It’s time to wake up and stem the decline in spiritual well‐being in Victorian schools

Abstract

This paper reports the views of 820 teachers from state, Catholic, Christian and other independent schools in Victoria. The purpose of the study was to investigate what factors relate to teachers’ views on spiritual well‐being (SWB) personally, as well as the perceived help gained by students from school in this aspect of life.

Spiritual well‐being is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have in up to four domains, namely with self, with others, with the environment and/or with God. School type and year level contribute most to the variance in these four domains of spiritual well‐being among teachers and in the help they provide to students in this area of life. Very few differences were found by gender, age or subject specialty among teachers.

The teachers report that their lived experiences (how they feel) in each of the four domains of SWB do not generally measure up to their ideals. Both the teachers’ ideals and how they feel were generally higher than the views they held of the help schools provide to students in each domain of SWB. A comparison with an earlier study shows a decline in the help being provided to secondary school students for SWB.

It is time to stop, step aside from the busyness in schools, take stock of what is happening and find ways to nurture the relationships which enhance the SWB of students (and staff).

Keywords:

• Teachers’ views
• Spiritual well‐being

Acknowledgements

I am most appreciative of the support given by the principals and the involvement of the teachers, without which this study could not have occurred.