This innovative new volume edited by Stephen J. McKinney and Raymond McCluskey brings together a collection of essays on Catholic school education in Scotland, focusing on its historical development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is published on the occasion of the centenary of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, but it fills a gap in scholarship that reaches beyond it. The book’s declared aims are fairly ambitious: it seeks to ‘provide a series of scholarly responses to the historical context of the act’ (p. 1), ‘open up new lines of enquiry’ (p. 2), and ‘deepen our historical knowledge and understanding of some of the key people and events that supported the growth and development of Catholic school education’ (p. 3). This volume not only delivers but excels, providing a much-needed collection of essays that reflect the variety of research recently conducted into the history of Scottish Catholic schooling.

The authors are currently working in the fields of history, education studies and archival science, predominantly but not exclusively at universities. Based in Canada, Australia, and France as well as the United Kingdom and drawing from expertise from highly capable individuals in different stages of their careers, the knowledge carefully gathered for this volume through its contributors is impressive, but also effectively highlights the cross-disciplinary nature of the historical study of education. Creating a coherent volume out of such a diverse set of contributions can be a challenge. Notwithstanding, the editors have done a masterful job incorporating the varied case studies in a meaningful way. Collectively, the book identifies five key themes or significant fields: poverty, the role of female teachers, the training of Catholic teachers, Scottish Catholic identity, and sectarianism. Each theme highlights avenues for further research as well as providing a well-researched starting point for the aspiring postgraduate student or an established academic. In terms of audience, the appeal is cross-disciplinary but firmly academic. That said, the purpose of the volume to provide a high-calibre set of ‘new perspectives’ is certainly met. By incorporating a diverse collection of topics, the editors convincingly argue for the significance of the broad theme: the historical development of Catholic schooling in Scotland to the modern Scotland as a whole.

The structure of the volume is designed with care. Following the introduction, the editors McKinney and McCluskey provide an overview of Post-Reformation Catholic schooling in Scotland. In particular, they outline and discuss the founding and development of early Catholic schools, and the impact of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, and its predecessor (the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872). The chronology of the process of integrating denominational schools into the state-funded education sector provides an important contextual framework for readers not readily familiar with the Scottish case and sets the scene for the seven case studies, each of which can also be read independently. As the third chapter of the volume, Geraldine Vaughan’s contribution concerns the varied successes and challenges of pre-1918 Catholic schooling and its distinctiveness. In the West of Scotland, the question of Irish identity of specific schools had a significant impact on the experience. In the following chapter, S. Karly Kehoe highlights the key role played by women religious in their contribution to Scottish Catholic education, especially in terms of elementary schooling. The other side of this coin is examined by Tom O’Donoghue who discusses the male religious orders’ contribution to education in Scotland in the decades preceding the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918. Lay women teachers are examined by Jane McDermid, followed by Raymond McCluskey’s chapter on adult education in the form of public lectures and sodalities. Stephen J. McKinney’s chapter discusses the 1923–30 Presbyterian campaign against the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918. In the final chapter of the volume, Mary McHugh explores the legal implications of the Act. With a variety of approaches and foci, the volume provides fascinating snapshots into different aspects of the main theme.

In a thematically broad collection like this, it is impossible to explore everything. While ‘the issue of gender in the staffing of many Catholic schools’ (p. 5) has been recognised by the editors as a significant theme to examine in this context, the focus of the contributions appears to be on the role and background of teachers—men and women, lay and religious—rather than the performance of particular kinds of femininities and masculinities within the schools. There is still room in the history of Scottish Catholic schooling for gender and feminist historians exploring the religious, lay teachers, pupils, and adult learners alike. Another omission is Scottish Catholic seminary education and Scottish Catholic elite education, neither of which, admittedly, were directly related or relevant to the Education (Scotland) Acts discussed. A volume on Catholic education and schooling in Scotland might have, however, mentioned a key development in the education of Scottish Catholic priests: the junior seminary of St Mary’s College, Blairs, founded in 1829. These minor oversights by no means diminish the value of the collection, but instead signal the need for a further volume on the history of Catholic schooling and education in Scotland with a complementary focus. It is entirely possible it simply comes down to the need for further research in this vast field.

Overall, A History of Catholic Education and Schooling in Scotland: New Perspectives is a fantastic collection of world-class research with cross-disciplinary appeal. It manages to both successfully deepen the relatively specialised field of Scottish Catholic history and to simultaneously broaden its appeal by expanding its wider relevance to scholars of education. It also addresses broader themes of interest to the social and cultural historian: teaching and education, national identity and religious identity. The title of the volume has been carefully selected ‘to reflect the historical importance of Catholic schools for the Catholic community in Scotland and also to acknowledge the breadth and scope of Catholic education that extended beyond the schools’ (p. 1). Based on the varied nature of the chapters, the volume goes well beyond this. It promises a reinvigoration of research activity into a broad field that would benefit from a further focus and renewed enthusiasm, especially among the next generation of academics.