Australian Catholic Schools Research Articles

Disputed times: reflections on religious education in Australian Catholic schools

Disputed times: reflections on religious education in Australian Catholic schools

The Health4Life e-health intervention for modifying lifestyle risk behaviours of adolescents: secondary outcomes of a cluster randomised controlled trial.

To investigate the effectiveness of a school-based multiple health behaviour change e-health intervention for modifying risk factors for chronic disease (secondary outcomes). Cluster randomised controlled trial. Students (at baseline [2019]: year 7, 11-14 years old) at 71 Australian public, independent, and Catholic schools. Health4Life: an e-health school-based multiple health behaviour change intervention for reducing increases in the six major behavioural risk factors for chronic disease: physical inactivity, poor diet, excessive recreational screen time, poor sleep, and use of alcohol and tobacco. It comprises six online video modules during health education class and a smartphone app. Comparison of Health4Life and usual health education with respect to their impact on changes in twelve secondary outcomes related to the six behavioural risk factors, assessed in surveys at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and 12 and 24 months after the intervention: binge drinking, discretionary food consumption risk, inadequate fruit and vegetable intake, difficulty falling asleep, and light physical activity frequency (categorical); tobacco smoking frequency, alcohol drinking frequency, alcohol-related harm, daytime sleepiness, and time spent watching television and using electronic devices (continuous). A total of 6640 year 7 students completed the baseline survey (Health4Life: 3610; control: 3030); 6454 (97.2%) completed at least one follow-up survey, 5698 (85.8%) two or more follow-up surveys. Health4Life was not statistically more effective than usual school health education for influencing changes in any of the twelve outcomes over 24 months; for example: fruit intake inadequate: odds ratio [OR], 1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.57-2.05); vegetable intake inadequate: OR, 0.97 (95% CI, 0.64-1.47); increased light physical activity: OR, 1.00 (95% CI, 0.72-1.38); tobacco use frequency: relative difference, 0.03 (95% CI, -0.58 to 0.64) days per 30 days; alcohol use frequency: relative difference, -0.34 (95% CI, -1.16 to 0.49) days per 30 days; device use time: relative difference, -0.07 (95% CI, -0.29 to 0.16) hours per day. Health4Life was not more effective than usual school year 7 health education for modifying adolescent risk factors for chronic disease. Future e-health multiple health behaviour change intervention research should examine the timing and length of the intervention, as well as increasing the number of engagement strategies (eg, goal setting) during the intervention. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12619000431123 (prospective).

A case study of parent perspectives on interreligious learning and teaching in a diverse Catholic school context: ‘Building a civilisation of love’

ABSTRACT In the pluralised contexts of many contemporary Australian Catholic schools, cultural and religious diversity is a reality that could be ignored or potentially utilised to enhance learning. This case study probes the perceptions of parents regarding their children’s engagement in Religious Education in a Catholic school and in particular, engagement in interreligious learning and teaching. The small qualitative study utilised interviews with parents that were analysed and coded to reveal themes that are then discussed in light of the literature reviewed. Four key themes emerged: engagement, diversity, voice and agency, and identity revealing potential for enhancing partnerships with parents and families in the educative project of growing young Australians into their humanity and working towards the creation of a civilisation of love. The study points to a potential for the ‘wider Church’ to engage families in dialogue through articulating the why and how of Religious Education in Catholic schools (including interreligious learning and teaching) and enhancing parental engagement in such learning and teaching to resource the spiritual/religious identity of all as they grow into the fulness of life.

A case study of primary students’ perspectives of engagement in interreligious learning and teaching: a community of learners

ABSTRACT This case study explores the perceptions of students regarding their engagement in interreligious learning and teaching in one Australian Catholic Primary School. The study probes the learners’ understandings of what interreligious learning and teaching looks like in their context and how it might relate to their understandings of their evolving religious identity. The students were interviewed in groups and qualitative content analysis was used to uncover themes that emerged from the data. The key themes, Religious Education learning, diversity, voice and agency, and identity were brought to the fore. These themes are discussed in light of the school’s Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) data and the school’s approach to Religious Education. Utilising the multicultural/multifaith reality in this school context enabled the learners to engage with a plurality of religious and non-religious worldviews. Employing a pedagogical model operationalised in other learning areas, learners in Religion can engage respectfully in dialogue, critique perspectives and come to new or nuanced understandings. The study revealed learners were empowered to bridge the gaps between them through a felt sense of belonging to their school community and the enhancement of their understandings of the Catholic tradition through knowledge of, and dialogue with, other traditions.

