New Thinking in Catholic Education
The Director of the MDCCE, Dr. Gareth Byrne, gave a keynote address at the Heythrop College ‘New Thinking in Catholic Education’ Conference on 20th September 2016. His topic was ‘The Context of Religious Education in Catholic Second-level Schools in Ireland: Drawing on Our Heritage, Living in the Present, Anticipating New Directions’. Acknowledging the changing context within which Catholic Education is taking place in Ireland, at home and in the parish as well as in school, Dr. Byrne highlighted some of the initiatives that are taking place at second-level, such as the new Framework for Junior Cycle (2015) encouraging creative and flexible approaches to education.
Dr. Byrne also addressed the question of third-level education focusing on how teacher education can impact into the future on imaginative engagement with young people in schools. In this discussion he highlighted the preparation for teaching religious education and on how this subject contributes to the development of ethos and characteristic spirit in schools. To the great interest of participants, Dr. Byrne reported on the contemporary nature of the research completed this September by six students graduating from the Doctor of Education (EdD) programme Religious Education strand, at Dublin City University, an initiative of the Irish Centre for Religious Education at DCU.
A Network of Catholic Education in the UK was launched at the conference. The Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education looks forward to continuing and expanded cooperation, from an Irish perspective, with the members of this Network as it develops.