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This paper analyses professional approaches to supporting the spirituality of children and adolescents in vulnerable situation, in the daily life of socio-educational centres. A concurrent mixed method design research project is presented with data gathered using a Questionnaire on Inwardness for Professionals working with Teenagers and Children (Cuestionario de Interioridad para Profesionales de Adolescencia e Infancia-CIPAI) created ad hoc for the project. The study was carried out in the XACS network (Social Educational Centres Network) made up of 23 non-profit centres from Barcelona (Spain). Answers were received from 128 professionals, making up 64.6% of the total number of replies, and from 14 centres, representing 61% of the centres. Conclusions: The professionals state that spirituality is worked on cross-cuttingly in the centre's educational programme. Most of the activities for working on an inner life that they consider successful incorporate mediating elements that assist in the expression of more abstract ideas or feelings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a Call for Papers that will question the assumptions embedded in policy and practice related to spirituality and school education.

The article invites papers on the theme of spirituality and school education.

This paper argues the importance of maintaining and promoting the child's spiritual voice in spite of educational practices that have been reformed to align with the neoliberal agenda, in particular, performativity. Descriptions of spirituality are offered, noting that spirituality is a part of human life that emerges in childhood, and a case made for the necessity of the child's spiritual voice in the light of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The neoliberal discourse of performativity in education is discussed, and ways this may serve to silence the spiritual voice of the child are indicated. While acknowledging that further research is necessary, the notion of rights-respecting curriculum is posited as a way of nurturing and promoting the child's spiritual voice in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voices critiquing heteronormativity in faith schools often rely on an understanding of such schools as arbiters for heteronormative religious orthodoxies. Many proponents of Jewish, Muslim and Christian schools offer compelling responses to such claims by providing inclusive perspectives on faith schooling. By applying a queer reading of temporality to a critique of the latter body of work, this paper will argue that these perspectives, despite their commitments to inclusion, have affinities with logics of heteronormativity through their appeal to a language of hospitality that reproduces adherence to heteronormative binaries and identity frames as originary and normative. From here, the paper will suggest that queer theology’s understanding of the transcendent in relation to immanence offers resources for reframing discussions around heteronormativity and faith schools in ways that speak to the inclusive commitments of those critiqued in this paper, while also eschewing reproductive determinism as a basis for understanding spiritual development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiencing something of a renaissance, the German pedagogical idea ‘Bildung’ has recently been reconsidered for contemporary education. Historically proposed by von Humboldt, Bildung’s interplay represents a relational movement between a learner and the world that aims for personal freedom and growth. It is also identified as a means by which learners might become aware of their personal capacity to develop responses to daily experiences. Thus, it attends to agency and has resonance with children’s spirituality. Whilst such a notion of learning might be promoted as an alternative to a functionalistic educational paradigm, this paper highlights ethical concerns regarding pedagogical freedom. It highlights philosophically the illusion of freedom and considers critically the place of power in learner-led methods. Finally, the paper proposes how a nuanced, Kierkegaardian application of Bildung might address the ethical concerns raised and proposes how a re-considered understanding of the notion might be valuable for education today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies have shown that children share both positive and dark spiritual experiences. The former dominates the literature but whilst the need to address the dark side of spirituality has been raised it has not, as yet, been dealt with as widely as the more positive aspects. This paper draws on an empirical study with 44 children aged 8–11 who were interviewed in school after visiting a sacred space. Three key themes arising from their conversations are covered in this paper: divine encounter; physical feelings and fear. It is argued that the most appropriate way of understanding these phenomena is to draw on different fields and disciplines, notably although not exclusively, theology, psychoanalysis, psychology and neuroscience. The paper concludes that it is important to recognise both the light and dark and the blurred boundaries between them, in addition to different ways of perceiving them, in order to understand the whole child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing body of evidence in education reveals that ‘spirituality’ as an aspect of learning is largely overlooked in government schools in Australia and consequently, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This paper will report on some findings of a PhD study which investigates the spiritual lived experiences of secondary school students. As an interdisciplinary approach to spirituality for adolescents, this paper represents the different ways spirituality is understood across the disciplines and whether young people view themselves to be ‘spiritual’. In sharing some of the student narratives, this paper will explore what spirituality means in the context of young peoples’ everyday lives. It will also