An exploration of contemporary pastoral care practices used by teachers and leaders in Australian Catholic schools and their connection to Catholic identity

This research provides a snapshot of the perceptions of 14 teachers and leaders who had just completed the Pastoral Care and the School course, offered as part of their Master of Education programme by The University of Notre Dame, Australia (UNDA). The participants were surveyed at the completion of the course through a qualitative survey that included both open and closed questions. The survey was designed to provide a snapshot of their understandings of pastoral care practices from their course and experiences as teachers/leaders. Results indicated that 29% of the participants were unaware of their school’s pastoral care policy or programmes. Many envisaged leadership support and early career mentoring as influential in planning pastoral care interventions, considering 43% of participants were still in their early stages of teaching {3rd to 7th years of teaching}. Four common themes were found across the study that strongly link pastoral care to the heart of leading Catholic identity in a Catholic school. These were: providing a contemporary definition of pastoral care that links Catholic identity for staff; the role of pastoral care in supporting Catholic identity through sacramental programmes; the importance of leadership in providing clear dialogue to staff about pastoral care and student wellbeing concerns; and implementing training of pastoral care programmes to assist early career teachers. As such, pastoral care becomes more than knowledge about student or staff welfare, it embodies a key element of leading and promoting Catholic identity within a school itself.

Religious reactions to gender identity: a comparative analysis of select Canadian and Australian Catholic schools

ABSTRACT Determining the depth of discrimination against gender and sexual minority groups in Catholic schools of selected western nations is best undertaken from an international-comparative perspective. In this article, we compare the Canadian case of Alberta’s ‘washroom wars’ and a ‘gender row’ over uniform changes in an Australian Catholic high school. In each case, practises inclusive of gender diversity in Catholic schools were framed as a departure from Catholic doctrine. To explore how oppressive structures exist and operate within schools, we examine media accounts of each case using Critical Discourse Analysis and contextualize this analysis by examining Canadian and Australian educational and legal settings. We find that despite differing legal frameworks, some Catholic schools continue to place Canonical law above the rights of transgender and gender-diverse students in both countries. We therefore argue that it is the Catholic system’s institutional stance on gender and sexual diversity that perpetuates discrimination.

Literacy assessment in the early years of schooling in an era of neoliberalism

This paper explores the literature related to literacy assessment in the early years of schooling in an era of neoliberalism and reports on a key aspect of a study which focused on the literacy assessment practices of early years teachers and literacy leaders in Australian Catholic schools within the Melbourne archdiocese. Background: The study was undertaken in a period following the Melbourne Catholic Education system’s devolution of literacy assessment responsibility to schools after a long period of mandated literacy assessment (1998–2012) but also occurred within a neoliberal high-stakes assessment environment, characterised by heightened levels of teacher accountability. Research Objectives: The intention of the research was to explore the literacy assessment beliefs and practices of teachers in early years classrooms (F–2), to explore the impacts of assessment devolution and the implications in terms of the literacy assessment practices in the early years in Australian Catholic primary schools in the Melbourne Archdiocese. Methods: A predominantly qualitative case study approach consisting of two phases was used to explore literacy assessment in the early years of schooling. Phase 1 consisted of an online questionnaire comprising both open and closed questions, which was completed by 76 literacy leaders from 76 Catholic schools in the Melbourne archdiocese. The questionnaire was designed to elicit information on schools’ literacy assessment practices in the early years and if these had changed since a Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM) policy change in 2012 allowing schools greater autonomy over literacy assessment in the early years. Phase 2 involved semistructured interviews with 23 early years teachers and seven literacy leaders from eight diverse schools to investigate their literacy assessment practices in greater detail and identify how they responded to the opportunities that came with devolved decision-making.

