2025 IJRSE – Volume 14 Issue 14
Available Online: 30 December 2025
Author/s:
Canete, Jonathan James O.
Department of Innovation and Sustainability, De La Salle University, Laguna Campus, Philippines (Ncanete976@gmail.com; Jonathan.canete@dlsu.edu.ph)
Abstract:
Contemporary faith-based education increasingly frames teaching in professional and managerial terms, often prioritizing measurable competencies and institutional outcomes. While such approaches contribute to academic accountability, they risk obscuring the theological depth of religious education as a form of ministry. This systematic-conceptual constructivist research paper argues that teaching in religious education is fundamentally vocational, grounded in a theological understanding of calling, service, and ecclesial mission. Drawing on ecclesiology, practical theology, and the theology of work, the study develops a constructive theoretical framework that reclaims the identity of the religious educator as both teacher and minister. Through a critical engagement with key ecclesial texts and contemporary educational discourse, the paper examines the tensions religious educators experience between institutional demands and their sense of vocation. It proposes a vocational model of religious education that integrates pedagogy, spirituality, and formative presence, emphasizing teaching as a lived response to God’s call rather than a purely technical function. By articulating teaching as ministry, this conceptual study contributes to ongoing discussions on teacher formation, mission integrity, and faith identity in Catholic and other faith-based educational institutions. The paper offers theological and pedagogical insights for reimagining educator formation programs and institutional cultures that sustain the vocational and ministerial dimensions of religious education in pluralistic and increasingly secularized contexts.
Keywords: professionalization, teaching, contemporary, ministry, religious education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2025.25328
Cite this article:
Canete, J. J. O. (2025). Beyond professionalization: Teaching as ministry in contemporary religious education. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 14(14), 279-291. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2025.25328