Sessions: Sunday, 28 June

Religious education (RE) is a distinctive learning area in which academic rigour is complemented by the spiritual and moral formation of the whole person. The aim of this study is to examine pedagogical approaches that RE teachers identify as having a positive, measurable impact on student learning in Years 5 and 6. In the last two decades, there has been an emergence of research exploring the effectiveness of instructional strategies arising from cognitive neuroscience in subject areas such as reading, mathematics and science. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature through the exploration of upper primary teachers’ perceptions of effective pedagogy in RE. Employing a Grounded Theory (GT) methodology, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with experienced RE teachers in primary schools in the Diocese of Sandhurst, Australia. A GT approach will allow themes and theoretical constructs to emerge from the experiences of educators in teaching RE to students in Years 5 and 6. Findings are expected to offer insights into how pedagogical content knowledge, classroom practice, and the formation of students' critical and spiritual understanding are navigated in RE. This research aims to contribute to the professional discourse on teacher education and curriculum development in RE by offering a theoretically grounded model of effective pedagogy informed by practitioner voice. 

Against a backdrop of rapid social and cultural shifts, including religious affiliation and practice decline, education faces a critical challenge. Schools must help form young people for meaningful lives in fast-moving, plural societies characterised by secularisation and detraditionalisation. This trend puts Religious Education (RE) in an increasingly contested space. This paper analyses the crisis facing RE, using Ireland as a case study within a broader European context, and proposes the wisdom of RE in the Catholic tradition as a formative response to contemporary social and cultural challenges The analysis shows that Catholic-majority European countries respond to this context with two main RE models. One is Confessional RE, which focuses on faith formation in a single tradition. The other is Pluralistic RE, which emphasises multi-worldview literacy. While countries like Poland maintain a primarily confessional approach, Ireland and England are shifting towards pluralistic models. These shifts often prioritise knowledge acquisition over personal formation. However, young people retain a strong need for meaning and spiritual well-being. This human hunger remains even as institutional religion recedes. 

In 2014, Sydney Catholic Schools introduced a Survey of Religious Attitudes and Practices. The survey was developed to gain a deeper understanding of the ‘religiosity’ of young people in the Archdiocese of Sydney, and to inform approaches to, and models of, youth ministry. The biennial survey, involving students in Years 5, 7, 9 & 11, identifies demographic information as well data relating to religious beliefs, attitudes and practices. Results point to a strengthening in numerous religious beliefs, such as belief in God, and in the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Data also shows an increase in religious attitudes regarding the influence of religion and respecting the religious opinions of others. Religious practices, such as reading the bible, praying, and reception of the sacraments also showed positive improvements. These positive trends point to a shift in attitudes and practices of Catholic school students across the Archdiocese of Sydney. The Mission & Identity Directorate of Sydney Catholic Schools works closely with school, parish and office communities in order to foster a deep knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. With strong knowledge and understanding of Catholic teaching and tradition, Religious Education and Faith Formation of students and adults, Sydney Catholic Schools strives to encourage students, staff, and families into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Join David as he unpacks the key findings of the survey, looking at some of the strategic initiatives conducted by Sydney Catholic Schools and the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney that are making a difference in the lives of their student communities.

Formative education is essential in teacher education, especially when cultivating ethical commitments in teacher candidates. Resources from religious traditions may support teacher candidates in taking up ethical commitments. Despite the strong connection between individuals’ ethical commitments and their religious identities, however, there is very little educational research which meaningfully engages with the role of religion in the vocational formation of future teachers.

This refusal to engage with religion is particularly true in the context of public teacher education programs in the US. Concerned about the separation of church and state, many US teacher educators and educational researchers often refuse to engage in conversations about religion in teacher education and US public education writ large, despite the obvious manifestations of Christianity’s influence in US public education and its foundational assumptions and discourses. In this study, I seek to examine the ways that Christian belief and practice are shaping teachers’ identities and processes of meaning-making. I specifically study the case of Catholic pre-service teachers, investigating 1) How do Catholic pre-service teachers describe their experiences through public universities’ teacher education programs? and 2) How are Catholic pre-service teachers making meaning of their public universities’ teacher education experiences in relation to their religious and spiritual identities and practices? This mixed-methods study involves a background survey and individual interviews conducted with Catholic pre-service teachers in US Midwestern public universities’ teacher education programs. In this presentation, I will share my framework for examining religious and spiritual meaning-making in teacher education and discuss initial findings and implications. 

The connected issues of the global teacher shortage and Catholic education’s capacity to carry out its faith-based mission is felt no less sharply in Western Canada. Increased dis-affiliation to Christianity—and to church institutions in particular—is having long-term consequences on the capacity of schools to secure their mission. Widespread, twenty-first century social changes – post-pandemic polarization, high rates of immigration, changing sexual mores, truth and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and increasing demands for school choice – further complicate educators’ willingness and capacity to integrate their professional role with the vision and faith practices of Catholic education.

