The USCCB Curriculum Framework: Origins, Questions, And A Call For Research

Abstract

The promulgation of Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in November 2007 represented a milestone in the efforts of the U.S. bishops to monitor and shape the Religious Studies curricula of U.S. Catholic secondary schools. This article contextualizes the Framework, providing comprehensive information about its origins. With the release of the English translation of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1994, the U.S. bishops launched a full-scale effort to address what they perceived to be a crisis of religious illiteracy among Catholics. Central to this effort was an attempt to ensure that all catechetical materials used in Catholic parishes, elementary and secondary schools, and other programs would be in conformity with the doctrinal content, theological approach, and language of the Catechism. When members of the USCCB found many Religious Studies textbooks commonly utilized in U.S. Catholic secondary schools to be gravely deficient both theologically and pedagogically, they began, in early 1999, to create what would become the Framework. Other relevant documents issued following the Framework's promulgation have further clarified the bishops' expectations regarding Religious Studies in U.S. Catholic secondary schools. This article addresses many of the questions about the Framework that Religious Studies teachers may have, such as those documented by Schroeder (2013), and invites authors and researchers to subject the Framework to the rigors of empirical research. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]