1
All day I think about it, then at night I say
it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed
to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from
elsewhere, Im sure of that, and I intend to end
up there.Jalal ad-Din Rumi
2
For wisdom is protection just as money is
protection, but the advantage of knowledge is
that wisdom preserves the lives of its
possessors. Ecclesiastes 712
3
Spirituality and learning

• How you attempt to answer the big questions
  depends on your worldview.
• Everyone has a worldview, even if they think they
  havent got one.
• Worldview and learning are fundamentally
  interconnected.
• What kind of people do you want your students to
  be?

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Outline of the day

• Session 1 What is Spirituality Anyway?
• COFFEE BREAK
• Session 2 Creating a Culture
• LUNCH
• Session 3 Teaching Learning and Assessment

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Education of the whole person

• 1988 Education Act (following 1944 Act)
• a balanced and broadly-based curriculum which
• Promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental
  and physical development of pupils and of
  society and
• Prepares such pupils for the opportunities,
  responsibilities and experiences of adult life.

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Schools White Paper word cloud (DFE, 2010)

• http//www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlea
  rning/schoolswhitepaper/a0068872/schools-white-pap
  er-word-cloud

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The treasure that is our fellow human beings

• We live in a society driven by a liberal
  economic worldview. In Judeo-Christian tradition
  there exists a significant spiritual challenge to
  the assumption that we will only be secure if we
  have wealth
• "Jesus said that where our treasure is, there our
  hearts will be. Our hearts will be in a very bad
  way if they are focused only on the state of our
  finances. They'll be healthy if they're capable
  of turning outwards - looking at the real
  treasure that is our fellow human beings
  (Archbishop of Canterbury, 2010).
• http//www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2077

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Separating the Spiritual from the Moral

• "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
  you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs,
  which look beautiful on the outside but on the
  inside are full of dead men's bones and
  everything unclean.
• Matthew 2327

Acknowledgement thanks to Mark Hamill who
provided the following slides.
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Spiritual from Social

• It is easier to be a saint than to live with
  one.

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Moral from Social
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SOCIAL
MORAL
SPIRITUAL
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Worldview
Socio-cultural
Moral
Spiritual
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Ofsted (2004)

• The spiritual, moral, social and cultural
  elements of pupils development are interrelated.
  Attempting to disaggregate them is helpful for
  the purpose of analysis and also inspection and
  school self-improvement. But it should not be
  forgotten that there is much overlap between
  them, not least in respect of spirituality and
  its links to pupils attitudes, morals, behaviour
  in society and cultural understanding. (p.8)

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What is Moral Development?

• Moral development is about the building, by
  pupils, of a framework of moral values which
  regulates their personal behaviour. It is also
  about the development of pupils understanding of
  societys shared and agreed values. It is about
  understanding that there are issues where there
  is disagreement and it is also about
  understanding that societys values change. Moral
  development is about gaining an understanding of
  the range of views and the reasons for the range.
  It is also about developing an opinion about the
  different views. (ibid, p.15)

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Ofsteds Worldview
Ofsteds Definition Of Moral Development
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Ofsteds Worldview

• Elevates personal autonomy
• Objective
• Rational
• Scientific
• Soulless
• Secular (anti-religious?)

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Traditional Theories of Moral Development

• Durkheim Moral Education
• Piaget The Moral Judgement of the Child
• Kohlberg Child Psychology and Childhood
  Education a cognitive developmental view
• From imposition to free acceptance
• Moral Reasoning Not Moral Behaviour

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The Current State of Research

• What do we mean by spirituality or spiritual
  impact? there is little agreement
• Diversity of research paradigms and views of
  knowledge
• Home and School effect we dont know how they
  interact
• Focus on standards drives research

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Mapping The Field

• 1. Pupils at church maintained schools and
  independent Christian ethos schools have a more
  positive attitude to religion and spiritual
  health
• 2. Pupils achieve more highly and make better
  progress this is not entirely accounted for by
  pupil selection
• 3. Religious affiliation predicts individual
  behaviour and positive attitude towards religion

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Sample of Studies

• Erricker, C. (2007) Childrens spirituality and
  postmodern faith. International Journal of
  Childrens Spirituality, 12, (1), pp.51-60
• Fisher, J.W. (2008) Impacting teachers and
  students spiritual well-being. Journal of
  Beliefs Values, 29, (3), pp.253-261
• Hyde, B. (2008) Weaving the threads of meaning A
  characteristic of childrens spirituality and its
  implications for Religious Education. British
  Journal of Religious Education, 30, (3),
  pp.235-245

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• spirituality, values and distinctiveness are
  difficult concepts for schools and headteachers
  to grapple with. (Mapping the field, p.13)

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Questions

• Is spirituality a public or private matter?
• Can it/should it be measured?
• What is the relationship between spiritual health
  and quality of education?
• Does promoting spiritual health in education
  offer a fruitful arena for faith/non-faith
  consensus?

