Search

The traditional school system has not met the needs of students for many years. Parents, in order to allow their children to move away from the rigid class-subject-hour system, established schools. The founders of alternative schools can be citizens, parents and teachers, religious communities as well as other legal entities. These are the so-called free schools, civic educational initiatives, reform pedagogical attempts, educational boarding schools, etc. The aim of this paper is to present the pedagogical concepts and ideas of schools in the Republic of Croatia whose founders are parents. The paper presents the basic pedagogical principles and aspects of teaching Waldorf and Montessori pedagogy based on educational pluralism, a brief overview of partnership between parents and schools in Croatia and the educational model of primary Catholic schools “Ružičnjak” and “Lotrščak”. The observed schools are located in Zagreb and have only one goal - to adapt the school to the child. An effort is made to provide each student with an individual approach. The starting points are the child’s needs and interests. These are the schools where students have freedom of choice. The goal of upbringing and education is the holistic development of the child. The emphasis is on active learning methods and abandoning didactic scenarios in which the child is only a passive observer.

The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, which was welcomed enthusiastically in many sectors, ushered in a period of social progress and change. Nevertheless, conservative Catholic sectors of society were wary of the secularizing spirit of Republican legislation, especially those that affected the field of education, such as the dissolution of the Society of Jesus or the Law of Religious Confessions and Congregations, which had traditionally been dominated by religious orders. In this paper we will analyze the influence exerted by the new drafting of the constitution and an emerging republican culture on Catholic private schools in the city of Valladolid through its effect on religious practices and direct impact on the emergence of a spirit of resistance to the republican government that manifested itself in a number of ways.

The Catholic Church estimates that nine million children were enrolled in K12 Catholic schools in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016. How has the number of students in Catholic schools evolved over the last two decades? In which countries is enrollment larger, whether in absolute terms or in terms of market share? Are Catholic schools performing better than other schools once controls are introduced for the students that enroll in Catholic schools? Finally, what can be learned from the practices of well-performing schools such as those managed by the Fe y Alegría network? To answer these questions, this paper provides trends in enrollment in Catholic schools in the region, estimates their market share, and discusses lessons from the literature with a focus on Fe y Alegría schools.

The aim of this paper is to attempt at building a bridge between education and situated learning. The etymology of the word education outlines the two major ways of envisioning education. The meaning which we give to the term ‘education’ surely influences the ways in which the process of education unfolds and is actually conducted. The Constructivist Approach which is being used in education today is characterised by its student­ centeredness rather than teacher ­centeredness. The adoption of Communities of Practice from the industrial sphere to the realm of Catholic schools is a way in which education as bringing forth from the student ( e ‑ducere ) and the constructivist approach developed earlier can be put into practice in Catholic Schools. Communities of practice create the right condition for situated learning in Catholic schools today. It is here that legitimate peripheral participation can be put into practice, thus fulfilling the Church’s mission of evangelisation in our contemporary culture by drawing students from the periphery of the educational endeavour, making them active participants at the core.