Faith-Based Education

Researchers in this cluster are committee to investigating the complexities of educational institutions and frameworks within the context of the Christian faith. The cluster promotes innovative, inclusive, and effective educational practices in higher education as well as in primary and secondary education that contribute to the holistic development of learners.

Our faculty and HDR candidates explore the intersection of education and faith from a variety of perspectives and research methodologies. Projects in this cluster include studies on digital teaching methods, the experience of international students, the collaboration between schools and universities, the role of religion in green education, and character development within the context of educational institutions. This body of research serves the flourishing of the common good by supporting, challenging, and enriching the work of educational institutions in Australia and beyond.

Recent Publications

Stevens, K. (2024). PhD Thesis Citation Analysis to Evaluate the Success of Collection Development Policy Implementation: An Institutional Case Study. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association. Volume 73, Issue 2. 1–9. | External link

Stevens, K. & Ng, S. (2024). Atla Down Under In Matthew Collins, James Estes & Myka Kennedy Stephens (Eds), Shifting Stacks: A Look at the Future of Theological Libraries in Celebration of Atla’s 75th Anniversary (pp. 108-123). Chicago: Atla Open Press. | External link

Westraad, S; Mathews, J; Munday, C (2024). Creating Shared Spaces: A Collaborative Partnership Model that Prepares Initial Teacher Education Students for Effective Practice In Green, C; Eady, M, Creating, Sustaining, and Enhancing Purposeful School-University Partnerships. Springer.

Arasaratnam-Smith, L.A. and Deardorff, D. K.(2023). Developing Intercultural Competence in Higher Education: International Students’ Stories and Self-Reflection. Routledge. | External link

Coetzee, N., Bickmore-Brand, J., Greentree, J., and Murison, C. (2023). Christian Higher Education Providers and Graduate Attributes: Tokenistic or Purposeful? In Miner, M & Beilharz, K., Embracing Diversity: Formative Christian Higher Education and the Challenge of Pluralisms. Information Age Publishing. | External link

Luetz, J.M., Pegram, N.D., Austin, D.A., Muqowim, Duderija, A. (2023). Character Formation in Muslim and Christian Higher Education: A Comparative Case Study Between Australia and Indonesia (Part Two) In J.M. Luetz, D.A. Austin, & A. Duderija (Eds.), Interfaith Engagement Beyond the Divide: Approaches, Experiences, and Practices (pp. 225–246; Ch. 12). Springer Nature, Singapore. | External link

Luetz, J. M. & Ayling, D. (2023). Student Voices on the COVID-19 Crisis: An Australian Christian Higher Education Study. Christian Higher Education, 22(1) 46–71. | External link

Luetz, J.M., Leal Filho, W., Weissenberger, S., Sierra, J., Rampasso, I.S., Sharifi, A., Anholon, R., Eustachio, J.H.P.P., Kovaleva, M. (2023). Towards a Greater Engagement of Universities in Addressing Climate Change Challenges. Scientific Reports, 13, 19030. | External link

Austin, E. M.(2022). Biblical Field Study as Experiential Pedagogy: Jerusalem University College as a Case Study. International Journal of Christianity and Education, 1-17.

Coetzee, N., Bickmore-Brand, J., and Greentree, J. (2022). Graduate Attributes: Maintaining the Faith in Initial Teacher Education In Williams, P., and Pearce., K., Revealing Jesus in the Learning Environment: In Celebration of Teaching (pp. 117-148). Avondale Academic Press.

Hepplewhite, G. (2022) Contributions of Pentecostal Women in Higher Education, Australasian Pentecostal Studies 23:1, 3-18.

O'Keefe, D. & Grey, J. (2022). 'Fear God, and Keep His Commandments': Models for a Pentecostal Pedagogy from Exilic and Post-Exilic Texts of the Old Testament In Johnson, Dave & Wadholm Jr., Rick (Eds), Pentecostal Theological Education in the Majority World: Volume 1 The Graduate and Post-Graduate Level. Asia Pacific Theological Seminary Press. | External link

Oslington, P (2022). Australian Secularism, Religious Not-for-Profits and Higher Education: Connections and Gaps. Lucas: An Evangelical History Review, 19 133-52. | AC Link

Oslington, P. (2022). Teaching Economics and Theology in Australia. Faith and Economics, 79, 53-68. | AC Link

Stevens, K. (2022). Retrospective Enhancement of Bibliographic Records with Tables of Contents and Summary Data and the Effect on Collection Usage. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 71 (4) 379-387. | External link

Arasaratnam-Smith, L. A., Coetzee, N. J., & Hodson, C. (2021). The double-edged sword of ‘best aspects’ and ‘needs improvement’ in student experiences: A qualitative analysis. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 18(3). | External link

Hepplewhite, G., Austin, D., Pegram, N., Hodson, C. & Nelson, B. (2021). Australian higher education third party arrangements: an independent institute case study. Tertiary Education and Management (27), 281-296.