address how schools can play a central role in students’ quest for a sense of meaning; and the important role of teachers in this process will also be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiritual experiences are common across religious and non-religious faiths, but schoolchildren are often afraid to share these because they fear ridicule from peers who are convinced religion is irrational. The need to speak about spirituality in religious education is increasingly recognised. Signposts suggests that intercultural understanding implies recognising religious students' perception of reality and helping others understand it. Religious education in Norway now includes exploration of existential questions as a core element, and in England, making sense of religious, spiritual and mystical experiences has been suggested as a big idea. In this paper, we discuss how the dualistic paradigm of modern science makes it difficult to take spirituality seriously as lived experience and empirical phenomenon. Instead we suggest a transrational approach to explore our multidimensional reality in an intercultural dialogue where insiders and outsiders learn from each other. We also explore examples of transrational research on spiritual phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformative experiences that could be central to learning are curiously absent from American school music education. Students are motivated through competition and the goal of most programmes is flawless large ensemble performance. This paper describes a music programme in which the daily instructional practices have been modified and influenced by an outreach programme in which the students taught socially and economically challenged children of similar age. This programme was developed by a teacher with a deep sense of faith. His spiritually informed teaching practices emphasise the same principles of social justice espoused by secular educational philosophers. Parallels between spiritual and educational philosophies and a discussion of the transformations experienced by students conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852) was the inventor of the kindergarten, and his emphasis on childcentredness and play influenced the progressive movement throughout the world. The concepts of unity and wholeness are highly visible in his writings. Religion is addressed in his work and that of his followers, but little attention has been paid to spirituality per se in Froebel’s thought. This paper explores the place of the spiritual in Froebel’s scheme and in some of what has been written about him. It notes his use of the concepts of the spirit and spirituality, and considers the relationship between his faith and the Christian religion. It discusses the ‘laws’ which Froebel enunciated: of Divine Unity, opposites and the connection of opposites; the principle of self-activity; and the process of ‘unfoldment’. These principles are observed in his teaching methods and resources, specifically in the Gifts and The Mother-Song Book of 1844. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for such concepts as the spirit of the child and spiritual education. The picture that emerges is of a child-centred education which honours the integrity of childhood. It is argued that such an education, fully embraced, is a spiritual education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Developmental disabilities in children can be challenging to the family who desires a spiritual home for their family. Parents may hesitate to bring a special needs child to a church service, uncertain of the outcome. While public schools have amazing support for the differently abled, the Church very rarely has assistance in place for the families of handicapped individuals, let alone theology for the parents of mentally disabled children. This paper will examine possible ways for a local church leader or volunteer to educate children with mental disabilities, drawing on a variety of texts for support. The paper will conclude by offering resources for the teachers of special needs children in church education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children enter a world that is full of symbols, most of which have become inaccessible. This is true not only because of a positivistic attitude that views analogical truth as nonsensical, but also because of the fragmentation that we experience. This situation is impoverishing children’s awareness, connectedness as well as their ability to access and express existential concerns and the answers different generations have tried to provide. It is for this reason that children need to learn a variety of symbols and the ‘grammar’ of how they form meaning. A symbolic literacy approach not only helps them to read symbols but also enables them to formulate meaning and to connect with the deeper reality and facilitates their ability to transcend physical reality. The paper will also refer to the development of an interdisciplinary pedagogy and its implementation through a project that is being done in collaboration with Maltese primary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore the child’s experience of meditation in Irish primary schools and its impact on children’s spirituality. Using a phenomenological, hermeneutic, mystagogical methodology, it describes how children experience the practice of meditation, the benefits they consider they gain from it and the nature of its impact, if any, on their spirituality. Seventy children, aged 7 to 11, were interviewed. The study is original in that the interview protocol contained novel processes designed to elicit from children their experience, if any, of the transcendent in meditation and in its depth of analysis of the spiritual fruits of the practice. The study concludes that meditation does have the capacity to nourish the innate spirituality of the child. It offers a heuristic model outlining the key elements of the child’s experience of meditation, stresses the importance of personal spiritual experience and supports the introduction of meditation in