Towards a contemporary philosophy of Catholic education: moving the debate forward

An evaluation of the Catholic response to the Final Report from the Commission on Religious Education

“…This has rumbled on in the ‘faith school’ debate, in which concerns have been repeatedly raised about the place of schools of religious character within the provision of state schools. Whilst there are many legitimate concerns over faith schools (see Whittle 2014 ) for many advocates of Catholic education the ongoing nature of this sort of debate triggers a concern about Catholic education being unfairly under attack (Pring 2017 ). This allows for a defensiveness, where the default response is suspicion of any potential changes and being overly protective of current state of Catholic education.…”

What Are Catholic Schools Teaching to Make a Difference? A Literature Review of Curriculum Studies in Catholic Schools in the U.S. and the U.K. since 1993

“…These works identified a risk that, within a secular and competitive context, Catholic schools might emphasize academic results rather than achievement of their spiritual and moral goals (Arthur, 2013;Grace, 2002Grace, , 2013Walbank, 2012). This issue was linked to the idea that there was a lack of theory for Catholic education (Arthur, 1995;Davis, R., 1999;McLaughlin, 1996;Whittle, 2014). …”

“…For McLaughlin (1996), cited in the paper's introduction, there was an urgent need for a distinctive philosophy of education that gave coherence to the curriculum in Catholic schools beyond edu-babble phrases such as "Catholic schools are inspired in the Gospel." Like Arthur (1995) and R. Davis (1999), Whittle (2014) claimed that this philosophy or theory for Catholic education was only tenable on theological grounds. He suggested that Rahner's (1978) theology could fruitfully frame a Catholic curricular theory centered on students' flourishing and their experiences of mystery and human limits.…”

“…One of them came from the United States (Porath, 2000), and four came from the United Kingdom (Haldane, 1996;McLaughlin, 1996;Williams, K., 2010;Whittle, 2014). Porath (2000) emphasized that the main difference between Catholic and public schools cannot be Religious Education but a Catholic vision of knowledge unifying the educational experience.…”

“…Many scholars believe that the foundation of this theory should be theological, not philosophical (Arthur, 1995;R. Davis, 1999;Whittle, 2014). Among other things, a contemporary theory for Catholic education should include a Christian idea of the unity of knowledge that links apparently unrelated subject matters in a way that is fully consonant with faith, shedding light upon the infusion of Catholic identity into the curriculum as a whole (Porath, 2000).…”