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Thesis advisor: Andrea Vicini / Thesis advisor: James Keenan / This thesis studies the impact of AI on education and how to respond to the challenges within the context of Catholic education. The approach is through the lens of Catholic social thought. The thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One discusses the relationship between education and technology, and current trends in AI as applied to education. It also presents Jesuit education as one example of Catholic education and focuses on a specific context, Spanish Jesuit schools. Chapter Two introduces a range of resources from theological ethics. This includes fundamental concepts from Catholic social teaching, and different perspectives of theological ethics applied to technology. This chapter also presents how education is envisioned from a Catholic point of view. Finally, in Chapter Three, by applying the concept of human dignity and other concepts from Catholic social teaching, we propose some reflections on how to discern the use of AI in education. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Although called by our vocation and the mission of Catholic schools, students with disabilities (SWD) are underserved in Catholic education. Only approximately 1% of the nation’s SWD population (67,000 students) attend private schools with 40% identified as Catholic (U.S. Department of Education, 2018a). Despite the small number, SWD and peers that struggle are attending our schools and therefore, must be included meaningfully and served successfully. This study dispels the myths around the admission and service of students with Down syndrome in Catholic schools and informs educational leaders on how to create and sustain inclusive environments aligned with Catholic Social Teachings. A qualitative research approach comprising semi-structured interviews and document review was used in the study. The framework of Catholic social teachings and the epistemology of inclusivity were used to get answers to the two research questions: (a) how does a Catholic elementary school serve students with Down syndrome? and (b) What are the challenges in serving students with Down syndrome in a Catholic elementary school? The significance of this case study lies in witnessing and documenting one elementary Catholic school’s experience of creating, developing, establishing, and modeling an inclusion environment that serves the needs of its students with Down syndrome. This study ultimately provides data to those in similar Catholic school settings in developing and implementing fully inclusive environments. This study further expands the discussion in the field of Catholic education about the right(s) of all Catholic children, especially students with Down syndrome.

Thesis advisor: James Keenan / Nigeria is richly endowed with an array of natural resources and human capital. It is unarguably the largest economy in Africa, with an estimated 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) of $477.38 Billion. However, the superlative epithets of Nigeria with glaring upside economic potential are marginal vis-à-vis concrete socio-economic and demographic benchmarks such as per capita gross domestic product, life expectancy, Human Development Index (HDI), and the development paradigm of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) such as access to food and potable water, housing, employment, human rights, and security. This dissertation seeks to provide a hermeneutic for understanding Nigeria’s developmental quandaries as well as a solution. Drawing from Catholic Social Teaching (CST), Liberation Theology, and insights from critical realism, it argues that the tripartite concepts of developmentalism, assistentialism, and social structures are key to unraveling the origin and presence of Nigeria’s development challenges. Undergirding the proximate causes of Nigeria’s underdevelopment, such as egocentrism, tribalism, violent conflicts, and corruption, and the remote causes, such as developmentalism and assitentialism, are some impersonal mechanisms that incentivize, condition, sustain, and perpetuate factors of underdevelopment in Nigeria. Additionally, the notion of development that Nigeria adopted shortly after independence put Nigeria on the trajectory of underdevelopment and mis-development, which is evident today. Catholic social teaching, while cautioning against the dangers of a restrictive notion of development, offers a notion of development that is integral and genuine. The anthropological presuppositions of CST make it well-suited for development in the Nigerian context. This work seeks to demonstrate ways in which Catholic Social Teaching, given its interdisciplinary character, provides for a program of integral development in Nigeria through the Catholic Church. While it is the proper function of government to provide a program of development for its citizens, this work will contend that the Catholic Church in Nigeria, but even more so, the Archdiocese of Abuja, given its strategic location within the Federal Capital Territory, its historical relational trust and accountability and equipped with the theological language of CST and Liberation Theology can contribute to the development of Nigeria. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

With the rise of religious plurality and the global public resurgence of religion, deep social unrest and even fatal violence have resulted in a compelling need for plural societies to construct a framework of ‘public civility’. Recently, secularist frameworks such as multiculturalism and legal pluralism have been put forward. Yet, insofar as these approaches are considered non-moral, they are relativistic, and thereby lack the resources needed to ground a universal public civility. Also, approaches to building a ‘just society’ within both Catholic social thought and Islamic jurisprudence have been made specifically on the basis of ‘the common good’. The problem with these approaches is that the so-called ‘common good’ is internally defined such that the ‘good’ is ineluctably uncommon. A more promising basis on which to construct a universal framework of public civility is found in the classical notion of ‘the human good’. The argument proceeds in three main stages: (1) a critical assessment of ideological and sociological forces which have resulted in the fragmentation of modern society and the decline of public life; (2) a delineation of ‘the human good’ on the basis of which I construct a framework of public civility between Catholic and Islamic traditions; and (3) an illustration of the proposed framework in Mindanao, Philippines which represents one of the longest standing internal conflicts in history. The main contention is that Catholic and Islamic political theologies enhance the construction of public civility when reframed in terms of ‘the human good’ in contrast to ‘the common good’. In support of this thesis, I explore the Catholic doctrine of the imago dei and the Islamic notion of fiṭra as prospective conceptual counterparts to the idea of ‘the human good’. I conclude by analyzing the cosmopolitan scope of a framework of public civility as based on ‘the human good’.

