An all-boys secondary Jesuit Catholic school in the Midwest, recently transitioned to a rotating block schedule with the goal of supporting deeper learning for all students. Though the transition to longer class meetings helped achieve this goal, less frequent class meetings presented a new challenge in that it tended to exacerbate the natural “forgetting curve.” Retrieval practice, one of the most widely cited high-impact learning strategies to boost student memory, is most beneficial when used alongside spaced practice. A team of teachers implemented and tested the impacts of retrieval and distributed practice on memory in a rotating block schedule. Our findings support the use of retrieval practice to improve memory and boost metacognition, particularly when used in conjunction with spacing and proximity to assessments. Given the importance of utilizing research-based practice to strengthen academic excellence in Catholic schools, this study offers compelling support for retrieval and spaced practice as an accessible and user-friendly—but high-impact—strategy for improving learning and metacognitive capacity, amplifying Catholic schools’ mission of academic excellence.
This study aimed to understand effective school principals’ perceptions of their leadership of Catholic schools. It focuses on Catholic schools with student populations of fewer than 150 students and addresses which attributes of their successes may be replicable for other small Catholic elementary school leaders, with focused attention on operational vitality. It is a phenomenological, qualitative research study accomplished through interviews with Catholic school principals whose schools have seen success during their period of leadership.
Many individuals turn to faith for strength, guidance, and resilience, particularly at times of emotional hardship. As concerns continue to grow about mental health, particularly that of students, exploring how faith influences coping mechanisms and recovery offers valuable insights into alternative approaches to emotional wellbeing. The study found that students exhibit high levels of resilience and spiritual intelligence, suggesting that faith-based beliefs are crucial in students’ ability to cope with adversity. A strong positive correlation between resilience and spiritual intelligence indicates that students who integrate faith into their lives are more likely to develop the psychological strength needed to navigate mental health challenges. The study also found that faith is not a singular experience but a multidimensional process affecting different life areas. These findings highlight faith as a source of comfort and an active force that shapes emotional wellbeing, fosters personal stability, and enhances overall mental health recovery.
This is a conceptual analysis that examines how American Jesuit secondary education can pursue greater Catholic solidarity in a polarized world through a framework of radical kinship, as espoused by Fr. Greg Boyle. Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang rehabilitation program, in the city of Los Angeles. The purpose of this conceptual analysis is to delve deeper into Boyle’s conceptual framework of radical kinship in the context of American Jesuit secondary education. This conceptual analysis will use Catholic Social Teaching, Biblical references, and the values of the Jesuit mission.
Despite advances in educational technology, learning models that effectively integrate digital tools to develop not only competence but also learners’ conscience, compassion, and commitment remain limited. This article introduces the Ignatian Cybergogical Experience (ICE) model, a novel framework designed to foster these four essential characteristics in digital learning environments. Rooted in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, the model deliberately integrates Ignatian Pedagogy’s proven framework for values formation and reflective practice with cybergogy’s capacity to engage digital learners through technology-mediated experiences. This synergistic blending addresses critical limitations in existing approaches: the ICE model simultaneously develops technological competence and moral character, which neither traditional values-based education nor pure cybergogical approaches achieve independently. Grounded primarily in existentialist-humanistic philosophy and connectivism-constructivism theories, the ICE model emphasizes holistic learner development through experiential learning, structured reflection, and meaningful action. The model comprises eight specific steps: context, connection, construction, reflection I, reconnection, action, evaluation, and reflection II. These are organized into three cyclical phases: prelection, active learning, and repetition. By providing concrete strategies such as case studies, immersive learning, project-based learning (PBL), and service-learning projects (SLP), the ICE model offers educators a comprehensive approach to cultivating in learners both technological proficiency and the values of competence, conscience, compassion, and commitment essential for digital age citizenship.
This paper examines how Catholic Social Teaching (CST), particularly its commitments to social justice and inclusive education, is interpreted and enacted by the Congregation of Holy Cross within three elite institutions in Bangladesh. Drawing on institutional documents and semistructured interviews with educators and administrators, it analyzes how Catholic educational ideals are negotiated within competitive urban contexts. The findings show that while Holy Cross institutions articulate strong commitments to human dignity, moral formation, and service to the poor, these values are expressed mainly through institutional culture and outreach initiatives rather than systematically embedded in admissions, academic structures, or governance. Meritbased admissions, tuition dependence, and reputational pressures constrain access for economically marginalized students. Scholarship schemes exist but have limited impact on overall socioeconomic diversity. Inclusion of students with special educational needs remains underdeveloped and largely informal. Operating in a Muslim-majority context further shapes articulation of CST, with universal values being emphasized over explicit theological language.
This qualitative study examines how participation in a multi-year, experiential professional development program—the Academy of Blended Learning (ABL)—shaped teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in implementing blended learning. Grounded in Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, Bruner’s constructivism, and Knowles’ adult learning principles, the study drew on semi-structured interviews and instructional artifacts from eight teachers in Catholic schools serving historically marginalized communities in California. Findings suggest that ABL participation was associated with increased instructional confidence, a stronger sense of professional purpose, and greater enthusiasm for student-centered, technology-enhanced learning. Teachers attributed these shifts to ABL’s design, which emphasized active participation, collaborative inquiry, differentiated instruction, and development of a growth mindset. Although limited by its small, context-specific sample, this study provides preliminary evidence that sustained, experiential PD can enhance teacher self-efficacy in under-resourced settings and underscores the need for future longitudinal and mixed-methods research to inform scalable, equity-focused PD design.
