Thesis advisor: Thomas Groome / What is at the root of the struggles in faith of today’s American Catholics? What can Catholic religious educators do to promote faith in the present postmodern context? In an effort to address these pressing questions, this dissertation argues for the central role of the imagination in human cognition and living, faith, and religious education. Following an initial survey of sociological data that points to disruption of traditional Christian patterns of imagining as a major factor in Catholics’ current struggles in faith, subsequent chapters analyze how the human imagination functions and malfunctions and how religious education can help to reintegrate it when it is disrupted. Building upon these findings, later chapters lay out an imagination-centered pedagogical process whereby religious educators can invite learners to participation in the reign of God and to greater integration in their lives. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

This thesis critiques the role that reflection plays in leading teacher professional development. It critically explores the reflective processes that five Advanced Skills Teachers use to create meaning for their practice and to direct their professional learning. The research inquired into how this activity has contributed to their ongoing professional growth by connecting important learning events of the past, to decisions made and action taken when dealing with current problematic curriculum issues. This is relevant as the research was set within Brisbane Catholic Education during a time of system initiated curriculum reform. The theoretical framework for the research was primarily underpinned by critical social theory. It was also guided by an interpretative philosophy, In order to give some consideration to the personal dimension of experience. A case study approach was adopted as it promoted collaborative inquiry. This offered scope and flexibility to extrapolate and to critically explore the embedded values and thinking that underscored the teachers' decisions and actions. Most data were collected through a number of ongoing semistructured and open-ended interviews. The emergent design for the research allowed for systematic, yet flexible and ongoing data collection, analysis and participant feedback. Other supporting data included folio documentation, artefacts, an inquiry project summary sheet and a research diary. The research concluded that reflection plays an important role in enabling teachers to accept moral and professional responsibility for their own personal and professional development. However, this research has attested that there is no single model of what it means to be a reflective practitioner. Reflective practice and teacher professional development are highly idiosyncratic, complex and multi-dimensional phenomena that are clearly influenced by the interplay of a wide range of personal and contextual factors. The research revealed that teachers utilise a variety of reflective forms and processes, through various modes, to serve context specific interests. It also concluded that it was the teacher's explicit awareness of the critical intent behind thinking and subsequent action that appeared to be important to professional growth. This intent was consistently framed around each teacher's moral commitment of care and responsibility to the students as persons and learners. It became the most salient impetus behind professional deliberations and generative efforts to improve practice. Emotion tended to playa powerful, mediating role in this process. Moreover, reflection on the cognitive, affective and social dimensions of knowledge appeared to enable the teachers to consider the values• and ideals that underscored decisions and subsequent actions. The research concluded that reflection involves highly interactive cognitive and sensory processes that enable the teacher to connect with the self, with the students and with others in and beyond the school community. Reflective activity also seemed to enable the teachers to consider the consequences of dealing or not dealing with system initiated curriculum reforms, from the perspective of the students' best interests. The research revealed how the current emphasis on curriculum reform has influenced efforts to create a more holistic curriculum that gives attention to the person of the student. The modelling of reflective processes and the negotiation of aspects of the curriculum with the students provided worthwhile opportunities for these teachers, as well as their students, to articulate assumptions that underscored decisions and actions. The engagement in introspective self-dialogue, social reflection and reflective collaboration with peers and students appeared to enhance personal and professional development. This research also concluded that• administrative recognition and tangible support at the personal, school and system level provided conditions that were conducive to ongoing teacher renewal and development.

The hierarchy of the Catholic Church has stated that formation of lay teachers is essential for the personal sanctification of the teacher and the apostolic mission of the Church (CCE, 1982, #65) and that “formation must be broadened and kept up to date, on the same level as, and in harmony with, human formation as a whole (CCE, 1982, #62). The research reported in this thesis: (1) explores Catholic Church documents and other literature in order to gain insights into the spirituality of teachers who teach in Catholic schools; (2) identifies experiences of teachers’ daily work in Catholic high schools that nurture and sustain teacher spirituality; (3) explores how the insights revealed can inform the practices of formation for lay teachers in Catholic schools. The demonstrated success of a teacher formation known as The Courage to Teach invited exploration to gain understanding of the principles and practices of formation that could prove helpful for developing formation practices within Australian Catholic Education. The research reported in this thesis included teachers reflecting upon their daily experiences of work and identifying, what one called, “moments of grace” that nourished and sustain teachers’ spirits. These experiences were identified as teachers’ experiences of community and their experiences of making a difference. For Catholic schools to continue to have authenticity, the ongoing formation of lay teachers is essential. This does not mean, as others have said, “adding more water to an already overfull cup” by including formation as one more thing for teachers to do. It means making space and providing the opportunity for teachers to discover the ‘moments of grace’ that providentially fill their day. In conversation with Catholic Scripture and Tradition, these moments of grace will nurture and sustain the vocations of lay teachers in Catholic schools, so that lay teachers will both flourish and “teach with authority” (Mk. 1:22).

