Religious education in canadian catholic schools

Abstract

Catholic schools in Canada operate in a diversity of historical contexts and utilize different funding models. Within this diversity a number of features of religious education within Canadian Catholic schools will be discussed in this chapter. Firstly, many official Canadian Church educational documents reflect an understanding that closely associated catechesis with religious education or fail to sufficiently distinguish between the two. Secondly, in the absence of strong, ongoing bureaucratic support, religious education can often lack a strategic sense that monitors current practice and also plans for the future. Finally, emerging cultural and social circumstances offer a series of challenges such as meeting the needs of changing school communities and training of religious education teachers.