Despite the overwhelming success and global contributions of Catholic schools, Catholic education within the United States has been repeatedly called into question. One of the major concerns about the sustainability of Catholic education is the concern over Catholic identity. Given the notable decrease in the quantity of teaching clergy and religious and an increase in the number of non-Catholic students and faculty in Catholic schools, many of those involved in Catholic education are looking for ways to enhance the Catholic identity of their schools. The most highimpact way to enhance Catholic identity is through curriculum permeation.
Curriculum permeation refers to enhancing the Catholic identity within the academic curriculum. Let’s first talk about what curriculum permeation isn’t: It is NOT a Theology takeover. It is rather a collaborative effort to find ways of enhancing Catholic identity using the established content of the discipline being taught in ways that play to the comfort and strengths of the given teacher. The goal is for the classroom teacher, in whatever content area, to organically enhance what he or she is already doing by discussing relevant Catholic ideas, figures, events or documents. Curriculum permeation is not cookie-cutter. It is looking at education as an art more than as a science.
Within the art of teaching, there is room for multiple approaches to curriculum permeation. I would like briefly to share three approaches to curriculum permeation that might be helpful: Catholic Foundational Documents approach, Interdisciplinary Assessment approach, and Values-Infusion approach.
CFD refers to the approach of asking teachers to specialize or develop expertise in a particular Catholic document pertinent to the subject area and then organically build ideas from that document into their course content. CFD approach would require that teachers be familiar with the content of either a relevant papal encyclical or the lives and writings of saints who might be relevant to the discipline. The ideas from the papal document or relevant saints could be used as an introduction to content being taught, as the basis for a summative or formative assessment or as part of a recursive theme the students are regularly asked to reflect upon throughout the class.
IA refers to the approach of asking theology teachers to team-teach lessons with other teachers of other disciplines to show the inter-weaving of the faith with the course content. IA approach would require theology and non-theology teachers to develop good working relationships. It would require intensive planning and dialogue concerning what parts of the theology content would make the best cross-curricular unit match and with which discipline. What topics might science and theology have in common? What topics might history and theology have in common? Where and when could each of theology’s learning objectives be brought to bear in a way that enriches the other disciplines?
VI refers to the approach of making a set curriculum where Catholic themes, learning objectives and essential knowledge are represented within the course sequencing of each department that teachers are expected to teach effectively within the course content native to the subject at hand. VI could take the form of the teacher developing a recursive theme for the class—setting the context of the subject matter from a Catholic perspective, such as providing detailed answers for why we are studying this content or picking a big-picture idea (like a theme of Catholic social teaching) to which each educational unit can connect. VI could also take the form of developing a particular learning objective for the class, such as providing practical applications of the content that could help the student live a Catholic life in the world today or asking students to apply the subject matter in a way that accords with a Catholic vision of the world. Finally, VI could take the form of incorporating essential Catholic knowledge, such as: discussion of relevant readings, figures, works of art, ideas or historical contributions that showcase the positive Catholic contributions to the world. Perhaps it could also take the form of anti-Catholic myth-busting.
To show that implementing any of these approaches is possible, here are a couple of different approaches taken by teachers I have worked with in the past year.
One computer science teacher was concerned that students who finish the class have to demonstrate the application of computer science principles for the good of others. So, he offered a summative assessment. This assessment presented the students with different scenarios that represented different principles of Catholic social teaching. The students were asked to pick one of the scenarios and write a “shark tank” pitch for a computer program that would help solve the problem posited in the scenario.
One Latin teacher decided to use the strategy of a recursive theme. He was concerned that students have a greater awareness of the differences between pre-Christian and post-Christian Roman culture. So, he dedicated the class time reserved for discussions of Roman culture to lectures and readings that demonstrated this theme. Topics of instruction included: differences in thinking about the virtues, the poor and vulnerable populations and roles of women.
Finally, one U.S. History teacher wanted to include essential Catholic knowledge. He had the students read In Supremo Apostolatus by Pope Gregory XVI during his unit on slavery to showcase Papal disapproval, discussed the episode of the San Patricio defection during the Mexican War to highlight 19th-century anti-Catholic bigotry, exposed the students to Catholic figures who criticized industrialization and helped the vulnerable in the Gilded Age and asked the students to consider the spiritual problems of Communism during the Cold War rather than merely the material problems of it.
Curriculum permeation enhances learning and Catholic identity by encouraging the students to make connections between the target content and higher ideas. It is a way to make faith and the target content come alive again for students and teachers in authentic ways.
Deacon Kenneth Scheiberis a teacher at St. Mary’s Ryken High School in the Archdiocese of Washington.kenneth.scheiber@smrhs.org