primary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades in the western world, as the concept and language of spirituality has moved out of theological and religion study disciplines to include studies in secular spheres, much of the literature identifies spirituality as a positive thing. Experiences often linked to it are positive experiences such as awe and wonder, joy and delight, tolerance and kindness, truth and honesty and so on. While this is important, I believe it is equally important to recognise that there is a dark side to spirituality. As a rule, this has not often been identified, examined or discussed. Certainly, in some circles, there is an understanding that the 'dark night of the soul' has relevance for religious understandings of spiritu-ality which reveals a particular perspective that may accompany the search to unravel some of life's mysteries and to find some meaning and purpose in the individual's spiritual journey. However, this is often confined to religious and theological frameworks. This paper moves beyond these disciplines to examine the dark side in human spirituality. The dark side here refers to those aspects of the individual's relationality or connectedness which do not nurture his/her well-being and which may impede his/her progress towards human flourishing. In my previous research, I have proposed that spirituality is an innate human trait that pertains to the relational dimension of Being. The expressions of spiritual-ity, then, are expressions of connectedness that the individual has with every-thing other than self. In this paper, I will attempt to explore the dark side of spirituality as it may be experienced and expressed in contemporary secular life and examine the implications for educational programmes that aim to nurture the spirituality of the child and adolescent through a multisensory approach. As this is a new direction in my research, I will be reporting on work in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a sequel to an earlier article that presented an argument for Tarot symbolic system functioning as a techne that can serve as a valuable educational aid. The present paper shifts the focus from techne to praxis as a practical art of interpreting images and creating imaginative narratives in the context of counselling and therapy. This praxis can heal human psyche and lift human spirit. The paper presents a documented empirical case study as an example of an unfolding narrative for 'Cathy' who consented to making her reading public for educational purposes. The process of reading and interpretation as grounded in the 'art of memory' can empower us with an ability to understand the meaning of some traumatic events that may have occurred in our lives but remain dormant at the level of the unconscious. We become able to resolve problematic situations and to grow spiritually from these experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of a comparison of the educational approaches of Andrew Wright and David Hay this paper illustrates the persisting problem of dichotomising cognitive and trans-cognitive aspects of spiritual development and education. Even though both Wright and Hay speak of the same topic - spirituality and spiritual education - they define these terms very differently, and as a consequence, they draw altogether different practical implications, set different priorities, and warn of different dangers in spiritual education. The main question set in this paper is whether it is possible to make room in spiritual education for both of these perspectives and how to combine them in a more holistic way. With the help of the Wilber-Combs lattice, which is one of the main heuristic devices employed by the integral philosophy, one possible way toward integrating cognitive and trans-cognitive aspects of spritual development and education is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the term ‘spiritual education’ is completely otiose. It tries to show that its application in both religious and secular contexts is deeply problematic. If there is any such form of knowledge or understanding, it is difficult to see how children are to be initiated into it without being indoctrinated. The paper focuses on a number of recent philosophical attempts to defend the use of the term within religious and non‐religious contexts, and attempts to highlight the respects in which these cannot possibly succeed unless and until the concept is shown to possess features by reference to which we might distinguish it from other forms of knowledge and understanding with a rightful place on the curriculum. Until it can be demonstrated that there is any such thing as spiritual knowledge, with its own subject matter and conceptual apparatus, providing some sort of basis on which spiritual education might proceed, we have reason to be sceptical about the coherence of the whole enterprise of attending to children’s spiritual education and their so‐called spiritual development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a pilot study concerning adolescent boys and spirituality, and specifically on data gathered from interviews with 20 boys of 15–17 years. The data from these interviews will inform the development of a questionnaire to be used more widely in the next stage of the research. The paper also explains and justifies the analytical schema through which the interviews were conducted and analysed and a subsequent instrument for broader use developed. It describes the rationale and background of the study, presents the schema that was developed to analyse the interviews and explores some of the ideas that emerged from the interviews that, along with the analytical schema, have helped to structure the questionnaire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide the groundwork for a formal philosophical justification of the study of spirituality as a necessary co-requisite to the study of education. Consequently, much of the paper makes little direct reference to children's spirituality as such; instead it argues that spirituality per se is