POSTMODERNISM AND SPIRITUALITY: SOME PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING CONTENT ON SPIRITUALITY

Abstract

The integration of spirituality content into curricula has accelerated dramatically during the past decade. Despite this trend, little discussion has appeared in the literature about the instructional methods best suited to teach spirituality. Adopting a new approach referred to as pedagogical pluralism, the authors suggest that some aspects of spirituality content are best taught using pedagogical strategies drawn from modernism, whereas other aspects are most congruent with postmodern strategies. Indeed, the authors propose that the epistemological assumptions that inform postmodernism and common understandings of spirituality are highly congruent. Consequently, significant components of spirituality content may be best taught using nontraditional postmodern pedagogical strategies that may strike some readers as controversial, or even radical.