Contextualizing Authority for the Religion Teacher¹

¹I am indebted to my colleague Jim Lang at OISE/University of Toronto for his many hours of philosophical insight and editorial assistance that contributed to the development of this article.

Abstract

Catholic schoolteachers face the pedagogical dilemma between remaining faithful to the doctrinal requirements of Catholic Church teaching while also respecting their professional responsibility to promote autonomous, critical thinking and consider the pastoral needs of their students. Although in practice many Catholic educators achieve a sensitive rapprochement, this article proposes that in addition to the current prevailing theoretical terms of their teaching and learning climate Catholic educators would benefit from the articulation of a conceptually clarified pedagogical context that appropriately enables them to justify theological dissent as a means of satisfying students' moral, political, and intellectual needs.

Notes

¹I am indebted to my colleague Jim Lang at OISE/University of Toronto for his many hours of philosophical insight and editorial assistance that contributed to the development of this article.

² Hall (Litigation guardian of) v. Powers, 2002, O.J. No. 1803 (Ontario Superior Court of Justice).

³I maintain that the institutional Catholic Church perpetuates social structures of sexism through its defense of a male-only priesthood and hierarchy. I also maintain that to accept homosexuals but not homosexual acts is at best a contentious view.

⁴I acknowledge, though, that religions are not monocultural entities where all members share identical political preferences.

⁵ Although I acknowledge that indoctrination is a contentious term, for purposes of this article I will stand on Harvey Siegel's version, in which indoctrination involves teaching such that beliefs are held uncritically, without sufficient regard for evidence and that the harm it induces involves stunting the development of a student's ability to develop sufficient autonomy to make considered choices about his or her chosen “good” and to participate effectively in a democracy (Siegel 1988).

⁶Consult Saskatoon Catholic Schools (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) for an official statement by a major publicly funded religious school board on the ecumenical and multifaith mission of Catholic schools: http://scs.sk.ca/celebrating_the_gift_of_cath_ed.pdf

⁷See Hill's (1987) commentary on the ancient and medieval theologian's role as teacher-catechist, prophet, and doctor (pp. 51–56) as loosely analogous to academic teacher, Christians activist, and researcher in this model.