bound up with the education of self and personhood, irrespective of whether one is a child or an adult. Following MacIntyre's critique of morality, I contend that spiritual discourse and practice have become so fragmented as to be virtually meaningless; I maintain, therefore, that spirituality is an area ripe for, but largely neglected by philosophical inquiry. Drawing on the work of Hadot I argue for a reassessment of the importance of the spiritual exercises favoured by the four major philosophical schools of antiquity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on children’s spirituality seems to continue to be scarcely represented in the field of early childhood. In reviewing the literature, looking at empirical data-driven studies, this paper compiles an international review of the work completed in the last 10 years (2005–2015) on the topic of children’s spirituality. The research-based works reviewed are analysed and sorted taking into account: research methods, participant demographics (age, gender, ethnicity) and location (urban vs. suburban/rural, school vs. home), yet are presented in categories found related to their topic of study: (1) spiritual meaning-making and relationships to/with God, (2) children’s spirituality in education and (3) identity formation and sense of self. Finally, identification of gaps in the research literature regarding the study of children’s spirituality is presented. As well, avenues for future research are proposed, identifying methods and approaches. Also, the termpluriculturalas a means to guide researchers in making sense of the complex phenomenon that is children’s spirituality is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While spiritual well-being is integral to health, little is known about the spiritual lives of children in the context of illness. Because the spiritual is often a hidden domain of life, exploration of the topic can be challenging, especially when dealing with children. Language is not always sufficient for describing such deeply held experiences, even for adults. Therefore, finding creative ways to elicit experiences of the spiritual is important when attempting to gain a more robust understanding of this phenomenon. Drawing from a larger study that used hermeneutic phenomenology to explore spirituality among ill children, this paper provides an interpretation of ill children’s play experiences and describes how these experiences provide a means of uncovering the spiritual in children’s everyday lives as they cope with life-threatening illness. Findings also provide insight into how play can be used in the promotion of spiritual well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peace is both a religious and non-religious proposition. Religiously it is articulated within doctrinal categories. In non-religious terms, it is pursued within national and international interests. Non-religious pursuits to peace were often framed within political and some cultural considerations involving adult participants. However, numerous spiritual considerations to peacemaking have traditionally identified children’s dispositions as a material for inquiry. This paper described how children’s perspectives on peace and peacemaking essentially projected aspects of children’s spirituality on peace using some 296 children’s essays and drawings on peace. Results showed how peculiar traits of children’s spirituality grounded on peace were strategically nested on domestic order, the world and environment. Peacemaking is homemaking; it is peacemaking at home in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on a case study undertaken within a small, rural primary school in the UK to explore the extent to which it was possible to run a moral and spiritual programme as an intrinsic and inclusive part of the curriculum based on the children’s acquisition of virtues. The pupils were encouraged to build on their own experience and reflect on virtues such as ‘kindness’, ‘reliability’ or ‘responsibility’. Some positive associations were indicated between the moral and spiritual programme at the school and outcomes such as the pupil’s ability to resolve conflict and self-regulating behaviour as well as examples of empathy and altruism. The curriculum showed some effective ways of encouraging young people to be reflective and responsible for their own actions. This study was developed by observation of an assembly and targeted lessons together with semi-structured interviews. There was also a review of documentation related to the virtues programme to give a triangulated approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on a pilot project to explore the relationship between the imagined physical experience and the inner–personal aspects of a guided visualisation journey in relation to spiritual literacy for children aged 7–11. The project examined the use of auditory and aesthetic stimuli during a visualisation as a pre-linguistic trigger so the experience could be recalled, developed or enhanced through the stimuli alone. It used guided visualisations and reflective activities with eight pupils in two upper primary settings to examine whether this recollection of the imagined physical journey aided development of a personal, spiritual experience after the event, and whether the psychological expression of the imagined physical experience aided this in some way. It was recognised that the child’s connection with the context could affect the depth, quality or even intensity of interpretation. Therefore, the project draws upon theories including psychosynthesis theory, which takes into account the uniqueness of the individual’s life journey and therefore allows the children to make meaningful links within their schema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this special edition of the journal, attention is being given to the two dimensions of spirituality and physicality. In this particular paper I argue that there is an unhelpful divide that is often assumed to exist between these two dimensions and that this divide can be transcended or ‘healed’ through a holistic and hermeneutic approach to education. Rather than give our focus to narrower concerns such as spiritual education and physical education, we ought instead to pursue education in such a way that it is understood to necessarily be inclusive of both the physical and the spiritual simultaneously. That is, our spirituality is necessarily embodied in the physical. In order to make this argument, references to holistic education shall mainly draw upon the works of Dewey and Gadamer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a philosophical view of the spiritual concept ‘relational consciousness’ first proposed by Rebecca Nye in 1998. I will consider the relational aspect of spirituality through the ontology of Heidegger and the dialogical relationship ‘I and Thou’ of Martin Buber, examining the problems that contingency and mediation within consciousness bring particularly to a child’s notion of ‘God’. Through two writings of Hegel, I will introduce a speculative model where learning takes place within the ‘middle’ of human and transpersonal relationships and will present this as a basis for critical and political spiritual education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents education as a process of human development toward becoming our authentic Selves and posits the Tarot hermeneutic as one of the means of holistic, spiritual education. As a system of images and symbols, Tarot encompasses the three I’s represented by intuition, insight and imagination in contrast to the three R’s of traditional formal schooling. If teachers want to foster intuitive abilities in their students, they need to first develop this capacity in themselves using the available cultural practice of Tarot. Through Tarot symbolism we can become aware of the deep meanings of human experiences that may be hiding in the unconscious at the soul level. The informal ‘school of life’ embodied in images unveils the dimension of inner knowledge or gnosis that exceeds the factual knowledge of the external world but reaches toward the Imaginal world due to intuitive mode of perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of promoting spiritual literacy as viewed through the eyes of a holistic educator of young children in an inner-city primary classroom. Similar to discussions of spirituality in education, the idea of spiritual literacy is often elusive and can create discomfort and tensions. Drawing on stories of experience, the complexities of what defines spiritual literacy and how it translates into classroom practice are examined. Three recurring themes emerge: story, relationships and mindful spaces. An alternative perspective of what is significant in creating a learning environment is presented as a milieu that reconceptualises what is important and often missing in the mainstream discourse in child development: the spirituality of the child. It is argued that through spiritual literacy practices, teaching and learning can be transformed and, most significantly, an empowering encounter engages all participants in the learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence-based guidance for educational practitioners and, in particular, for those in leadership positions in schools, on good practice in developing and implementing school level strategies and actions to promote an appreciation of diversity in schools and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the topic of spiritual injury and the possible influences and relationships it might share with education-to-work transitions of young adults. Students of both dominant and minority cultural backgrounds were interviewed to gain a detailed understanding of how perceptions of transitions came about. Further, I sought to understand what role spirituality and experiences of spirit injury have in the decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Dewey's 'religious attitude' has great potential for the educative development of children's spirituality. This is because it enables their spiritual understandings to become more intelligently composed - not just in a cognitive or hyper-rational sense, but as a way of being. This paper provides an outline of Dewey's approach, which is described as being democratic, inquiry based, and 'scientific'. Such an approach therefore offers a contrast to other more epistemologically focused curricula which attempt to educate a person's spirituality. In order to make the case for the potential educative value of such an attitude, a brief review of Dewey's approach to education shall be offered, in which the notions of inquiry, democracy, and 'science' shall be highlighted to make the case that such attributes might be necessary for spiritual education if the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization's goal of attaining world peace is to ever become possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is threefold. It is grounded in the philosophical work of two educational theorists: John Dewey and our contemporary Nel Noddings. It also brings into the conversation the ancient system of Tarot, arguing that its pictorial symbolism embodies intellectual, moral, and spiritual 'lessons' derived from collective human experiences across times, places, and cultures. For Dewey, to call somebody spiritual never meant to invoke some mysterious and non-natural entity outside of the real world. As a system of communication and interpretation, Tarot is oriented toward the discovery of meanings in the real experience and performs two functions, existential and educational, focusing on the ethical and spiritual dimension of experience. The pictorial images create an adventure story of the journey through the school of life, each new life experience contributing to self-understanding and, ultimately, spiritual rebirth. Tarot not only speaks in a different voice, therefore bringing forth the subtleties of Gilligan and Noddings' relational ethics, but also enables a process of critical self-reflection analogous to the ancient Socratic 'Know thyself' principle that makes life examined and thus