ABSTRACT
Drawing on the responses of 2,287 (33.5%) teachers in Queensland Catholic schools to a specially designed survey and on follow-up interviews with 20 volunteer teachers, this chapter considers the relationship between curriculum and culture from the perspectives of Catholic teaching, scholarship and teachers. Over half the survey respondents rated the planned integration of a Catholic perspective across the whole curriculum as important or very important and a similar proportion said they integrated a Catholic perspective in their classroom practice. Teacher interviewees, however, depended mainly on spontaneous ‘teachable moments’ and personal ‘witness’ rather than planned integration to express the faith-based identity of their schools in their teaching outside of Religious Education. The strongest support for the planned integration of a Catholic perspective across the curriculum came from survey respondents for whom religion is important or very important to how they live their lives, who rate the importance of faith-based Catholic school practices and the Catholicity of the school community highly, who regard their own knowledge of Catholic teaching as good or very good and who chose to work in Catholic Education because of their faith commitment. The challenges and opportunities that current religious and educational environments pose for the integration of a Catholic perspective across the curriculum of Catholic schools are discussed along with the associated potential of the integration of Catholic social teaching (CST). Given the counter-cultural nature of CST it behoves teachers as critical pedagogues to address controversial social issues in a manner that is educationally appropriate.