Investigating the Work of School Based Religious Education Leaders in Australian Catholic Schools

The aim of this research was to get a better understanding of the work of school-based religious education leaders (SBREL) by examining the issues and challenges they face as well as how they are supported. SBREL were surveyed and interviewed, and they took part in focus groups. SBREL, in general, felt supported in their role. A major issue identified by SBREL was the implications of the changing demographics of Catholic schools, marked by growing numbers of non-Catholic students and weakening religious affiliation. Several challenges were identified. These included making Religious Education (RE) more engaging, the need for more practical assistance in delivering the RE curriculum, and providing better ongoing formation for teachers to better equip them to teach RE.

COVID-19 and student well-being: Catholic school staff perspectives and experiences

Background: COVID-19 has dramatically changed how school communities operate. Many schools have had to navigate enforced closures and modify their usual teaching and learning practices. Furthermore, they have had to rethink how they address student well-being issues. In Australian Catholic schools, there is little data on the concerns of Catholic school staff during enforced school closures. Aims: This article describes findings from a study of the experiences and concerns of school staff in two Catholic primary school communities to understand how staff in these settings experienced and re-imagined or reinforced student well-being practices and processes. Methods: Data were collected by means of a survey assessing staff experiences and concerns, with a particular focus on student well-being. Results: Results indicated that enforced school closures were perceived as negatively affecting student well-being programmes with staff members being particularly concerned about students who were socially, educationally, culturally and economically disadvantaged. However, negative impacts were mitigated by a school culture underpinned by a pastoral and health-promoting perspective. Strong leadership in the face of systemic lethargy prompted schools to utilise their engagement and partnership arrangements for additional support. Conclusion: During forced school closures, an inclusive school ethos, environment and culture ensured an effective response to the diverse needs of staff, students and other school community members.

Living Between: Exploring a Framework of Spirituality for Teachers and Students in Catholic Schools

Abstract This paper proposes a focus on human experience as the locus of identity construction and meaning making and presents a dialogical framework of Christian spirituality as a heuristic for teacher professional learning in religious education in Australian Catholic schools. Firstly the paper explores spirituality as a growing area of interest for young people today and its relation to identity formation for teachers and students in Australian Catholic schools. Secondly it presents a relatable theological framework of spirituality as an opening to transformative dialogue and self-reflection. Finally it describes the four paradigms of spirituality of the framework and the curriculum possibilities they raise.

Scale-up of the Physical Activity 4 Everyone (PA4E1) intervention in secondary schools: 12-month implementation outcomes from a cluster randomized controlled trial

Background‘Physical Activity 4 Everyone’ (PA4E1) was an efficacious multi-component school-based physical activity (PA) program targeting adolescents. PA4E1 has seven PA practices. It is essential to scale-up, evaluate effectiveness and assess implementation of such programs. Therefore, the aim is to assess the impact of implementation support on school practice uptake of the PA4E1 program at 12 and 24 months.MethodsA cluster randomised controlled trial, utilising a type III hybrid implementation-effectiveness design, was conducted in 49 randomly selected disadvantaged Australian Government and Catholic secondary schools. A blinded statistician randomly allocated schools to a usual practice control (n = 25) or the PA4E1 program group (n = 24), with the latter receiving seven implementation support strategies to support school PA practice uptake of the seven practices retained from the efficacy trial. The primary outcome was the proportion of schools adopting at least four of the seven practices, assessed via telephone surveys with Head Physical Education Teachers and analysed using exact logistic regression modelling. This paper reports the 12-month outcomes.ResultsSchools were recruited from May to November 2017. At baseline, no schools implemented four of the seven practices. At 12 months significantly more schools in the program group had implemented four of the seven practices (16/24, 66.7%) than the control group (1/25, 4%) (OR = 33.0[4.15–1556.4], p < 0.001). The program group implemented on average 3.2 (2.5–3.9) more practices than the control group (p < 0.001, mean 3.9 (SD 1.5) vs 0.7 (1.0)). Fidelity and reach of the implementation support intervention were high (both > 80%).ConclusionsThrough the application of multiple implementation support strategies, secondary schools were able to overcome commonly known barriers to implement evidence based school PA practices. As such practices have been shown to result in an increase in adolescent PA and improvements in weight status, policy makers and practitioners responsible for advocating PA in schools should consider this implementation approach more broadly when working with schools. Follow-up is required to determine whether practice implementation is sustained.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12617000681358 registered 12th May 2017.

