Whole child education in United States Catholic schools: a Roche center conceptualisation and framework for analysis

Abstract

US Catholic schools have been known to educate the whole child. However, the Catholic sector has not widely embraced a shared understanding of whole child education or how it is operationalised, nor have researchers interested in this sector effectively measured the impact of approaches in any or all domains. This conceptual paper presents a framework for whole child education in US Catholic Schools, articulating five domains and key elements that help define holistic education in Catholic schools while providing a theological grounding for this framework. We offer a series of dilemmas that arise from the implementation of this Whole Child Framework, while recommending future lines of research to be explored around this conceptual framework.