Spirituality of children and young people: a consideration of some perspectives and implications from research contextualized by Australia

Already in the declining years of the twentieth century there were some indications of certain changes in direction that were going to emerge as the new century got under way. For instance, the metaphor of the global village was introduced to describe today’s world, and we are, more and more, recognizing the implications of this scenario. As well, there has been the beginning of a trend that has witnessed, in particular, the Western Christian world and some of the worlds of Islam enter an uneasy and unhappy relationship, with tragic consequences for many people; and the combination of these two elements has meant that many of us live in a shrinking world dominated by talk of terrorist attacks and suicide bombers; new laws in some countries that affect the freedom of speech and travel between countries; and people being detained for a length of time without appropriate charges being laid. These are but a few of the features that many have come to accept as the norm of contemporary living.

A particular characteristic of society today which began to emerge in the last century and one that is pertinent to this journal, is the increasing interest in spirituality, as it pertains to children and adolescents. Professionals across varying disciplines have been examining the concept of human spirituality and expounding its relevance as a significant factor in the lives and the wellbeing of our young people.

In Australia, as is evident through the articles in this issue of the journal, there has been some variety in the research and thinking about this topic from disciplines that stretch across psychology, sociology, the arts, mental and social health, and the sciences (for instance, see O’Connell Consultancy, 1999; Tacey, 2000, 2003; Mission Australia, 2002, 2004; Dent, 2003, 2005; de Souza, 2003, de Souza et al., 2004; Eckersley, 2004). Most of these explore aspects of spirituality that relate to the connectedness that a young person may feel to self, community and, perhaps, something beyond; the resilience that becomes apparent in times of great stress and struggle; the notions of identity and the, sometimes, associated rites of passage; the development of values and meaning‐making; and finally, the role of spirituality in mental and social health and wellbeing. As well, and associated to the study of spirituality, there has been an increase in interest in exploring the respective natures of and relationship between science and religion and science and spirituality. These two topics also receive attention in this issue.

While the role of spirituality in education has received attention in other parts of the western world, there has been some resistance to the notion across the public sector of education in Australia, since many still perceive it solely as an expression of religious practice. Instead, an initiative of the federal government, accompanied by a significant amount of financial resources, has been provided to develop an approach to Values Education for all Australian schools. Many schools across the country have enthusiastically taken up the challenge and have participated in a large research study that is focused on good practice in schools in Values Education: Good Practice Schools (VEGPS), which is now in its second stage. ¹ Nonetheless, there are some problems that may emerge as we move down this pathway which need to be anticipated and identified, and strategies to address them need to be put in place. For instance, the nine core Australian values that have been identified and promoted are open to interpretation in the pluralist context of today’s society and, depending on cultural, social, religious and/or political factors within any particular context, there could be several shades of interpretation of any given value, thereby leading to confusion and uncertainty.

What is an interesting feature of the number of exciting and innovative programs that have been developed and are now running in many schools, including those that are involved in the VEGPS research project, is that the concept of relationality is a core element in their foundations. It is the focus on good and effective relationships between all members of the school communities and, in some cases, their wider communities that generates the vision, the planning, the programs and learning activities, the resources, the reports and so on in these schools. Accordingly, positive values become the expression of positive relationships.

It is this factor that provides a convincing argument for a spiritual dimension to education in the Australian context. The concept of spirituality as it has been examined and discussed extensively in the pages of this journal is about the relational dimension of being. Spirituality in the contemporary world is perceived by many to be a way of living in the world which reflects the relationality of the human person, from the articulation of a ‘relational consciousness’ offered by Hay and Nye (2006) to ongoing discussions of four domains of relationship (Fisher, 1999); a description of the continuum that moves from the experience of being separate and apart from the Other to becoming a unified entity, an Absolute Unitary Being (Newberg, D’Aquili & Rause, 2001); or the concept of a spiritual journey where an individual develops through experiences and expressions of different layers of connectedness which move inward (to the inner self or soul) or outward, thereby reaching out to the Other who is different and who, ultimately, leads to Self becoming one with the Other, Ultimate Unity (de Souza, 2003; de Souza et al., 2004). For some, the ultimate relationship is with a transcendent Other but; for others, the relationships are more focused on those existing and developing within the physical world.

This relational factor, then, provides the link between the current trend toward Values Education in Australia and the move in other countries toward recognizing spiritual education or, at least, a spiritual aspect of education. Certainly, there are some educators and researchers in this country beginning to explore this aspect, and some of this thinking is reflected in the articles in this issue.