“They Like Things That Move”: Exploring Student Preferences for Presentation of Online Textbook Resources in Religious Education in Australian Catholic schools

This paper examines student perceptions on use and delivery of online resources in religious education. It examines student responses to one series of religious education resources widely used in Australian Catholic Schools. Data was collected using school based religious education leaders to ask students about their opinions and preferences on delivery of online material. Major findings include: the need to present text in small manageable sections that clearly identified key concepts; the desirability of interactive and engaging presentations of material; utilizing images and narratives as a way of presenting complex information; the need to make decisions about the amount of material to be presented as text. These results were discussed within a conceptual framework of seeing effective online resources as contributing to reducing cognitive load for students in religious education.

Life on holidays: study protocol for a 3-year longitudinal study tracking changes in children\u2019s fitness and fatness during the in-school versus summer holiday period

BackgroundEmerging evidence suggests that children become fatter and less fit over the summer holidays but get leaner and fitter during the in-school period. This could be due to differences in diet and time use between these distinct periods. Few studies have tracked diet and time use across the summer holidays. This study will measure rates of change in fatness and fitness of children, initially in Grade 4 (age 9 years) across three successive years and relate these changes to changes in diet and time use between in-school and summer holiday periods.MethodsGrade 4 Children attending Australian Government, Catholic and Independent schools in the Adelaide metropolitan area will be invited to participate, with the aim of recruiting 300 students in total. Diet will be reported by parents using the Automated Self-Administered 24-h Dietary Assessment Tool. Time use will be measured using 24-h wrist-worn accelerometry (GENEActiv) and self-reported by children using the Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adults (e.g. chores, reading, sport). Measurement of diet and time use will occur at the beginning (Term 1) and end (Term 4) of each school year and during the summer holiday period. Fitness (20-m shuttle run and standing broad jump) and fatness (body mass index z-score, waist circumference, %body fat) will be measured at the beginning and end of each school year. Differences in rates of change in fitness and fatness during in-school and summer holiday periods will be calculated using model parameter estimate contrasts from linear mixed effects model. Model parameter estimate contrasts will be used to calculate differences in rates of change in outcomes by socioeconomic position (SEP), sex and weight status. Differences in rates of change of outcomes will be regressed against differences between in-school and summer holiday period diet and time use, using compositional data analysis. Analyses will adjust for age, sex, SEP, parenting style, weight status, and pubertal status, where appropriate.DiscussionFindings from this project may inform new, potent avenues for intervention efforts aimed at addressing childhood fitness and fatness. Interventions focused on the home environment, or alternatively extension of the school environment may be warranted.Trial registrationAustralia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, identifier ACTRN12618002008202. Retrospectively registered on 14 December 2018.

District offices fostering educational change through instructional leadership practices in Australian Catholic secondary schools