This presentation will have two parts. First, it will review the status of Catholic schooling in Western Canada and then describe key areas of concern identified in a qualitative study with system leaders. One major part of this matter is the shortage of Catholic school teachers, which one leader called, “an existential crisis.” Second, the presentation will name future strategies and research projects within Catholic schools that can assist current and next generation teachers (as informed by our Canadian experience and recent literature in teacher faith formation). Engaging themes of journey, dialogue, accompaniment, and friendship while facing the wider political realities in Western Canada will support the work of teachers through improved, intentional faith formation that endorses the Church’s educational aims so that these publicly funded separate schools are authentic in mission and serve well a diversifying Western Canada. 

This article examines the exceptional human experience (EHE)  of students who embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Students at the University of Notre Dame Australia undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2023 as part of the Masters course, Scripture and Church.  Through the pilgrimage, the students showed significant increase in skill, knowledge and understanding of their faith and of the complex culture within the State of Israel.  The students were a part of a research project into their experience called “Deepening an educator's understanding of Scripture and Church through an immersion experience in the Holy Land” (RAiD Number 102.100.100/485606). The research resulted in a paper published in Religions in 2025. The researchers of this project will explore the on-going impact of the pilgrimage after two years has passed.  The researchers will investigate how the experience impacted their future in Catholic schools, personal faith formation and social/cultural engagement (professional, personal and community).  It will discuss how the pilgrimage experience enhanced participants formation in all aspects of their lives.  The term Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs) was coined by White (1993), who was trying to explain the unusual experiences of people that spontaneously emerged when participating in a pilgrimage.  This paper will discuss EHEs as a path to formation for Catholic school teachers and leaders. Formation invites people to use their gifts to further God’s mission for a particular time, place, and purpose. Recognising that people of faith are on a journey, formation engages people in discerning their place in the world and their purpose to bring Gospel values to the service of others.  The themes of vocation and mission are the call to Christ’s faithful which reminds us to identify the invitation to serve a God who is with us and for us. Formation is at the heart of our response. Formation does not follow neat formulae or strategic plans. “Formation is Christ centred. It is an intentional, ongoing, and reflective process that focuses on the growth of individuals and communities from their lived experiences, in spiritual awareness, theological understanding, vocational motivation and capabilities for mission and service in the Church and the world” (NCEC, 2017, p. 9). The Master of Education (RE) is aimed at educational leaders with responsibility for formation for mission in Catholic education.  The experience of pilgrimage can be transformational to the participants in that it invites participants to recognise that they can be the face of God to others in personal, relational, and professional ways.  Through the experience of pilgrimage, participants respond to the Spirit in sharing the person and message of Christ to others in teaching, leading a community, and service (UNDA, 2023). This article will explore how EHEs such as pilgrimages can be critical in the formation of the Catholic school teacher and leaders and how the impact can be on-going and transformational.

Today’s educational landscape requires more than just high test scores; Whole Child Education (WCE) is an approach that acknowledges the multidimensional nature of students, transcending a singular focus on academics to foster full human development. In this presentation, we will explore how the Roche Center’s Whole-Child Education framework helps support full human development and flourishing through its theological foundations, interdependent domains and transformative practices.

Theological Foundations: Rooted in Catholic tradition, the Roche Center Framework is guided by five Core Beliefs that elevate Whole-Child education from a "best practice" to a profound ethical obligation: Magis: Seeking the "more" for the Greater Glory of God.Imago DEI: Recognizing the inherent divine dignity in every person.Dios en Todo (God in All Things): Being attentive to the Spirit in the ecosystem of the learner.Accompaniment: Walking alongside students and families in their unique journeys. Cura Personalis: Caring for the "head, heart, soul, and body".

The Five Interdependent Domains: Full flourishing is achieved through the integration of five domains: 1. Spiritual: Exploring meaning, purpose, and values. 2. Cognitive: Developing intellectual abilities and critical thinking. 3. Emotional: Fostering emotional intelligence and self-regulation. 4. Social: Building interpersonal relationships and social responsibility. 5. Physical: Prioritizing health, nutrition, and safety.

Transformative Practices: Detailed case study vignettes illustrate how diverse school networks implement these strategies through community partnerships and trauma-informed care. Ultimately, the source advocates for an interconnected approach where academic excellence and character formation thrive together within a supportive ecosystem.

