Abstract
Catholic education systems throughout Australia and beyond have developed policies to encourage learning for leadership and the professional growth of leaders and aspiring leaders. These policies make a contribution to sustaining leaders in their roles. In Catholic schools effective leadership in religious education ultimately transforms learning, and support for such leadership is vital.
For many leaders and aspiring leaders in religious education, there is no doubt that the ability to exercise effective leadership in religious education requires coordinated and strategic support. A recent study investigated the types of support leaders and aspiring leaders in religious education in Catholic schools required to sustain them in their roles. They perceived that in order to lead effectively in religious education, they require support from three arms of education. The first arm is the centralised authority that guides the schooling system in which the school belongs, the second arm is the actual school in which the leader was employed and the third arm relates higher education institutions committed to the delivery of courses oriented towards the formation of leadership in religious education.
This chapter reports on the perspectives of leaders and aspiring leaders pertaining to the range and level of support they require from each of the educational arms to sustain them and enable them to be effective leaders in religious education. It also considers recommendations to creatively support leaders and aspiring leaders through a consistent and integrated approach from each of the educational arms.
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Buchanan, M.T. (2015). Leadership Sustainability: Supporting Religious Education Leaders in the School Context. In: Buchanan, M., Gellel, AM. (eds) Global Perspectives on Catholic Religious Education in Schools. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20925-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20925-8_8
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