One attempt to marry research and practice draws on a holistic model for learning that recognizes the complementarity of the rational mind, the emotions and the spiritual aspect of being (de Souza, 2001, 2004a, b, 2005a, b, c, 2006a, b, c; de Souza & Cartwright, forthcoming October 2007). With this model, attention is given to the process of learning which engages the elements of perceptions through the senses, thoughts, feelings and intuitions. What is significant in this process is that it addresses both the inner and the outer lives of the student. Thus, learning begins at the surface whereby conscious and unconscious perceptions are absorbed through the senses. These perceptions start a process involving a thought and/or feeling that, in turn, may trigger memories or ‘gut‐feelings’. Elsewhere, I have offered some discussion of the literature about how these gut‐feelings, or intuitions, develop (de Souza, 2005a, b). In general, it has been suggested that such feelings appear to connect with and be prompted by the individual’s tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1967), that is, learning that has been absorbed through unconscious perceptions or through the senses without conscious thought, or as Myers (2002) describes in more contemporary language, we ‘process vast amounts of information off screen’ (p. 15), but which emerges in response to appropriate stimuli as inspired or intuitive thought or action. Myers (2002) argues that even infants, long before they develop language skills, possess an amazing intuitive capacity:

[They] prefer to look at objects eight to twelve inches away, which, wonder of wonders, just happens to be the approximate distance between an nursing infant’s eyes and its mother’s … Babies also have an intuitive grasp of simple laws of physics. Like adults staring in disbelief at a magic trick, infants look longer at a scene of a ball stopping in midair, a car seeming to pass through a solid object, or an object that seems to disappear (p. 18).

Thus, Myers asserts that intuition is vibrantly alive, that our minds process vast amounts of information outside consciousness and beyond the spoken word.

Gladwell (2005) contends that the part of our brain that leaps to conclusions is called the adaptive unconscious and that it influences our decision‐making. He describes the adaptive unconscious as ‘a giant computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot of the data we need in order to keep functioning as human beings’ (p. 11). Hogarth (2001) and Klein (2003) also agree that intuitions are a result of the unconscious absorption of knowledge and experience and offer suggestions on how the intuitive process can be ‘educated’ or trained so that individuals are better able to use their intuitive capabilities to assist their learning. It is at this unconscious level that creativity, imagination and intuition may be generated which can lead to transformed conscious thinking and action, thereby raising the potential for the learning to become vital, meaningful and transformative. This process acknowledges that students can make meaning of new information and experience within the context of their previous conscious or unconscious learning, before they are taken further on the journey of discovery to add to their previous knowledge. It is these features that engage both the inner and the outer lives of students, at the levels of head, heart, soul and senses, and they provide avenues of connectedness and meaning in the learning process so that the intellectual, emotional and spiritual dimensions of education are addressed. Potentially, then, the process may provide students with a sense of self, place and, therefore, purpose within their communities.

This learning model is being used with some groups of students in teacher education programs at the Australian Catholic University, Victorian campuses, and current research is being conducted to investigate the students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of this model in promoting their own learning and assisting them in developing appropriate learning strategies or activities to use in their teaching practice. It requires them to analyse the learning strategies to determine whether they address the three dimensions of learning: cognitive, affective and spiritual. That is, how effective is each strategy in promoting knowledge and skills that relate to the learning outcomes; do they interest, enthuse or excite the students and encourage active participation; and finally, do they allow for the internalisation of learning? In other words, do they provide time and, perhaps, silence for inner reflection, for creative, imaginative and intuitive responses, and for transformed action? Accordingly, these trainee teachers are being constantly challenged to create new ways to communicate the content they teach and to seek out interesting, relevant, exciting and unusual resources. They are required to reflect carefully on the learning process that will be generated through the teaching strategies and resources that they have selected. In the end, the process that they experience in their own learning does address the three dimensions of learning: cognitive, affective and spiritual so that they are encouraged to use their minds (thinking), hearts (feeling) and souls (inner reflecting), and it leads them to become contemplative practitioners. It is expected that by knowing, experiencing and reflecting on the learning process themselves, they will, potentially, be more able to apply it in their own teaching practice. While this research project is not yet completed so that data analysis and the findings are not yet available, anecdotal evidence and various responses indicate positive attitudes to the use of this model from many students. The research and the final report will be completed by the end of 2007. This project, then, is one way forward in an attempt to address the spiritual dimension in learning in an Australian educational context.

Another approach that has investigated a spiritual dimension in education drew on, and extended, the work of Hay and Nye (2006) and applied it to the Australian context. In this study, Hyde (2005, forthcoming January 2008) sought to identify some characteristics of children’s spirituality in Australian Catholic primary schools. Using hermeneutic phenomenology as a framework for reflecting on the life expressions of the children who participated in this study, Hyde identified four characteristics indicative of their spirituality: the felt sense, integrating awareness, weaving the threads of meaning, and spiritual questing. Although this study drew only on children in Catholic primary schools, the findings are consistent with other research which has sought to describe features of children’s spirituality in other contexts, for example, Champagne (2001, 2003), and Hart (2003).