Combining cura personalis (individualized care and concern) with values clarification activities can help form a deeper understanding of how students think and show what students value. This will help make it more attainable to educate the whole person with specific emphasis on understanding personal judgements. Cura personalis is a concept focused on individualized care and concern for the whole person and is rooted in Jesuit education, which is based on the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Cura personalis is animated through personal conversations and questioning and involves a commitment to the formation of the body, mind, and soul of others. Values clarification activities are a mechanism that allows students to not only make individual decisions but explain the process of their decision-making process. Values clarification activities applied with a cura personalis lens can help form a deeper understanding of how students think and show what students value. During this interactive presentation, participants will be given an explanation of what exactly is cura personalis and what it looks like in practice. Then participants will be involved in several engaging values clarification activities. Participants will share their responses in order to hear differing responses, which will help them better understand the scope of the diversity of opinions. Combining cura personalis with values clarification activities helps to add depth to a formative education that can help cultivate hearts, minds, and souls.

This paper presents an in-depth theoretical exploration of the 'Model for Growth' framework as a pedagogical tool for cultivating integral human development (IHD) in Catholic school settings. Rooted in Catholic anthropology, which understands the human person as integrated and multidimensional across the physical, cognitive (intellectual), social, emotional, and spiritual domains, the Model for Growth provides a rigorous seven-phase critical inquiry process for navigating complex ethical issues. These phases—Context, Catholicity, Compare, Consider, Commitments, Change, and Contemplate—require students to engage in reasoned moral discernment. The paper argues that the Model effectively operationalises core Catholic principles such as Imago Dei (inherent dignity) and Cura Personalis (care of the whole person) by challenging students to align their decisions with Gospel values and transcendent truths. Specifically, the 'Catholicity' and 'Compare' steps necessitate juxtaposing secular messaging with the richness of Catholic intellectual thought, urging a movement from simple answers to complexity. By training students in critical thinking and dialogue, the framework fosters cognitive growth and deepens spiritual intelligence—the capacity to address problems of meaning and value in a broader context. The conclusion suggests the Model for Growth serves as an essential, non-reductionist framework, positioning Catholic education to form students who can commit to value-based actions (even when facing difficulties), thereby promoting resilience and authentic flourishing. This comprehensive formation is crucial to the mission of Catholic education, ensuring whole-person development. 

This study seeks to get a clearer sense of current faith formation programs (FFP) in Melbourne Archdiocesan Catholic Schools and how best to plan for the future by exploring and analysing perceptions on FFP from a differentiated, purposeful sample of school based RE leaders and Directors of Mission and Identity This study follows on from earlier work reports on interviews and focus groups. The aim was to gather rich data on what participants see as the challenges and opportunities of faith formation programs (FFP) in schools today. The presentation will provide a strong, layered conceptual framework based on engagement with research on the changing cultural context within which Australian Catholic schools and teachers operate. The context is complex and nuanced but a key, overarching metaphor for the background of many teachers is the notion of bricolage or seeing religious belief and practise as a negotiated, dynamic engagement composed of a variety of changing elements and factors. Research questions were centred on participants experience of FFP and probed more deeply support structures for FFP, examples of good practise and the particular requirements of FFP for RE teachers. Participants responses were grouped into several indicative representative clusters. These were: A clear recognition of challenges involved in providing FFP in light of the varied background of teachers, noting that many had little connection with worshiping communities; the lack of background content knowledge about what could broadly be described as the Catholic tradition; considering FFP in relation to the emerging industrial constraints placed on Catholic schools. Openness of teachers, in certain circumstances, to FFP; The need for FFP to be tailored as much as possible; the attractiveness of certain approaches to FFP notably ones which blended strong content, pedagogical engagement and integration with life experience; the importance of ready access to as many practical resources as possible; the value of networking across schools to provide FFP; support for existing MACS FFP. A series of recommendations and summative conclusion were presented which centre on practical and conceptual issues to guide planning and implementation of FFP in MACS.

This study explores senior secondary students’ experiences of non-accredited Religious Education alternatives within two Australian education systems. Using mixed methods, data were collected from senior secondary students (16-18 years) through surveys and interviews. Results indicate that students’ subject selection was influenced primarily by school requirements rather than by faith commitment or parental preference, highlighting the structural rather than devotional basis of participation. Nonetheless, students rated topics such as Ethics, Jesus, and Christian beliefs as highly important, revealing strong moral and faith-related curiosity. They valued participatory pedagogies—especially dialogue, technology-enhanced learning, and solving real-life problems—over traditional textbook methods. Reported outcomes centred on interpersonal and reflective growth, with listening and open dialogue emerging as key gains. Students described being able to discuss ethical and faith issues more freely with peers and to explore how “Jesus might respond” to contemporary challenges. Overall, the findings affirm that dialogical and applied pedagogies within non-accredited Religious Education can strengthen moral reasoning, deepen relational engagement, and foster authentic encounters with faith in community.

