Principled arguments are frequently made for and against faith schools, without evidence from empirical research. This book attempts to address this issue by offering a rich in-depth ethnographic case study of Catholic secondary schools, exploring pupils’ perceptions of life in the Catholic secondary school in twenty-first-century England.

Ann Casson holds a PhD from the Institute of Education at Warwick University. She is an Associate Fellow of the Warwick Religious Education Research Unit (WRERU) and a trustee of the Religious Resources Centre in North East England. She is a qualified secondary Religious Education teacher who has taught in a variety of English schools including independent, community and Catholic secondary schools. She combines teaching with her research in the area of Religious Education.

Contents: Catholic schools in context – Changing signs of Catholicity – Fragmented Catholicity – Transmitting Catholicity – Religious Education – A Catholic community – Social cohesion and Catholicity – Implications for the Catholic future.