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how Catholic district offices support school leaders’ instructional leadership practices at times of major reform.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs the theory of practice architectures as a lens through which to examine local site-based responses to system-wide reforms in two Australian Catholic secondary schools and their district offices. Data collection for these parallel case studies included semi-structured interviews, focus groups, teaching observations, classroom walkthroughs and coaching conversations.FindingsFindings suggest that in the New South Wales case, arrangements of language and specialist discourses associated with a school improvement agenda were reinforced by district office imperatives. These imperatives made possible new kinds of know-how, ways of working and relating to district office, teachers and students when it came to instructional leading. In the Queensland case, the district office facilitated instructional leadership practices that actively sought and valued practitioners’ input and professional judgment.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focussed on two case studies of district offices supporting school leaders’ instructional leadership practices at times of major reform. The findings are not generalizable.Practical implicationsPractically, the studies suggest that for excellent pedagogical practice to be embedded and sustained over time, district offices need to work with principals to foster communicative spaces that promote explicit dialogue between teachers and leaders’ interpretive categories.Social implicationsThe paper contends that responding to the diversity of secondary school sites requires district office practices that reject a one size fits all formulas. Instead, district offices must foster site-based education development.Originality/valueThe paper adopts a practice theory approach to its study of district support for instructional leader’ practices. A practice approach rejects a one size fits all approach to educational change. Instead, it focusses on understanding how particular practices come to be in specific sites, and what kinds of conditions make their emergence possible. As such, it leads the authors to consider whether and how different practices such as district practices of educational reforming or principals’ instructional leading might be transformed, or conducted otherwise, under other conditions of possibility.

Teaching Scripture: moving towards a hermeneutical model for religious education in Australian Catholic Schools

In 2006 the Catholic Education Commission, Victoria, Australia, entered into an agreement with the Centre for Academic Teacher Training of the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, to conduct research which would frame the identity structure of Victorian Catholic schools (Pollefeyt and Bouwens in Int Stud Cathol Educ 2(2):193–211, 2010). As this agreement has now been extended to other dioceses in Australia, there is widespread interest in the project and in how to respond to its findings. Indeed, the finding that a disproportionate number of students are demonstrating strong fundamentalist belief has brought into sharp focus the very way that religious education is taught in Australia. Calls for a new, hermeneutical, model of religious education are loud and persuasive. But while dioceses search for religious education that emphasises dialogue, embraces religious pluralism and promotes active enquiry, this paper contends that they are overlooking a major impediment in the development of post-critical belief; theme or topic-based religious education curriculum programmes. This paper proposes two weaknesses inherent in this design model. First, in reducing Scripture to the role of validating or proving the predetermined theme Scripture is used in a manner that is a priori, an approach that, of itself, invites a literalist reading. Second, as the theme or topic is known by students at the outset of learning any interpretation by them is rendered unnecessary; passages mean what the theme teaches that they mean. These two realities, it will be argued, make theme or topic-based curriculum design incompatible with a hermeneutical approach to religious education. It is to be noted that this paper does not attempt to argue the existence of the practices described. This has been done elsewhere (Carswell in Rymarz and Belmonte (eds.) Religious education in Australian Catholic schools. Exploring the landscape, Garratt, Mulgrave, 2017, Br J Relig Educ 40(3): 288–297, https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2018.1493271, 2018). Rather, it offers only a summary of the problems associated with the placement of Scripture in theme-based curricula deliberately framed around Pollefeyt and Bouwens (Identity in dialogue. Assessing and enhancing the Catholic school identity. Research methodology and research results in Catholic schools in Victoria, Lit-Verlag, Hamburg, 2014) own concerns. It is hoped that, in responding to ECSI, dioceses in Australia will consider their use of theme-based religious education. This paper will conclude by outlining a new direction for religious education, one that allows Scripture to speak for itself.

A social cognitive framework for examining the work of Catholic religious education teachers in Australian high schools

ABSTRACTReligious education in Australian Catholic High Schools is the raison d’etre for the Catholic education system and religious education teachers are critical to this mission. This paper offers a framework for investigating the self-efficacy of religious education teachers.We first describe the nature and context of religious education in Australian Catholic schools. We argue that the teaching of religious education presents a set of unique challenges to teachers, compared to teaching other disciplines in the curriculum. Next we review the extant literature on Social Cognitive Theory, and self-efficacy as it may apply in this context. Then we look at likely constructs that may impact upon teacher self-efficacy for teaching religious education: collective efficacy, teachers’ implicit theories about student ability and student faith, and the intrinsic spirituality of religious education teachers.We present a theoretical framework for examining the self-efficacy of religious education teachers, and we argue for research in this area that has not been studied hitherto, making this a unique contribution to the field of the psychology of religion, and to practitioners.