In contemporary secular Australia, as in other Western countries, the influences of consumerism and skepticism in life generally have impacted not only on teenagers and young adults but also on children in primary schools. Hyde’s (2006a, 2007) research also identified two factors which appeared to inhibit children’s expression of their spirituality. The first, ‘material pursuit’, typified by a desire to accumulate materials wealth or possessions, may be attributed to the consumerist culture which pervades Western culture. Children live in a time in which society appears to affirm and support children in their quest for material excess, while simultaneously damaging their need for unconditional love and acceptance. Consumer behaviour for these children has to a great extent become an imposed norm in Western culture. These children are consumers in training. Their consumership began at an early age, so that as they grow, they develop traits such as brand loyalty, and they can influence the spending power of their parents.

The second of these factors has been termed ‘trivializing’. It refers to the way in which children, at times, and depending on the company in which they find themselves, seem to prefer to dismiss that which is too awkward or difficult to speak about by making light of, or trivializing, the subject. They displayed an outward façade of complacency which served to mask or conceal their genuine values and feelings, particularly in relation to those things that really mattered to them. In Jungian terms, those aspects of thought or value that really mattered, but were viewed in some way as a threat to the persona—the outward face presented by these children to their immediate social world—were relegated to the shadow. Occasionally, however, that which has been consigned to the shadow bubbles uncontrollably to the surface, as was evidenced by one particular child in Hyde’s (2006a) research. Although trying to mask her values by a veneer of complacency, she reacted quite strongly and suddenly to one of her peer’s insistence that money could buy anything. ‘You can’t buy love’ this child declared. Her shadow had surfaced and challenged her persona.

The identification of these two particular factors suggests, among other things, the importance of the kinds of spaces that educators establish for nurturing spirituality. Spaces characterized by mistrust, skepticism, and in which consumerism dominates are likely to give rise to factors that inhibit children’s expression of their spirituality and their sense of spiritual wellbeing. Conversely, spaces that are characterized by trust, respect and honesty are more likely to nurture the spiritual dimension of students’ lives.

An understanding of the characteristics of children’s spirituality, as well as factors that may inhibit expressions of spirituality, would be necessary if educators are to address a spiritual dimension in education. In being influenced by de Souza’s (2004) learning model, Hyde (2006b) proposed a pedagogical framework for nurturing the spirituality of students in the classroom. The framework has a particular application to religious education but is equally applicable to other areas of the curriculum. There are three moments identified in this framework: attending to the spiritual, to the affective, and to the cognitive. The framework draws on the spiritual dimension as the starting point before moving to address the affective and cognitive domains, although, in practice, it is recognized that any one of the three moments could provide a point of entry.

In proposing this framework, Hyde (2006b) suggested that the characteristics of children’s spirituality may be used in the first moment—attending to the spiritual—as entry points to the learning and teaching process. For instance, the felt sense may provide a starting point for planning learning experiences that intentionally engage students in the act of becoming aware of their physical bodily presence and of using the wisdom of their bodies as a natural way of knowing through experiences such as creating, painting, dancing, miming and moving. Weaving the threads of meaning, in which children’s sense of wonder acts as a tool for expressing their spiritual worldview, could become the entry point through the use of photographs or art work and inviting the children to respond in some way to a visual stimuli. Here, the students would be given an opportunity to draw from the many frameworks of meaning available to them and to select eclectically from the elements which hold meaning for them, which they may weave together into a worldview. In a similar way, spiritual questing could provide a starting point by asking the students what really matters to them, for example, in response to a picture story book or a short newspaper article. Here, students would be given opportunity to articulate what has meaning and value for them.

Having used these characteristics as entry points to the learning and teaching process, the other dimensions of learning, in particular the affective and cognitive, a can be explored and addressed in a way that proceeds directly from the spiritual.

Certainly, there is a need for further research of this kind in the Australasian context. The dissemination of such empirical work and reflection may enable the necessity of spirituality in education to grow in the consciousness of those involved in Australian schooling, from the highest ministerial levels of policy‐making through to those charged with the responsibility and privilege of teaching students. Indeed, there needs to be some understanding of how the spiritual dimension of education complements cognitive and affective learning and can provide a sound basis on which to build Values Education. In view of this assertion, the articles in this issue are an indication of the pioneering spirit of some researchers and educators in Australia who are focusing attention on spirituality, and they point the way toward a more hopeful and holistic educational approach which has implications for the learning and wellbeing of our children and adolescents.

Notes

1. A recent publication that discusses the project and offers some insights into a variety of approaches taken by schools in their efforts to introduce Values Education into their curriculum is Values Education and Quality Teaching: The Double Helix Effect, edited by Terry Lovat and Ron Toomey (2007).