Education Commons^™

Difficult Knowledge And The English Classroom: A Catholic Framework Using Cormac Mccarthy's The Road, Scott Jarvie, Kevin Burke

Journal of Catholic Education

In this article, the authors explore the generative possibilities of risk-taking in the Catholic school English classroom. They associate pedagogical risk with what Deborah Britzman (1998) has called “difficult knowledge”—content that causes students to consider social trauma. Incorporating difficult knowledge meaningfully requires English teachers to take significant pedagogical risks, especially in the Catholic school classroom. Drawing on critical theology and Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road (2006) as a difficult text, the authors employ a case study looking at how the traumatic difficulty of the novel could be fruitfully taught at a Catholic school. How might students reckon with The Road …

The Usccb Curriculum Framework: Origins, Questions, And A Call For Research, Carrie J. Schroeder

Journal of Catholic Education

The promulgation of Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in November, 2007, represented a milestone in the efforts of the U.S. bishops to monitor and shape the Religious Studies curricula of U.S. Catholic secondary schools. This article contextualizes the Framework, providing comprehensive information about its origins. With the release of the English translation of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1994, the U.S. bishops launched a full-scale effort to address what they perceived to be …

Catholic Labor Education And The Association Of Catholic Trade Unionists. Instructing Workers To Christianize The Workplace, Paul Lubienecki Ph.D.

Journal of Catholic Education

This article analyzes the effect of the American Catholic Church, through its program of specialized labor education, on the growth and development of organized labor in the twentieth century. With the proclamation of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, he requested that the Church complete the work began by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 with his landmark social encyclical Rerum Novarum.

However, the American interpretation and utilization of the social encyclicals varied from their intended European meaning. The cumulative effect of these two encyclicals was support for the workers’ rights to organize and create Christian labor associations. From …

Critical Theory And Catholic Social Teaching: A Research Framework For Catholic Schools, Jill Bradley-Levine, Kari A. Carr

Journal of Catholic Education

In this article, the authors share findings from an ethnographic study drawn from an evaluation of an after-school program directed by a Catholic diocese to meet the educational needs of children attending urban Catholic schools. The authors used critical research methods within the context of Catholic social teaching (CST) as a theoretical framework for the data presented in this article. Two themes emerged during this data collection and analysis. The first theme, student interactions, describes the helpful ways that students engaged with each other during the after-school program, and also the manner in which students exhibited a need for greater …

Faith, Resistance, And The Future: Daniel Berrigan’S Challenge To Catholic Social Thought, Kurt Nelson

Journal of Catholic Education

Review of Faith, Resistance, and the Future: Daniel Berrigan’s Challenge to Catholic Social Thought.

Education In A Catholic Perspective, Jill Bickett

Journal of Catholic Education

Review of Education in a Catholic Perspective.

Moving Beyond The College-Preparatory High School Model To A College-Going Culture In Urban Catholic High Schools, Ursula S. Aldana

Journal of Catholic Education

A college-going culture has been found to improve academic outcomes for underrepresented high school students (Allen, Kimura-Walsh, & Griffin, 2009; Stanton-Salazar, 2010). The research on Catholic high schools shows their college-preparatory environment ability to produce successful outcomes for African-American and Latino students (Bryk, Lee, & Holland, 1993). This study examines two urban Catholic high schools and how they construct opportunities for low-income Latino and African-American male students. The year-long study draws from 1) ethnographic field notes; 2) interviews with students and staff; 3) survey and 4) student data. Data suggests that although both schools focused on preparing students for college, …

Culturally Responsive Caring And Expectations For Academic Achievement In A Catholic School, Christian Dallavis

Journal of Catholic Education

This article draws from a larger dissertation study that applied ethnographic and historical research methods to explore the intersection of culturally responsive pedagogy and Catholic schooling in immigrant communities. In particular, this article presents qualitative data analysis to describe student achievement expectations at a contemporary urban Catholic elementary school. By examining teacher, student, and parent perspectives on academic achievement, the article explores the degree to which the caring demonstrated at the school is/is not consistent with a notion of “culturally responsive caring” in the scholarly literature surrounding theories of culturally responsive pedagogy.

Transforming Catholic Education Through Research: The American Educational Research Association Catholic Education Special Interest Group, Shane Martin

Journal of Catholic Education

Catholic schools in the United States and abroad face numerous financial, cultural, and structural challenges due to contemporary education policies and economic trends. Within this climate, research about Catholic education is often conducted and leveraged in efforts to serve schools’ most immediate needs. To be certain, research aimed at finding solutions to pressing problems is important—indeed, essential—to Catholic schools’ survival. However, it is also important that research on Catholic education connect to larger questions, issues, and discourses in education—both private and public—in order to contribute important insights and bring otherwise marginalized voices to bear in contemporary educational debates.

Editors' Comments, Mary Mccullough, Karen Huchting, Martin Scanlan

Journal of Catholic Education

We are pleased to announce the new name for the Journal: The Journal of Catholic Education.