The present study is a political biography in the broad sense of Julius Karambage Nyerere. The main perspective has been his significance for nation-building in Tanzania. The dissertation is chronologically ordered after his life and restricted to the period 1922-1977. Five themes discussed in modern scholarship on nationalism and which are considered relevant to the study of African nationalism are treated: The origin and globalization of nationalism. From the perspective of the process of global nation-building, Nyerere's activities as nationalist leader in Tanzania are discussed, which contrary to his own wishes only embraced the former colonies Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Constructivism versus realism. Here it is shown that nationalism in Africa largely followed the colonial borders and were thus constructions without any connection to historically-relevant ethnic or cultural borders. The relationship between nationalism and modernity. The fundamental problematic in Nyerere's modernizing ambitions, i.e. to unite individual and collective interests in an harmonic interplay in the name of development, is treated. Strategies for nationalizing a populace. Here, the evolution of Nyerere's social vision - ujamaa or familyhood, is described. From the central idea of Tanzanian nationalism - development - the nationalists' construction of traditional African society would unite with modern society, in accordance with the basic ideas of African socialism. The significance of an elite for nation-building. In common with nationalism's development in Europe, African nationalism was led by elites. The transformation from "Black European" to "African Personality" went via education, primarily provided by Christian missionaries in Africa. Nyerere's education familiarized him with British colonialism, nationalism and cultural heritage as well as the British School of Social Anthropology, Catholic social teachings and communitarianism. The study shows that Nyerere's political thought was influenced by Fabian socialism, Catholic social teaching, communitarianism and political thinkers like Henry George, G.D.H. Cole, R.H. Tawney and Arthur W. Lewis. Nyerere realized his political ideas first as leader of the nationalist movement Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and after independence in 1961 as president up until 1985. He was called the "father of the nation" and ruled in his charismatic role as mwalimu, teacher. / digitalisering@umu

The purpose of this study was to examine how secondary Catholic school teachers perceived problem behavior exhibited by students with or without disabilities based on their theological philosophy. Using the methods identified in grounded theory, seven secondary Catholic school teachers were interviewed to gain an understanding of the extent to which a theological philosophy was reflected in their perceptions, responses, and policies towards behavior challenges/problems. In order to conceptualize and contextualize the notion of a "theological philosophy," this study utilized three tenets of Catholic Social Teaching (dignity of the human person, common good, and preferential option for the poor and vulnerable) and the notion of hospitality to the stranger. The majority of teachers perceived behaviors showing a lack of respect towards themselves or peers as what they considered to be a behavior problem with few teachers discussing incidences of behavior that were exhibited by students with disabilities. Many teachers responded to behavior verbally as well as believed they had a role in providing interventions or support for behavior problems, and while this was the case, not all teachers differentiated behavior consequences for students with disabilities. School policies were found to inform more how secondary Catholic school teachers responded to behavior challenges/problems with teachers citing factors that affected how they implemented the school policies. The notion of a theological philosophy was found to be reflected in these teachers' perceptions and responses in relation to the dignity of the human person and common good tenets of Catholic Social Teaching with teachers believing the notion of a theological philosophy was not reflected to a great extent within school policies. Findings from this study point to the individuality of the teacher. While these seven teachers taught within the context of a secondary Catholic school, each brought to their practice their own beliefs, expectations, and faith. Consequently, this affected not only how they perceived and responded to behavior challenges/problems, but the extent to which a theological philosophy was reflected in their perceptions and responses towards behavior challenges/problems.

This mixed methods study shed light on the issue of attrition within Catholic education and points to opportunities for leaders to improve the effectiveness of elementary and secondary schools as well as identify barriers impacting access to poor and vulnerable populations. The purpose was to: describe factors eighth-grade Catholic school students and their parents consider in choosing a high school; determine correlations between degree of satisfaction with Catholic elementary schools and perceptions of programs in Catholic high schools; and understand the extent students’ and parents’ identified attributes corresponded to their high school selection. Quantitative data was generated from surveys of a proportionally stratified sample of 610 eighth-grade students and parents from 25 Catholic elementary schools in Los Angeles County. Qualitative data was yielded from follow up interviews of nine parents whose graduating children were not matriculating to a Catholic high school. Statistically significant differences in the importance of factors were found between parent and student, among participant ethnicity, and among family income level. While expense was the primary reason for not attending a Catholic high school, it was most often in combination with at least one of several other reasons. Strong correlation between satisfaction of elementary school and perceptions of high school was prevalent among participants, particularly parents and those matriculating to private and public high schools. With attrition found to be highest among students of color, lower middle-income families, and girls, recommendations for school improvement practices and collaboration with diocesan, higher education, and foundation leaders are presented.

Recent demographic trends indicate that the number of young Latino Catholics in the United States is increasing. In response, educators and researchers have examined the Catholic school experience of Latino families as a means to provide meaningful support for this growing constituency amid broader enrollment declines and related challenges of fiscal viability. Within this context, this study examined the leadership practices of Catholic secondary school leaders in relation to the development of tuition assistance policies and community outreach efforts intended to serve Latino families. Utilizing a theoretical frame consisting of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL), this study employed an explanatory mixed-methods design. Quantitative data emerged from a cross-sectional survey, which was distributed to Catholic secondary school administrators within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Semi-structured interviews allowed for the collection of qualitative data, which constituted two case studies representing a spectrum of demographic characteristics within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The findings of this study indicate that Catholic school leaders view the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and Culturally Responsive School Leadership as influential to their roles as school leaders. However, the frequency with which Catholic school leaders employ culturally responsive leadership practices to address Latino families is varied and inconsistent. The research data also indicate a higher frequency of culturally responsive leadership practices among specific demographic subgroups including Latino leaders, leaders with an advanced Spanish-speaking proficiency, and those who work at schools in which a majority of the student body consists of Latino students.