This study examines how De La Salle University’s college orientation fosters holistic student transition by cultivating social capital, shaping habitus, and embedding Catholic values. Drawing on focus groups with eleven sophomores and juniors, we analyze peer networks, mentoring sessions, peer interactions, and communal rituals through Bourdieu’s habitus and Stanton-Salazar’s institutional agents frameworks, situated within Ex Corde Ecclesiae and Evangelii Gaudium. Findings reveal that structured mentoring and block activities strengthen relational ties; guided reflections function as “habitus exercises”; and liturgies and faith reflections operationalize solidarity, preferential option for the marginalized, and communion. Together, these practices deepen students’ spiritual purpose, moral agency, and academic integration. Recommendations include formalizing spiritual mentorship and embedding reflective exercises into the curriculum to sustain formation. This study offers a replicable model for faith-centered orientation in Catholic higher education, demonstrating how intentional rituals and mentorship can nurture both intellectual growth and enduring spiritual commitment.
Book review on collected essays exploring how and why to use Shakespeare in Catholic education
While Catholic schools have a mission of inclusivity, they are often challenged to support students who may have disabilities. A significant cause of their challenge is lacking a special education infrastructure. Classroom accommodations are a primary form of supporting students with disabilities, and others, who struggle in the classroom. Catholic high school educators collaborated with special education researchers in a research project involving collaborative action research to identify and validate an accommodations model specific to the Catholic secondary school context. The model includes three phases—Preparation, Provision, and Evaluation—as well as features such as redundant services, a dedicated learning specialist, and collaboration. Implications for the Catholic mission and the applicability of the model to other Catholic schools are discussed.
Teachers in Catholic schools are not only required to provide quality education through mastering the essential skills of pedagogy; they are also called to “be a reflection, albeit imperfect but still vivid, of the one Teacher” (Gravissimum educationis, 1965, para. 23). Thus, the spiritual identity of all teachers in Catholic schools, not only those who teach religious education, must be integrated with their professional identity. This review draws from 20 empirical peer-reviewed articles on Catholic school educators to understand how Catholic teachers see their spiritual identity as teachers and how these spiritual identities are formed. The results show that Catholic teachers understand their spiritual identity in teaching as vocation, mission, communion, profession, and evangelization. The factors that affect their spiritual identity include personal beliefs and faith life, context of school and society, and leadership and formation in schools. This will help teacher trainers and administrators to design their in-service teacher formation programs more effectively.
In an era dominated by financial metrics and return-on-investment rhetoric, this study offers a counternarrative by examining the holistic outcomes of Catholic higher education. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of 2,000 college graduates, it compares alumni of Catholic and secular institutions across three domains: life satisfaction and personal fulfillment; civic engagement and community involvement; and ethical development. The findings reveal that graduates of Catholic colleges report higher life satisfaction, greater civic participation, and a stronger ethical orientation than their secular peers—patterns that persist across demographic subgroups. While Catholic colleges perform well on traditional financial indicators, their distinctive value lies in forming graduates equipped for meaningful lives shaped by purpose, compassion, and moral responsibility. These results underscore the formative power of Catholic education and provide empirical grounding for reframing public discourse on the value of college. Catholic institutions, the study concludes, offer not just credentials but formation of character and conscience.nce.
Increasing rates of teacher attrition have exacerbated the shortage of teachers in regions of the United States. In response, some scholars have proposed initiatives that promote the professionalization of teaching, hoping to attract and retain new teachers through greater classroom autonomy and stronger professional development. Others have advocated for a vision of teaching as a vocation, through which teachers can find deeper meaning and thereby better tolerate challenging working conditions. While both conceptualizations of teaching hold compelling implications for the field, their lack of grounding in a broader conception of community ultimately limit the extent to which they can respond to challenges like teacher attrition. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to propose a new conceptualization of Catholic school teaching as a specific form participation in the common good – one that can counteract troubling trends facing teachers today through an emphasis on collective responsibility within a community of faith.
This research focuses on Jesuit Catholic higher education in the United States because at the heart of this mission is encouraging all involved to navigate the discernment process and then enact considerations that vacillate between cura apostolica (care for institution) and cura personalis (care for people/society). Cura apostolica and cura personalis can be viewed as brands of institutional purposes that consistently emerge at many colleges and universities out of concerns for institutional risk aversion, protection, and sustainability amid hope for supporting people toward success in a humanizing fashion. Specifically, this research is concerned with the toll institutional concern has on faculty of color career trajectories through Jesuit mission and values and how senior academic leaders influence those trajectories. We augment the notions of “mission-washing” and “mission-filtering” and bring them into conversation with realities of faculty of color to highlight three contributions to faculty socialization and organizational realities in higher education. Findings point to the pressures, displayed by mission-washing and mission-filtering, on faculty of color to choose between local and cosmopolitan models, often choosing a hybrid local–cosmopolitan model. As well as mission-washing as cybernetic controls designed to self-correct the institution at the expense of faculty of color. Finally, if Ignatian spirituality is understood as transformative encounters, this study demonstrates that being responsive to the mission is transformative for faculty of color. Yet this transformation is limited to a set of institutionally palatable topics and less willing to be transformative on issues like oppression and racism.
Mental health is vital to seminarians' holistic development, playing a crucial role in their personal growth and pastoral readiness. Equipping seminarians with mental health training enhances their human formation and addresses stigma, creating a foundation for more compassionate and effective ministry. The study utilized an explanatory research design with 11 college seminarians as the participants. The study reveals that mental health training significantly improved seminarians' knowledge, awareness, and beliefs, leading to a more supportive and informed approach to mental well-being. Seminarians transitioned from initial skepticism to active mental health advocacy, recognizing the importance of psychological support alongside spiritual care. The findings emphasize the role of structured education in reducing stigma and equipping individuals with the skills needed to support themselves and others. This shift highlights the potential for mental health education to create lasting change, fostering a more compassionate and wellness-oriented culture within pastoral communities.
