This study seeks to articulate how and to what extent the religious-education programs,
faith formation, and spiritual ethos in Catholic schools can cultivate dialogue about and
foster experiences of religion and God in light of the diversity of faith traditions present
in the student population. The methodology involves demographic and document inquiry,
participant observation, and individual, semistructured interviews using an analytical
framework inspired by Thomas Groome’s seminal work on a shared Christian praxis.
Research was conducted between November 2004 and March 2005. One school in
Canada, one school in the United States, and two schools in India were observed, and 15
interviews were completed. What was demonstrated most clearly is that specific dialogue
about religion and God is not a primary focus in any of the schools. Rather, their
approaches seek to foster character development and religious tolerance based on the
principles of moral and values education that are rooted in the experiences of the
students. This study is useful for schools that desire to stimulate religious expression and
dialogue that are rooted in, but not limited to, the narrow language of a single faith
tradition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:MWU.1993/106 |
| Date | 17 March 2005 |
| Creators | Burwell, Jeffrey Scott |
| Contributors | Creamer, David (Educational Administration, Foundations and Psychology), Bracken, Denis (Social Work); Stapleton, John (Educational Administration, Foundations and Psychology) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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