1. Spirituality and Values Education in Elementary School: Understanding Views of Teachers.
- Author
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Pandya, Samta P.
- Subjects
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CHI-squared test , *CONFIDENCE intervals , *STATISTICAL correlation , *CURRICULUM planning , *ELEMENTARY schools , *PROBABILITY theory , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *RELIGION , *SELF-evaluation , *SOCIAL values , *SPIRITUALITY , *SURVEYS , *TEACHERS , *LOGISTIC regression analysis , *EFFECT sizes (Statistics) , *THEMATIC analysis , *RELATIVE medical risk , *COLLEGE teacher attitudes , *DATA analysis software , *MEDICAL coding , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *ODDS ratio - Abstract
This article reports on a study of 1,989 elementary school teachers in 108 schools across 12 countries, which examined views pertaining to teaching values and spirituality at the elementary school level. Results of the logistic regression analyses showed that teachers from European countries, the United States, Canada, and Australia; Christians; those who had longer teaching experience; and those with higher scores on the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale and the Portrait Values Questionnaire 5X were more likely to construct the meaning of spirituality for children as relational consciousness. Teachers also sought the connection between spirituality and values education through the congruence of spiritual tenets and values and moral education. Spiritual assessment of children was understood as assessing the spiritual starting point of children, and spiritual techniques comprised teaching universal values of peace, unity, mutuality, unconditional love, and forgiveness. The goals of spiritually defined values education for children entailed having embedded/ingrained notions of unity, peace and equity, and building a relational consciousness. The article concludes by highlighting how elementary school children's spiritual sensibilities and potential can be effectively used to build a values education curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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