Teaching Charisms in the Catholic Church: Influence, Impact and Opportunity

This book brings together a range of scholarly essays on the Catholic Church’s commitment to education through an examination of both its traditional teaching congregations and some new educational movements in the Church. This book integrates both historical and contemporary approaches and addresses the current state of play in Catholic schools internationally, whereby laity are tasked with maintaining the charism of the Congregations and Orders as the presence of religious schools has become less. This book provides an introduction to the Orders and Congregations in Catholic Education before providing the historical and contemporary perspective of specific Congregations. It explores both the historical and intended charism before discussing the contemporary and future focused directions of charism in education.

Roisín Coll is Professor of Catholic Education at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She previously served for eight years as Director of the St Andrew’s Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education, the national body responsible for preparing Catholic teachers for Catholic schools in Scotland. In this role, she worked closely with the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland and the Scottish Government and had oversight of programmes of study for Catholic Initial Teacher Education students across the country. She has designed and written national curricula for Religious Education in schools and for programmes of teacher formation for university initial teacher education students. Roisín is the author and co-author of a range of articles and book chapters on Catholic Education in the Catholic school sector. Her research and scholarship interests include the professional and faith development needs of Catholic teachers, Church–state relationships in education and Catholic school leadership. Her work has influenced policy in a number of dioceses globally, and she is regularly invited to deliver keynote addresses on aspects of Catholic education at international conferences and events. Roisín is the Special Academic Advisor to the World Union of Catholic Teachers (WUCT).

Dr. Christine Robinson is Associate Professor in Early Childhood at Edith Cowan University. Previously, Christine was the associate dean (Research) for the Faculty of Education, Philosophy, and Theology at The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA). Christine coordinates and teaches into undergraduate and postgraduate programs across the areas of early childhood pedagogy, spirituality, and leading in early years’ education. Christine’s Ph.D. explored educators’ practices for promoting young children’s spirituality in faith-based contexts. Christine is Chair of the international research collaboration G.R.A.C.E, bringing together academics and practitioners globally within Catholic education. Christine is well published in the areas of spirituality and early childhood.