This paper presents the EDU&EVA (Evangelizing Education) framework as an innovative approach to shaping curricular identity in Catholic education through a competency-based paradigm. Developed over four years within the Fundació Escola Cristiana de Catalunya (FECC), the project has been academically led by faculty from the Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences at Blanquerna – Universitat Ramon Llull, integrating research, institutional leadership, and classroom practice across a network of 378 schools.

The proposal responds to a contemporary educational context marked by secularization, cultural pluralism, and anthropological fragmentation, where students increasingly experience a loss of meaning and identity. In this scenario, evangelizing education is redefined not as confessional instruction or proselytism, but as a transversal, dialogical, and culturally embedded presence of the Gospel within the educational ecosystem.

The framework is structured around three core axes—Culture, Identity, and Transformation—which articulate a holistic vision of education. These axes enable the integration of faith, reason, and life across the curriculum, fostering interiority, critical engagement with reality, and commitment to the common good.

Methodologically, EDU&EVA emphasizes the alignment between pastoral and pedagogical dimensions, proposing competency-based evaluation criteria that allow for measurable and context-sensitive implementation. It also promotes a community-based approach in which all members of the educational ecosystem are considered both agents and recipients of the evangelizing mission.

The paper contributes to ongoing international discussions on Catholic education by offering a scalable and contextually adaptable model that bridges theological identity and pedagogical innovation, particularly relevant in plural and secularized societies.

This presentation introduces a pastoral framework developed through a doctoral project that integrates the Catholic intellectual and social traditions with contemporary research on belonging, mental health, and school culture. Although the framework emerged in response to the needs of sexual and gender minority (SGM) students, its purpose is not limited to SGM ministry. Rather, it offers an expanded way of thinking about whole-child Catholic education, providing school communities with a consistent, mission-aligned approach to supporting all students—especially those who experience vulnerability, isolation, or misunderstanding. The framework centers on five essential postures: inculturation, hospitality, encounter, accompaniment, and humility. These postures are drawn from the life of the Church, are already familiar to Catholic educators, and can be practiced across school settings without requiring policy changes. Participants will gain a theological foundation for inclusive Catholic education, practical strategies that strengthen belonging without compromising Catholic identity, concrete behaviors that support all students, and greater confidence to navigate complex pastoral situations with principles rather than policies.

This presentation demonstrates the theoretical and methodological foundations of two quantitative assessments in the Boston College Lives of Meaning and Purpose Portfolio (LAMP) that can be used for assessment of formative education efforts within schools. LAMP Portfolio instruments employ the Rausch/Guttman Scenario (RGS) measurement approach (Ludlow, Matz-Costa, Johnson, Brown, Besen, & James, 2014) which is valuable for assessing hard to measure constructs, like meaning-making and meaning and purpose. This approach incorporates the measurement principles of Rasch Item Response Theory (1960) and the scenario development procedures of Guttman (1959) Facet Theory. In RGS method instruments, participants compare themselves to a person described in a short scenario. Each scenario provides a real-life anchor that more closely connects a person’s response to their lived experience. Scenarios are constructed to systematically reflect a wide range of possible responses to the construct being assessed. These instruments are intended for large-scale administration with the goal of helping institutions generate evidence regarding formative educational initiatives and interventions. LAMP B assesses meaning and purpose as defined by Damon, Menon and Bronk (2003). LAMP C assesses meaning-making as defined by Kegan (1994), Daloz Parks (2000) and Baxter-Magolda (2009). LAMP B and C provide scalable, precise, context-specific, and developmentally sensitive assessments appropriate to Catholic secondary and post secondary schools. They establish a framework for understanding and fostering student formation while setting the stage for future empirical research and longitudinal studies to evaluate programmatic interventions.

School leadership structures that harvest productive and joyful relationships illuminate their Catholic identity. It is also in these relationships that school staff live into their vocations as dialogic mediators between faith and reason. Catholic school teachers and principals need accompaniment on their apostolic journeys and a school leadership model that empowers teachers as leaders embodies characteristics inherent in the tenor of a Catholic school in its relational stance. One of the ways mathematics teacher leaders effect change is by cultivating a collaborative environment across the school. These social networks serve as conduits for knowledge sharing across teachers and students. Theoretically, these same social networks may also be leveraged as hubs for impacting positive emotion, or joy, in the mathematics classroom. Studies have found that participants who experienced positive emotions were more likely to solve problems quickly and creatively, mediating their adaptability to stressful situations and contributing to overall well-being. Teachers who reported higher levels of positive emotions remained more engaged in their work over time and the reciprocal held true with teachers engaged with their work sustaining joyful emotions. Using mixed methods that include survey, interview and social network data, our research team is exploring the ways a teacher leadership model in Catholic schools influences collaboration within and across schools and dispositions of joy and spiritual formation in teacher leaders. This presentation will share findings after two years of program implementation which demonstrate the positive relationship between teacher leadership, collaboration, spiritual development and joy in mathematics teacher leaders