Preparing Spirituality for Citizenship

Schools in England and Wales are responsible for the spiritual development of pupils and, since 2002, for the citizenship education of secondary school pupils. However, despite many government documents and much academic discussion, it is still not clear what spirituality means for schools and citizenship looks to be an equally problematic concept. This article sets out to do two things. First, it reports on a 'survey' of a bounded sample group of academic articles, namely those which have appeared in the International Journal of Children's Spirituality, for academics' understandings of the meaning of spirituality for schools. Second, the article attempts to demonstrate a shift in the academic understanding of spirituality which may have left spirituality better prepared to co-exist with the new citizenship education, but which may also make it too hot for citizenship to handle.