Luetz, J.M., Raman, T.A. (2021). How Does Faith Influence Pro-Environmental Practice in Schools? Examples from the Pacific Islands. In J.M. Luetz & P.D. Nunn (Eds.), Beyond Belief—Opportunities for Faith-Engaged Approaches to Climate-Change Adaptation in the Pacific Islands (pp. 313–326). Springer Nature. | External link

Luetz, J.M. & Green, B. (2021). Innovating Christian Education Research: Multidisciplinary Perspectives—An Introductory Overview. In J.M. Luetz & B. Green (Eds.), Innovating Christian Education Research—Multidisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 1–16). Springer Nature. | External link

Luetz, J.M., Leal Filho, W., Sima, M., Sharifi, A., et al. (2021). Handling Climate Change Education at Universities—An Overview. Environmental Sciences Europe, 33, 109 1–19. | External link

Luetz, J.M. & Nelson, W. (2021). The Impact of Short-Term Cross-Cultural Experience on the Intercultural Competence of Participating Students—A Case Study of Australian High School Students. Social Sciences, 10(8), 313 1–28. | External link

Myers, B. (2021). Does Theology Belong in the University? Schleiermacherian Reflections from an Australian Context. International Journal of Public Theology, 15:4 484-495. | External link

Arasaratnam-Smith, L. A., Barnes, L., Northcote, M., Rickett, C., Lounsbury, L., Josey, K., & Obers, N. (2020). Women in higher education: The challenge remains, who wears the 'pants'. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(12) 6885-6892. | External link

Arasaratnam-Smith, L. A.(2020). Developing global graduates: Essentials and possibilities. Research in Comparative and International Education, 15(1) 1-7. | External link

Luetz, J.M., Baumber, A., & Metternicht, G. (2020). Carbon Neutral Education—Reducing Carbon Footprint and Expanding Carbon Brainprint. In W. Leal Filho, A. Marisa Azul, L. Brandli, P. Gökcin Özuyar, T. Wall (Eds.), Quality Education—Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 1–13). Springer Nature. | External link

Luetz, J.M.(2020). Disaster-Resistant Schools for Disaster-Resilient Education. In W. Leal Filho, A. Marisa Azul, L. Brandli, P. Gökcin Özuyar, T. Wall (Eds.), Quality Education—Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 1–17). Springer Nature. | External link

Luetz, J.M., Nelson, W. & Fowler, C.F. (2020). Intercultural Education for Intercultural Competence—A New Kind of Literacy for Sustainable Development. In W. Leal Filho, A. Marisa Azul, L. Brandli, P. Gökcin Özuyar, T. Wall (Eds.), Quality Education—Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 1–16). Springer Nature. | External link

Luetz, J.M., Havea, P.H., De Ramon N’ Yeurt, A., Tamani, A.T., Siga, A., Des Combes, H.J., Hemstock, S.L. (2020). Resilience in Education: An Example from Primary School in Fiji and Technical Vocational Education and Training. In Leal Filho W. (Eds.), Managing Climate Change Adaptation in the Pacific Region (Climate Change Management) (pp. 197–212). Springer Nature. | External link

Oslington, P (2020). The Economic Benefits of Australian Theological Education. Colloquium: The Australian and New Zealand Theological Review, 52/1 7-33. | AC Link

Hepplewhite, G. & Murison, C. (2019). Graduate Attributes in Australian Higher Education: Implications of an Economic Rationalist Approach in Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer.

Oslington, P (2019). Competition Policy in Higher Education In William Coleman, Campus Meltdown: The Deepening Crisis in Australian Universities (pp. 273-84). Connor Court. | AC Link

Hastie, D. (2018). Should we ban books in schools? Arguments from the public history of Australian school text censorship. English in Australia, 53 (3). | External link

Hastie, D. (2017). Religious education and the challenge of pluralism. International Journal of Christianity & Education 21, (1), 85-86.

Hastie, D. (2017). The Latest Instalment in the Whig Interpretation of Australian Education History: Catherine Byrne's JORH Article “Free, Compulsory and (not) Secular”. Journal of Religious History, Volume 41, (3). | External link

Hastie, D. (2017). Teacher and institutional self-censorship of English texts in NSW Protestant schools. English in Australia, 52 (1), 36-45.

HDR Theses

Blanche, Sean. The significance of emotional and spiritual intelligence in effective mentoring (PhD)

Brown, Melissa. Re-imagining parent partnership in Christian education: the impact of parent teacher coaching in building parent partnerships (PhD)

Dinale, Joshua. Christian Rites of Passage Programs in Educational Settings: Identity Formation Among Adolescents (PhD)

Healy, Tim. The Role of Ecotheological Education and Ecotheological Practice in Australian Theological Higher Education (PhD)

Norman, Murray. The value of religious education (SRE and GRE) to a multicultural Australia (PhD)

Spencer, Melanie. Seeing Anew: Positive Education and Christian Education Through the Lens of What If Learning (PhD)

Wilkes, Josiah. Christian Approaches to Special Education: The Relationship Between Religious Belief and Attitudes Towards Inclusion (PhD)

White, Tim. The impact a ‘Christ transformer of culture’ vision for Christian education has had on the curriculum and educational practices of Christian Education National (CEN) schools (MPhil)

HDR Theses (Completed)

Henriksson, Carissa. Embracing Vulnerability: A Case Study on Educational Experiences and Social Integration of Migrants and Immigrants in a Swedish School (PhD)

Lim, Young-Hee. Study of Christian Education Paradigm for the Development of the Identity of the 2nd Generation Korean Young Adults in Australia (PhD)

Lockhart, Emily. The interrelationship between a teacher’s worldview, personal beliefs, and the delivery of the Personal, Social and Community Health Strand of the Western Australian Health and Physical Education Curriculum, within secondary schools (PhD)

Polley, Nathan. Spiritual development of servant leaders in Aotearoa-New Zealand tertiary education contexts (DMin)

LEAD RESEARCHERS

HDR CANDIDATES

Sean Blanche
Melissa Brown
Joshua Dinale
Tim Healy
Murray Norman
Trevor Norman
Melanie Spencer
Tim Joseph White
Josiah Wilkes

HDR GRADUATES

Dr Carissa Henriksson
Dr Young-Hee Lim
Dr Emily Lockhart
Dr Nathan Polley

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

This research cluster contributes to the advancement of the following goals: