Angels: a bridge to a spiritual pedagogy?

Abstract

This article is the result of an Early Childhood Care and Education undergraduate pilot project through a university on the West Coast of Canada. It weaves together poststructural interpretations and a hermeneutic phenomenological recounting of an experience of inquiring about angels with young children. The angel inquiry became a point of entry into a holistic spiritual pedagogy that attends to the whole of a matter, while also paying attention to the significance of each part. Contributing to the interpretations made in this study is Ted Aoki’s philosophy of the space between where the planned curriculum and the lived curriculum (or lived experiences) meet in a third and overlapping tensional space; Max van Manen’s emphasis on lived experiences as ‘breathing meaning’ also contribute to the choices and interpretations made. Blended through the study are the understandings of Tobin Hart and Kate Adams from their investigations of children’s lived experiences with mystical unseen worlds. The area of invisible mystery proves to be more delicate to negotiate than the world of physical embodiments and the world of complete fantasy of the mind; this is the area of the spiritual – the meeting of body and mind with a third and overlapping space. This space goes by many names and many definitions, but ultimately remains indefinable and intangible. But during the pilot project, meaning did come through the inquiring and through the themes that emerged of ‘who we are’ in relation to angels; race, gender and the role of nurturer; and familial angel ownership. Children yearn for allowing spaces to safely express these ideas about, and experiences with, mystery worlds. It is the connection with the inner life through small moments and engagements with the big life questions that the entangling of the physical, the mental and the spiritual creates the intuitive, integrated heart space of a holistic spiritual pedagogy.

Keywords:

• spirituality
• children
• angels
• the space between
• allowing spaces
• early childhood education

Acknowledgements

To my family: Thank you for your patience and understanding with the long hours spent on this project – I love you! To my brave and thoughtful proofreading friends: Thank you to Katie Balkos, Educational Kinesiologist extraordinaire! And early years educator and Master Storyteller, Sonia Garrett. To the childcare centres: Thank you to the teachers, children and their families that partook in our angel inquiry. To all my cohorts and instructors at Capilano University: Thank you for sharing space and ideas with me; these lived experiences have given me hope for increased recognition of our inner lives in education today. Special thanks to my instructors Cristina Delgado and Sylvia Kind, and to Capilano University librarian George Villavicencio: It was because you believed in me that this inquiry was ever pursued. I do not exist in isolation; this was very much a communal effort. Thank you for your assistance everybody! And thank you angels!

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.