Encouraging the Spirit: The Role of Student-Faculty Interactions in College Students’ Meaning-Making and Spiritual Quest

Abstract

The influence of faculty on student academic and affective development is well-documented. Positive interactions with faculty are related to increases in student retention, GPA, and well-being, but less is known about how student-faculty interaction relates to students’ spiritual development. Drawing upon faith development theory and considering relevant college impact theories, this study uses a national, longitudinal dataset to examine how in- and out-of-class interactions with faculty can predict students’ spiritual outcomes in college, specifically students’ meaning-making and spiritual quest, paying close attention to gender differences. Initial findings reveal that although students experience lecture pedagogies most frequently when faculty use student-centered and spiritual pedagogies in the classroom, both men and women show gains in their spiritual outcomes. Additionally, outside of class, when faculty encourage student spiritual exploration and act as spiritual role models, students are more likely to show growth in their spiritual quest and meaning-making outcomes. The conclusion explores the relevance of these findings for faculty, student affairs staff, and future research.

Notes

¹ In this study, our examination of gender focuses on the dichotomous categories of male and female. We are aware that there are individuals who identify outside of the gender binary and agree that there needs to be more research on this population. However, the present study is limited in that only a small portion of its respondents identify in ways other than male or female. Further, the extant research related to the present study’s investigation is dichotomized. Future research would do well to investigate the experience of trans* and gender non-conforming students in their interactions with faculty.

² In the case of each of the dependent variables, there was one component variable that was theoretically important to the factor but which loaded at less than 0.40. We elected to keep the variable in the factor after examining the factor with and without the variable.

³ The variables included above represent only those entering either of the two final analytic models. For a complete list of variables considered for inclusion in the analysis, please contact the first author.

⁴ Students’ religious affiliation (including those marking “none”) as well as their race/ethnicity identification were converted to dichotomous variables for analysis. Specific findings by race and religion are outside the scope of the present study, which focused on the role of gender; however, these findings are the subject of another article in progress. Data from the full analysis are available from the first author upon request.

⁵ Specifically, the ICC for Meaning-Making was 0.21 (meaning that 21% of the variance in Meaning-Making could be attributed to differences across schools). While the ICC for Spirituality as a Quest was only 0.03, multi-level modeling was used for all inferential analyses in order to provide parity across models.

⁶ “Extensive lecturing” was measured on a 4-point scale where students estimated how often professors used each of the methods (1 = None and 4 = All). The mean for “extensive lecturing” in the sample was 2.93 (SD = 0.73). The only other individual measure that was observed as frequently as lecturing was “Class discussions,” which was reported at about the same rate (mean =3.12, SD = 0.70). However, Group Methods (the factor in which “class discussions” is a part) in general, were observed less frequently than “Extensive lecturing” (p < 0.001).

⁷ Statistics for the full models are available from the first author upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tiffani Riggers-Piehl

a

Tiffani Riggers-Piehl ([email protected]) is assistant professor of higher education at the University of Missouri Kansas City. Her research examines aspects of college student spiritual development.

Linda J. Sax

b

Linda J. Sax ([email protected]) is professor of higher education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Her research focuses on gender differences in college student development.