Kath Engebretson

The changing reality of research education in Australia and implications for supervision: a review of the literature

This paper consists of a literature review addressing changes in research education in Australia and their implications for research supervision. The organising principle for the review is expressed in the question: What scholarly literature can support and educate universities and supervisors to effectively carry out the work of research supervision in the current climate of Australian tertiary education? Two categories of literature are examined: literature on new ways of conceptualising research degrees and literature on effective supervision. The research agenda of the Australian government and the massification and diversity of the Australian research student population demand new ways of conceptualising the research curriculum, and in particular, call for flexibility and a holistic view. The paper challenges the traditional notion of ‘good’ supervision as a private contract between supervisor and student, and claims that in this new climate ‘good’ supervision can be defined in specific ways, as one critical component in a whole research curriculum.

Teenage boys, spirituality and religion

This paper reports on a pilot study concerning adolescent boys and spirituality, and specifically on data gathered from interviews with 20 boys of 15-17 years. The data from these interviews will inform the development of a questionnaire to be used more widely in the next stage of the research. The paper also explains and justifies the analytical schema through which the interviews were conducted and analysed and a subsequent instrument for broader use developed. It describes the rationale and background of the study, presents the schema that was developed to analyse the interviews and explores some of the ideas that emerged from the interviews that, along with the analytical schema, have helped to structure the questionnaire.

Putting textbooks to work: empowering religious education teachers

In 2002 a paper entitled Writing Church‐sponsored Religious Education Textbooks by Engebretson was published in the British Journal of Religious Education. This paper reported on and analysed some aspects of the development, by the Catholic Archdiocese in Melbourne, Victoria, of a series of religious education textbooks to be used in all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. The paper contextualised the series, entitled To Know, Worship and Love, in the field of literature on textbooks in the classroom. It discussed some local issues that had led to the decision to produce religious education textbooks, explained and justified the choice of content for the middle secondary books, and discussed the presentation of the books. In the final section of the paper, it was indicated that future papers would report on the evaluation of the series and its implementation, as a three‐stage research project was completed. The first stage of the research project collected responses from teachers and Religious Education Co‐ordinators (RECs) to the Years 7 and 9 books, that is those books written for students of 12 and 14 years respectively. This paper discusses a significant finding that emerged from this stage of the research, that is the relationship between textbook use and level of qualifications and experience in the teaching of religious education. This major finding is of interest in relation to a range of educational issues in religious education, including the role and use of resources, the mandation of resources by Church hierarchies, creativity and flexibility in teaching religious education, teacher confidence and experience and the important issue of content knowledge. Further papers will explore evaluations of the Years 8 and 10 books, and overall issues that have emerged from this Archdiocesan curriculum project.

The Catholic school called to dialogue: a reflection on some consequences of the ecclesial unity of the Catholic school

Debate in the Catholic community in Australia often centres on how the Catholic school best expresses its Catholic identity. Is it in closing its doors to all but Catholic families or does Catholic identity require an openness to all Christians, those of other religions and those of no religion? This paper argues that if the school is to be truly Catholic, it must possess and display the unity of the Church itself, and, paradoxically, this unity calls it to openness to all. This openness is not in conflict with a healthy Catholic identity, but is a constitutive aspect of this identity, just as important in the work of the Catholic school as the linking Catholic children and young people with their local Catholic church structures.

‘God’s got your back’: teenage boys talk about God

This paper reports on ongoing research that has gathered data from 1100 boys, between 15‐ and 18‐years‐old, on the ways in which they experience and express spirituality. The paper is set against the background of a previous paper in this journal (Engebretson, 2004), that introduced the research and gave its theoretical framework. The focus of this paper is on the boys’ articulated experiences of the transcendent. The paper reports on these, claiming that transcendent experiences occurred for the boys in times that involved risk, fear, challenge, need and loss. Their sense of God was personal, one who was always there, who understood, who listened, who cared and protected. The paper then critically analyses why a much smaller percentage of boys who were given the opportunity to answer these questions did so, in comparison with the much higher percentage who answered the other questions on the questionnaire. Finally, questions are posed that will guide the research as it continues.

The significance of theory in the implementation of curriculum change in religious education

A new study in Melbourne, Australia, has investigated curriculum change in religious education against the background of literature on curriculum change in education in general. Amongst its several findings, it was ascertained that clear information and theoretical understanding about a curriculum change in religious education is just as important as it is in any other field of study. In the absence of such information and understanding the leaders who were responsible for implementing the curriculum change in religious education made certain curriculum accommodations, and emphasised particular professional development activities for teachers that were not in keeping with the theoretical underpinning of the change. The implications for ‘top down’ curriculum change, such as those mandated by Church authorities or state authorities, are significant.

Called to be holy: the transformative potential of Christian service programmes in Catholic schools

This is the second in a series of four papers which seeks to articulate theologically and practically the consequences of the ecclesial identity of the Catholic school. The series is based on the principle that the ‘marks’ of the Church – one, holy, catholic, and apostolic – are also marks of the Catholic school, since the Catholic school is within the Church and derives its ecclesial identity from the Church. Each paper analyses one of these ‘marks’, discerning what it means theologically and practically for the Catholic school. In this paper, the second of the marks of the Church and therefore of the Catholic school – holiness – is discussed in terms of what it means to be, and to continually become, holy. In reference to a current research project, Christian service programmes in Catholic schools are analysed in regard to what they already contribute to the formation in holiness of Catholic students, but also in terms of what more they may become. It is argued that for their potential for growth in holiness for teachers and students to be fully realised, Christian service programmes need to be more than just charitable works, and that they need to engage critically with inequity and injustice in keeping with the Church’s radical social teaching.

Muslims, Catholics and the Common Purpose of Justice and Peace

It is the argument of this chapter that Muslims and Catholics are natural partners in the work of justice and peace. This partnership comes from their mutual respect for each other’s religions and the recognition of salvific aspects of each religion that allow them to mutually identify commonalities in beliefs and values. It also comes from the common ground of the belief they share in the unity of God and in his attributes of mercy, compassion and forgiveness. Finally it comes from the example of Muhammad and Jesus themselves, who advocated and practised peace, and from the Holy Books that guide the lives of Muslims and Christians. This chapter first establishes that the Catholic Church holds Islam in esteem as a religion that mediates salvation to its people. It then identifies a common platform of belief which puts Muslims and Catholics together in a world where the work for justice and peace is paramount. Then it identifies four particular areas – human dignity, freedom of religion and conscience, the drive to eradicate poverty and the search for peace – in which Muslims and Catholics are natural collaborators.

Teenage Boys and Life Experience: Towards a Theory of Spirituality and Religiosity

This chapter presents a discussion of key terms used in the discourse about religions and spirituality –spirituality, spiritual experience, religion, religious experience – critiquing the ways in which they are often used which is, it is argued, frequently so non-specific that many aspects of human experience could be carried within them. In the interest of informed scholarly conversation, we need to have clear conceptions of what these terms mean, and this chapter attempts to provide this. Moreover, it sets upon this task against the background of research into the spirituality of teenage boys that was carried out by the author in 2004–2006. In revisiting this research, the author seeks to bring greater conceptual clarity to its findings in light of the analysis and definition of the four key terms listed above.