meaningful. As a techne, it can and should become a valuable tool to complement an existing set of educational aids in the area of moral and spiritual education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spirituality has become an issue in many domains of the Norwegian society, but this is not reflected in public education. This paper discusses why this is so, and suggests some hermeneutical approaches to understanding spirituality that can include pre-school children's spirituality, with particular reference to a Norwegian context. Central to this discussion is a case study of children in 'sacred space', and an understanding of spirituality as cultural learning. Education in schools as well as in kindergartens is dominated by a secular outlook on life as 'default', or a cultural and collective forgetfulness. Children's spirituality challenges adults to explore and rearticulate what is forgotten, in terms of nurturing what it is to be human, of caring for what is really important, and of cultivating hope - in Norway as well as in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the often overlooked religious and educational works of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). After outlining Tolstoy's life, religious and educational views, it is argued that Tolstoy has much to offer spiritual educators today. In particular, it suggests Tolstoy's insistence on the absolute and eternal nature of spiritual and moral truths, coupled with a free and heuristic pedagogy, are key ingredients of an authentic spiritual education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While identity has long been a prominent focus of education, and religious education, in Europe and Britain, little explicit attention has been given to it in Australia, even though its importance as an educational goal is implied. This paper reports on a project concerned with 'education in identity' which attempted to address this imbalance. A generic notion of education in identity is developed, underpinned by a conceptualisation of identity and of what constitutes identity health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century provides a mandate for discussion of the spiritual within secular state schooling, but this discussion has never occurred. This is a serious omission given what could be called an 'undercurrent of concern' for the ways in which young people today frame and make their lives in a society focused on material gain and individual pursuits. Current government policies, such as the Values Education Framework and the National School Chaplaincy Programme, hint at what could be called a spiritual approach to education, but in practice these programmes reflect government agendas tied to economistic educational goals which can be seen to be at odds with conditions that might promote propitious frameworks for young people's wellbeing. Further, these policies fail to grasp what is at the heart of young people's lives and inherent concerns for the kinds of lives young people are making in today's society. A spiritual foundation for schooling has the potential to ameliorate many of these concerns, but spiritual discussions are difficult given the concept of spirituality itself is nebulous. However, I will argue in this paper that to counter the possibly detrimental effects of current cultural influences and related government policies, a spiritual foundation is needed for young Australian's schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a Chaplain working in the Anglican school system in Melbourne, Australia, my concern is with the spiritual development of students. This year I have been trialing the educational application of activities used in creative arts therapy. Continuing the theme of my recent doctoral studies in children's spirituality, I am concerned that education should have a more holistic emphasis, where the experiences and creative imagination of children are valued. Creative arts activities engage children in learning that is intimately related to spiritual development, involving self-understanding, understanding relationships, wider environmental connectedness and connection with the divine. This paper gives a brief theoretical base and two educational case studies to illustrate the use of imagination in spiritual development. The cases are taken from the religious education curriculum, but it is proposed that other subjects could also be used in this way. The first case study reports on the response of a year 8 class to the question 'What do we do with jealousy?' (25 students aged 12 years) - an emotional inquiry. The second study is an end-of-year activity for year 7 students, concerned with social bonding (21 students aged 11 years) - a social inquiry. This is a work in progress using the MIECAT (Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy) research method, as part of a master's program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from the research on children of war in Bogota, Beirut and Bosnia, this paper serves as a framework for dialogue about the criminalization of children by armed conflict and other forms of violence. Furthermore, it addresses the aching question of how best to care for these children so that they have every chance to become illuminated and not carbonized (Restrepo, 1999, p. 209) by the tragic circumstances of their environments. The author posits that educators everywhere bear a moral imperative to provide opportunities for children to reclaim hope, reintegrate socially, learn well, reflect deeply, and act justly. Specifically, this essay reflects on varied approaches aimed at fostering resilience, as well as cognitive and moral growth and development in children who are witness and/or victims of social, political, and violent struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants parents the right to an education in conformity with their own religious convictions, this paper argues that parents should have no such rights. It also tries to demonstrate that religious and cultural minorities have no rights to establish faith schools and that