What the God-Impressions of Twelve Second Graders and Their Parents Indicate about the Effectiveness of Spiritual Development in Evangelical Protestant Christian Schools

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the impressions of second grade children in evangelical Protestant Christian schools, how they perceived God, what they understood about their faith instruction, and what contributed to or detracted from their faith development. A secondary area of inquiry was with parents about their awareness and satisfaction with the spiritual education of their children. Data were gathered from individual semi-structured child interviews and from an online parent survey. Phenomenological interviewing was aimed at understanding the faith-forming experiences of second grade children, and the meaning they made of that experience, and how they expressed themselves through conversation, story completion, picture drawing, or play scenarios. Twelve second grade children participated from four Christian schools in Southern California, and gender was balanced across the four schools. The online parent survey asked questions about their household faith practices, and parent satisfaction with their school's faith instruction. From the findings, three themes emerged from the child interviews and two themes from the online parent surveys. Data suggested there were behaviors and practices implicit in the instruction or school day activities that were communicating spiritual value to the children and their parents. This study is significant because it addresses a topic about which limited research is available, particularly with this age group and in this setting. The study highlighted several gaps in the spiritual development offered in Christian schools and shed light on the need for individual discipleship of children. It offers recommendations for Christian schools to improve faith development of their children. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]