Understanding sustainability in school arts provision: stakeholder perspectives in Australian primary schools

ABSTRACTAlthough the notion of sustainability is popular in rhetoric associated with arts programmes in Australian schools, shared meanings are lacking. References to sustainability may be rooted in any combination of pragmatic, economic and/or health bases. We chose to investigate what stakeholders involved in the provision of school-based arts practices understood about the notion of sustainability in the specific context of those programmes. To do this we interviewed a range of school professionals and asked them to explain how sustainability related to arts programmes in their schools. In this article we present the particular elements that stakeholders described as being sustainable. Five categories emerged through inductive analysis that included: benefits for students, benefits for the schools, the arts programmes themselves, physical artefacts, and the capacity for schools to provide arts experiences. Notable were descriptions of sustainability from several schools that saw ongoing programmes as less important than brief arts experiences that students could carry into other areas of their life. Results illustrate the diversity of understandings about what should be sustained from arts engagement for 27 professionals in Australian Catholic Primary Schools. An ‘exposure’ model of arts programmes is articulated that captures the sustainable benefits beyond sustained involvement in and provision of arts programmes in primary schools.

Examining some aspects of the worldview of students in Australian Catholic schools: some implications for religious education

Religious education always takes place within a cultural context. In recent decades, this context has changed significantly and Catholic schools now engage with a world that is very different from the immediate post-Vatican 2 era. This changed cultural context shapes the views, beliefs and practices of students in Catholic schools. One way of exploring this contextualisation is to describe the worldviews of young people and to discuss some of the major features of these. This paper reports on an ongoing study of students in Catholic schools. It records how they see themselves, their involvement in Church and their religious expression. Results indicate nuanced responses that invite sophisticated analysis of young people and worldview. One clear trend to emerge is the changing perception of students as they progress through the school system. This finding is in accord with a view that describes religious engagement of young people reaching a plateau at a relatively early age. Some of the implications of this study for religious educators in Catholic schools will be drawn out and discussed with a number of recommendation made for practitioners.

Students in Australian Catholic and Independent Schools Have More Positive Learning Environments: Evidence From the 2012 PISA Study

ABSTRACTCritics of Catholic and independent (nongovernment) schools in Australia contend that the higher levels of performance of students in nongovernment schools can be dismissed as simply a function of student- and especially school-level socioeconomic status (school-SES). A recent article extends this critique to school-sector differences in students’ evaluations of their teachers and schools, arguing that the observable school-sector differences are because of differences in school-SES, not because of school-sector differences in their teachers and schools. In response, this article reviews these arguments and focuses on school-sector differences in students’ evaluations of their teachers and schools using the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation’s (OECD) measures in the PISA 2009 study. On eight of the 10 attitudinal measures, students attending Catholic and independent schools have more positive evaluations and these school-sector differences survive controls for students’ SES, their overall level of achievement and school-SES, which has no substantive influence. Although the effect sizes are generally small (0.06–0.26) their combined influence means that nongovernment school students enjoy superior learning environments which is likely to contribute to their generally higher levels of academic performance in senior secondary school.

Australian Catholic Schools Today: School Identity and Leadership Formation

This article focuses on the challenge of faith leadership in Catholic schools. In particular, it reviews Australian research that aims to understand how principals conceptualize and enact their role as faith leaders. Consistent with American research, Australian research finds that principals see themselves as playing a leadership role in the evangelizing mission of the church by strengthening Catholic school identity and culture. At the same time, they are mindful of their limits in respect to their faith leadership capabilities. Moreover, the principals worried that the next generation of school leaders may lack the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to engage faith leadership in a changing social and cultural context. Consequently, they recommend faith leadership formation for teachers as well as principals, their deputies, and assistants. By situating these findings within the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, this article argues that, together, the current interest in Australia in Catholic school identity and leadership formation represents a positive development. However, there are also inherent dangers that come with the imposition of a generic Catholic school identity and a “one size fits all” approach to the leadership role. This article concludes by suggesting a way forward with the promotion of a new model for leadership formation that seeks to avoid these dangers.