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When studying elementary education in college, future teachers likely have reading, writing and math on their minds.

The doctrine of transubstantiation? 

Not so much. 

But for new teachers who join Catholic schools, religious education is a key part of the curriculum. Even for educators raised in the Catholic tradition, effectively communicating these concepts so students understand and retain them doesn’t always come with a road map.

That’s where Dominican University professors have stepped in.

A partnership between the university and the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Catholic Schools is making it possible for teachers to help students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade better understand Catholic teachings and religious concepts, and strengthen their faith formation. 

The “Faith Leadership Formation: Pathways” program, piloted for the first time during the 2023-24 school year, provided new teachers with four virtual, staff development workshops led by DU Theology Professors Dr. Susan Dehn Matthews, Dr. Clodagh Weldon and Dr. Rachel Hart Winter, and Professor of Education Dr. Ben Freville. 

The professors are leading these workshops online again this year, offering teachers “instruction, inspiration and accompaniment” on topics such as sacred scripture and tradition, the Catholic Creed and beliefs, the sacraments, and other religious concepts. 

An upcoming session in February, for example, offers teachers “an introduction to the ways in which we encounter the mystery of Jesus Christ present and active in our lives through prayer, liturgy and the sacraments.”

The lessons are crafted by each professor based on the grade level of the teachers’ students. Additionally, this year there will be three new lessons focused on Latine Catholic traditions, led by Anthony Suarez-Abraham, an adjunct professor of theology at Dominican. Teachers will learn how to celebrate Día de los Muertos, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the “Afro-Latinx identify and spirituality” of St. Martín de Porres in culturally responsive ways.

“We all found it to be such a rich experience,” Weldon said of last year’s workshops. “We were delighted by the energy of these new teachers who wanted to be better teachers of religion.”

The program was initiated by Dr. Melissa Link, director of mission and culture for the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Catholic Schools. She had partnered with Weldon and Freville on an earlier program that allowed DU students studying theology or education to teach courses at area Catholic schools. 

“We want to support our newest religion teachers,” Link explained. “These are teachers who are brand-new to Catholic schools or new to their careers, and they may have questions or apprehensions about teaching religion. This is where Dominican’s professors have been phenomenal.”

“As a Catholic university, we should always be reading the signs of the times in the light of the Gospel, as Vatican II asks us to do,” noted Weldon, who also serves as Dominican’s vice president for Mission and Ministry. “There was a real need here, and this was something we could do.” 

By supporting the teachers and inspiring them in their teaching of the Catholic religion, the professors hope to have an impact on the faith formation of the children in their classrooms, Weldon added.

There are four objectives to the program: equipping teachers with an understanding of the church’s core teachings; engaging teachers in topics that are relevant to their ministry; encouraging active learning and faith-sharing communities; and inspiring teachers to do work in a “renewed church.”

“If we don’t have formed teachers who are knowledgeable about their faith and are joyful in sharing it with grace and ease, then we’re not going to have students likewise formed,” Link said.

Before bringing Dominican on board, Catholic school teachers were provided instruction via recorded videos.

“Since COVID, we heard more strongly that teachers were looking for something else,” Link explained. “They didn’t want asynchronous video. They wanted community, they wanted to share best practices with other educators and they wanted facilitators giving direction to the group.”

Dominican’s professors are working to provide this—and in a new and meaningful way, they say. 

“The Dominican way of teaching is very much rooted in dialogue,” Weldon noted. 

The sessions allow educators the opportunity to share Dominican’s mission with new Catholic elementary school teachers, said Hart Winter, who works with fourth- through sixth-grade teachers. 

“More specifically, we explored how we can use art and contemplation to draw young students into curiosity around faith and justice,” she said. “We also enjoyed time for reflection, which is a central facet of the Dominican educational experience.”

Freville, who has taught high school theology, leads the workshop for seventh- and eighth-grade teachers. His task, he said, is to help the teachers think about how to make Catholic doctrine and concepts relevant for their students. 

“The thing that struck me most was the commitment of the teachers,” he noted. “They were just so enthusiastic about learning new methods and understanding some of the Church doctrine.”

Ilda Nunez ’20, a second-grade teacher now in her fifth year at St. Luke Catholic School in River Forest, acknowledged that as a student teacher, she “wasn’t very confident in teaching religion.”

“This is a wonderful way for new teachers to gain more education so they can teach others about religion and faith,” Nunez said of the Pathways training.