it is a child's right in trust, to autonomous well-being, which trumps any such claims. Faith schools, it is argued, represent a real and serious threat to children's autonomy, especially their emotional autonomy. As such, they are incompatible with the aims of education required by a liberal democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that to fulfil what is required of a model of children's spiritual development in the context of secular educative care, six criteria must be met: the meaning of the terms and nature of the phenomenon must both be specified; the relationship to an underlying ontology must be clarified and the status of alternatives characterized; the sense in which spirituality is developmental and open to change through intervention must be identified and which specific developmental changes are ‘spiritual’ designated; there must be consistency with an accepted paradigm for the understanding and study of human development; the role and status of spiritual development within a secular system of educative care needs explanation; consequential practical implications must be specified. In suggesting this is an unfulfilled requirement, the challenges posed by each of these criteria are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author, a doctoral student, examines his past to understand why spirituality is important in his present life and why it is important to integrate spirituality within the academy for young adults. In this personal narrative, the author discusses how spirituality becomes important for him from his childhood, as he grows up in Kuwait and Bangladesh and is subjected to numerous forms of psychological violence from his family, his school and larger society. The author then examines how his spirituality is negated as he immigrates to Canada and joins the Canadian academy as a young adult student. Finally, the author discusses why it is important to incorporate spirituality within the academy for young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers whether there are aspects of spiritual pedagogy specific to the education of children who are sick and asks how these concerns are to be addressed. The context of the enquiry is England and Wales where the promotion of the spiritual development of children is a legislative requirement. The focus of the study is on sick children whose treatment requires extended stay in hospital. Such children have hardly been noticed in the continuing debate about spiritual education. Our enquiry has involved analysing literature published in English in the UK and North America. We have supplemented this analysis with primary data from semi-structured interviews with three hospital schoolteachers, two hospital chaplains and the founder of a hospice for children and a ‘respice’ for young people. We argue that what emerges as important in the spiritual education of the sick child has significant implications for the spiritual education of all children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A holistic approach to spirituality indicates a spiritual development that is relevant for all students and not just for those who have a religious background. However, debates in England surrounding spirituality in education often generally locate it within the religious domain (Blake, 1996; Carr, 1995, 1999; Isherwood, 1999). Conceptualizing spirituality in such a way tends to deny access to this development for non-religious students or students in non-religious contexts. Alternatively the other approaches to spirituality have adopted non-religious viewpoints (see Erricker, 2003, p. 7). Such either/or approaches work against the notion that spirituality should be conceived as intrinsic to the enterprise of education. This paper offers a brief view of a more elaborate existential framework of spirituality which has been developed in order to transcend the religious/secular divide. A short account of Existentialist philosophy is provided before an outline of the framework is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the contemporary social and educational context of Australia and the impact on young people's spirituality. It briefly presents the findings of a pilot study that explored the spirtuality of young people who live in a regional city in Australia and discusses their implications for educational programs that will address the spiritual dimension of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that the nature of leadership as a significant human characteristic, derived from both philosophical and psychological theorizing, can appropriately be seen as egalitarian (in Macmurray's sense) and magnanimous (in Aristotle's sense), whilst remaining undemocratic. Empirical research carried out in schools supports the idea that, in particular circumstances, this model of leadership may indeed already be recognized in schools. In addition, there are brief references to the psychology of leadership, to the ways in which learning in schools might be theorized, and to the nature of schools as communities. Finally, implications for 'followers' as well as leaders, and for spiritual development in schools, are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the Twelfth International Conference on Children's Spirituality titled " Spirituality and physicality: crossing thresholds" that was held at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England in July 2012. It informs that various papers related to the spiritual potential of childhood and the vital need for an education was discussed at the conference. The conference featured several keynote lecturers including Ursula King, Ann Trousdale, and David Brown.

The article discusses that the journal related to children's spirituality is looking for papers that focuses on national, supra-national, and religious values. It states that the editors are looking for submissions that addresses questions related to the theme of religious values. It mentions that the submissions are required to have an abstract of 150-200 words and must be submitted by the end of September 2016.