ The paper will explore the extent to which this model of effective presence and encounter reflects, firstly, Jesus as the Shepherd and, secondly, the vision of St John Bosco which involves the teacher/pastoral worker and the accompanied meeting each other and having frequent encounters in informal ways in a variety of environments, marked by openness, trust and availability. The centrality of trust will feature prominently, described by Anthony Bryk (2010:57)  as “the social energy, or the “oven’s heat” in building transformational relationships. Research among school leaders and teachers will be retrieved to exemplify the perennial impact of Salesian accompaniment in Salesian secondary schools in England and its adoption as a pedagogical strategy for embedding values and faith into the learning environment.