Vision for Religious Education
The Vision for Religious Education emphasises the complementarity of the two dimensions of Religious
Education and articulates a school’s aspirations for students in terms of their religious literacy and faith
formation. In that sense the Vision begins with “the end in mind”.
The schools and colleges of the Archdiocese of Brisbane aspire to educate and
form students who are challenged to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and who
are literate in the Catholic and broader Christian tradition so that they might
participate critically and authentically in faith contexts and wider society.
The Vision for Religious Education appropriately aligns with the goal for learning and teaching as
articulated in the Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) Learning and Teaching Framework (2012):
As a Catholic Christian community we educate all to live the gospel of Jesus
Christ as successful, creative and confident, active and informed learners
empowered to shape and enrich our world.
The Vision for Religious Education challenges students to be a religious voice in the world. The Vision
gives greater prominence and a renewed orientation to the critical interpretation and evaluation of
culture. Through vibrant and engaging Religious Education, students become active constructors of
culture rather than passive consumers. In this way, students are challenged to live the gospel of Jesus
Christ in their everyday lives. Pope John Paul II (1984) reminds Catholic schools to:
Develop your culture with wisdom. Ask culture what values it promotes, what
destiny it offers, what place it makes for the poor and the disinherited, how it
conceives of sharing, forgiveness, love.
Religious Education seeks to develop the religious literacy of students in light of the Catholic Christian
tradition, so that they might participate critically and authentically in contemporary culture. Students
become religiously literate as they develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to interpret and use
language confidently in and for faith contexts and the wider society.
Religious literacy should not be confused with religious knowledge. The Vision describes students who
can articulate their faith and live it in an open and authentic way. Religious literacy encompasses a set
of ongoing activities and interactions among people. These include ways of talking, acting, creating,
communicating, critiquing, evaluating, participating, ritualising, theologising, worshipping, reading,
reflecting, and writing with others in a variety of religious and secular contexts.
For religious educators, this Vision is framed within a broad and expansive understanding of life that
goes a long way beyond education as an end in itself.
Jesus Christ is the centre of this Vision. While knowledge and understanding of religious concepts is
important, the truths and beliefs to which a student adheres must have some consequence in their
life. Effective Religious Education requires teachers to be more than purveyors of knowledge and
students to be more than consumers of the tradition.
Through engagement with both dimensions of Religious Education, students are challenged to be
cultural agents in light of the Gospel; authentic witnesses to the mission of Jesus Christ in the world
today.
Learning and Teaching Framework