For the last forty years, since the end of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has been committed to renewal. In Queensland, Catholic schools have responded to this commitment by undertaking cyclical renewal processes since the early 1980s. The focus of this research was the process of Catholic School Renewal in the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. The review of the literature focused on literature relating to school effectiveness and school improvement internationally and nationally, as well as Catholic School Renewal in Queensland generally and the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton specifically. The following research questions focused the research design: 1. How is the process of Catholic School Renewal a source of potential growth? 2. How does the process of Catholic School Renewal ensure quality Catholic education? 3. How is the process of Catholic School Renewal a useful quality assurance tool? The epistemological stance adopted for the research was constructionism. The research paradigm adopted was interpretivism with social interactionism as the selected orientation. As case study is congruent with an interpretivist tradition of research it was adopted as a useful way of gaining insight into the perspectives of the participants. The case was comprised of some staff members who worked in one of four Catholic primary schools situated in three of the four regions of the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton. Data collection took the form of semi-structured interviews and a survey questionnaire with the data being analysed using the constant comparative method. The study concluded that the process of Catholic School Renewal in the Diocese of Rockhampton is a useful quality assurance tool which helps to ensure quality Catholic education. Whether or not the process is a source of growth is dependent on a number of factors, paramount among which is the approach and ability of the Regional Supervisor of Schools. There were six major recommendations arising out of the research. These related to: 1. Ensuring the Regional Supervisor of Schools has certain attributes and knowledge. 2. Inservicing school staff on the purpose and nature of Catholic School Renewal. 3. Providing External Validation Team members with adequate inservice. 4. Permitting more involvement of the school principal in the process. 5. Initiating a review of the process of Catholic School Renewal in the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton. 6. Rockhampton Catholic Education continuing to use the process.

An aspect of Australian education is the continued presence of the Catholic schools including those in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. They have continued to be a significant part of Australian education after decades of ups and downs. The question today is not whether Catholic schools will survive but rather how effective they will be despite the changes which have taken place over the last few decades. Catholic schools still aim to provide all the elements of a State education, and in addition, to offer them within a Catholic setting. They have tried to create an environment that will continue to reflect the cultural values of its members. The Theses is on Catholic Education in Practice: A Case Study of a Catholic High School in the A.C.T. The Theses is based on historical and analytical approach. The results of a case study involving random sampled students, their parents/guardians and teachers in a Catholic High School in the A.C.T. sets out to investigate what factors still attract them to the Catholic school despite the significant changes that have taken place since Catholic education was introduced into Australia. By examining these three groups of people who are directly involved in Catholic schools, it is hoped that a more balanced assessment of the extent to which ideals and practices of Catholic education have been retained. The results show that students attend Catholic schools for a variety of reasons including academic and religious and because of the traditional approach to areas such as discipline. The religious values continue to be an important part of the school which makes it distinctively Catholic, but the integration is not as pervasive as previous due to the change in the nature of staff and students at the school.

Abstract In 1995 the Prime Minister of Australia, the honourable Paul Keating, on the occasion of the Beatification of Mary MacKillop, January 1995, claimed that 'Women have been a defining force in our [Australian] economic and social development and our national character...In honouring Mary MacKillop [Pope John Paul II] has honoured all Australian women. Keating went on to point out that Mary MacKillop's 'sympathies were with the underdogs of society, the people on the margins' and that she 'created the congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph to spread and maintain her vision'. This thesis explores the evolution of the vision and values of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and its contribution to Catholic education in Queensland during the years 1870 to 1970. During this period the institute gained official recognition within the Catholic Church, established an innovative vision and method of Catholic education for the working class and clarified for its memebers the style of spirituality that was to underpin their lives. The main contention of the thesis is that this Australian institute of women religious can claim a place not only in religious history but also in the secular history of Australia. The influence of the Josephites can be found in community history, education history and the history of women, but as Keating stated: 'Their contribution has not always been acknowledged'. The Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart,one of the first institutes of women religious founded in Australia, was invited to Queensland in 1869 by Bishop James Quinn, the first Catholic bishop of Brisbane. At the time of the foundation of the institute in 1866, there was growing support within Australia for liberal democracy and state-controlled, general secular education. The founders of the institute, Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods fashioned the Josephites to meet the Catholic educational needs of the working class in the rural townships and in the poorer sections of the cities. In the parish schools the Sisters of St Joseph offered the children an education that gave a priority to the practical, sought to situate the subject matter within an Australian context and integrated the religious and the secular. The egalitarianism that they fostered in the organisation of their schools had become by 1920, the model for the organisation of the Catholic parish schools in Queensland. When the government withdrew its support for some Catholic parish schools in the colony during the 1870s, the Sisters of St Joseph, supported by the generosity of the laity, proved that it was possible for these schools to continue. By 1970 the Josephites had opened 69 Catholic parish schools in the state. This thesis is the first to use the many archival documents in a research that covers the period 1870 to 1970 in the history of the Sisters of St Joseph in Queensland. Historians have attempted to throw light on the tangle of issues that influenced the dramatic event, the total withdrawal of the Sisters of St Joseph from Queensland after ten years of productive ministry during the period 1870-1880, but no study has been made into the subsequent history of the institute in Queensland. In the period under discussion women were beginning to claim a place of equality in society. Mary MacKillop, in her manner of claiming the rights of the Josephites, offered a role model to the women in the institute she founded. In turn the Sisters of St Joseph showed other women the effectiveness of collaborative effort. The history of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph in Queensland shows the strengths and weaknesses of this community of women, described by MacKillop as 'courageous, cheerful, very hopeful and not easily disheartened', as they endeavoured to espouse her vision and values in their lifestyle and apostolate.

Educational reforms have created a climate of accountability and high academic pressure that has resulted in a pushing down of the curriculum into early childhood education. Once a prominent pedagogical feature, play is disappearing from kindergarten. The following is a doctoral dissertation that studied administrator, teacher, and parent perceptions of play and its role within the kindergarten curriculum at a Catholic elementary school in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Using a qualitative case study method, the study noted how play was utilized in transitional kindergarten and traditional kindergarten classrooms at the school site. Interviews, classroom observations, and document review of school publications contributed to the following findings: play was used as a reward for classroom management, adults did not commonly see the connection between play and learning, and academic achievement was valued over play. These findings were placed in the larger context of kindergarten, play, and curriculum by using a theoretical framework built on Early Child Education theories and Epstein’s (2011) Parental Involvement framework. This case study highlighted factors that influenced curriculum design and implementation in kindergarten. It contributes to the effort to inform parents, teachers, administrators, and policy makers of the importance of defending play within kindergarten in light of social pressures that favor a didactic kindergarten setting.

This study is about the development of a curriculum guide which projects flexibility, continuity, sequential framework, and to a certain extent, uniformity, around which each teacher may build an art program that will best meet the students' needs. Areas pertinent to developing the curriculum guide are presented in light of literature in this field. The guide may be used to facilitate the teaching of art in recognizing and understanding artistic development that is essential in bringing to fruition the inherent individual ability of all the Junior High Catholic School students.

According to the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA, 2020), 2 million children attend K-12 Catholic schools in the United States. Because Catholic school systems are "among the largest and most significant" religious educational institutions (Marshall, 2018, p.185), Catholic educational leaders should be part of a dialogue to improve the quality of education. Furthermore, it is vital that these dialogues address phenomena impacting the quality of 21st century education. Among critical phenomena impacting 21st century education is globalization (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Friedman, 2005; Zhoa, 2009). In this qualitative study, phenomenological methodology was used to examine experiences and perspectives of Catholic school administrators regarding the phenomenon of globalization. Specifically, the study explored understandings of Catholic school administrators within the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia regarding globalization, global citizenship, and global competencies. Further, this study investigated current practices fostering global citizenship within the Catholic school system. Purposeful sampling of individuals who serve in administrative roles in Richmond diocesan schools, including Junior Kindergarten (JK)-8, JK-12, and 9-12 levels, was used to identify 11 participants who met study inclusion criteria. Consenting individuals were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview regarding the phenomena of interest. Upon completion, participant interviews were transcribed and coded for analysis using qualitative methods consistent with phenomenology. Themes regarding globalization, global citizenship, and global competencies within the Catholic education system were identified. The results and findings of this qualitative study, including implications for educational leaders and recommendations for future studies, were summarized. / Doctor of Education / According to the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA, 2020), 2 million children attend K-12 Catholic schools in the United States. Among religious educational systems in this country, Catholic school systems are particularly significant. Thus, Catholic educational leaders should be part of a dialogue to improve the quality of education. Globalization is a phenomenon that impacts the quality of 21st century education. In this study, the researcher explored perspectives and experiences of Catholic school administrators regarding globalization and global citizenship. This study also investigated current practices fostering global citizenship within a Catholic school system. Administrators in Richmond diocesan schools, including Junior Kindergarten (JK)-8 and 9-12 levels, participated in interviews. The researcher identified themes regarding globalization, global citizenship, and global competencies within the Catholic education system. The results and findings of this study will be used to improve the quality of Catholic education programs.

The process of teacher evaluation has often been less than satisfying for both teachers and administrators. Educational literature dealing with teacher evaluation shows that it is frequently a rote procedure with little or no benefit for the people involved. In this study, the researcher used the action research process to design, implement, and evaluate a new system of teacher evaluation and development in St. Anne's Catholic School. Twenty teachers of the twenty-two member faculty participated in the two-year study. Together, the teachers and administrator examined the original system of evaluation and then devised a new system. They put the new process into effect, critiqued it, and revised it. The administration and faculty learned that teacher evaluation can be more meaningful if teachers are involved in its planning, given a choice of evaluation methods, and evaluated consistently throughout the school year. / Ed. D.