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Awe and Wonder?

• Creating a Culture...

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• Who owns the mission? Who is the guardian of the
  mission and the purpose and the ethos?

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Reservoirs of Hopespirituality is a lived
faith
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Spiritual
Social
Moral
Cultural
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Two Ways of Knowing

• Indeed to know is a thing that pleaseth Talkers
  and Boasters but to do, is that which pleaseth
  God.
• Not that the heart can be good without
  knowledge for without that the heart is nought
  There is therefore knowledge and knowledge.
• Knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation
  of things, and knowledge that is accompanied with
  the grace of faith and love, which puts a man
  upon doing even the will of God from the heart
• John Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress

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Learners As Spiritual Beings

• not a block of wood from which you can carve a
  statue, but rather a living image, shaping,
  misshaping and reshaping itself (Comenius, 1953,
  p. 24).

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Teachers Learners are spiritual beings

• Human beings appear in the classroom as
  teachers, as learners and as the characters who
  inhabit teaching materials of various kinds
  story books, images in wall displays...An
  implicit or explicit set of beliefs concerning
  the human beings who appear in these roles must
  therefore be a significant part of any approach
  to teaching. (Smith, D, 2000, p. 62)
• (Smith, D. (2000) Spirituality and teaching
  methods. In R. Best (Ed.) Education for
  Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural
  Development, London Continuum, pp. 52-67)

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Four windows onto spirituality

• Spiritual capacities
• Spiritual experiences
• Spiritual understanding
• Spiritual responses

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Spiritual Capacities

• human abilities which make us the kind of
  creatures which are capable of spiritual growth
• Such As
• Self-awareness and reflection upon our
  experiences and circumstances
• Empathy
• Reflecting upon the moral dimension of our
  existence
• Making free and responsible choices in awareness
  of their consequences and implications
• Reflecting on the meaning of our lives
• Gaining a coherent sense of identity and purpose
  and
• Exercising imagination and creativity and
  appreciating beauty.

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Spiritual Experience

• A slightly different approach focuses on
  spiritual experiences it suggests that students
  should be made aware that spiritual experiences
  are quite common in the population at large, and
  that such experiences have beneficial effects.
  Examples include
• curiosity and mystery
• awe and wonder
• connection and belonging
• heightened self awareness
• prayer and worship
• deep feelings associated with what is felt to be
  ultimately important and
• a sense of security, well-being and purposefulness

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Spiritual Understanding

• Spirituality involves understanding as well as
  abilities and experiences. Understanding means
  equipping students with the tools to relate their
  abilities and experiences to broader frameworks
  of beliefs this is often regarded as the job of
  the RE teacher. But in any part of the curriculum
  where we are encountering some human endeavour,
  from our use of technology to our artistic
  achievements, it is relevant to ask how our
  beliefs and commitments come into play.  
• In a maths lesson, students are working with
  percentages and fractions in relation to money.
  Instead of making calculations in relation to
  purchases, however the theme is giving. Pupils
  calculate the value of a gift relative to the
  overall amount of income of the giver and learn
  about the practices of making charitable
  covenants and of tithing. They go on to study how
  the money of a major charity is allocated to
  different projects, focusing on the difficult
  decisions involved in allocating finite
  resources.
• (From Charis Mathematics Units 1 9

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Spiritual Responses

• The difference between spiritual growth and its
  absence becomes visible in actions. (Smith,
  1999)
• How will I deal with my own weaknesses, fears and
  hurts?
• What or whom will I trust?
• How will I invest my time and energy?
• What priorities will I set?
• What is of highest value, or worth sacrificing
  for?
• What will give my life purpose and meaning?

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What does this mean for the curriculum?

• Can we trust science and technology to give us a
  good future?
• Is the truth of a work of literature less
  important than a mathematical truth?
• What commitments motivated this artist or
  historical figure and how am I like her or unlike
  her?
• How will I relate to those from other cultures or
  who speak other languages?
• What purpose does music have?
• Does learning to handle money involve giving as
  well as saving and spending?
• (Smith, 1999)

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What does this mean for pedagogy?

• What kind of relationships are being promoted in
  the learning context?
• What messages are being communicated to the
  learner about what is worthwhile and has value?
• What messages are being communicated to the
  learner about their own significance?

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What does this mean for assessment?

• What are we measuring?
• Is assessment critically aligned?
• What messages do modes of assessment communicate
  to the learner?
• Does success or significance underpin assessment
  strategies?
• What messages do current models of whole school
  assessment communicate to the members of that
  community?

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In Summary

• Worldview, spirituality and learning are
  fundamentally connected because all teachers and
  learners are spiritual beings.
• Spirituality is not irrational, it is relational,
  it is part of how we know and how we act/enact
  belief.
• Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment ALL
  communicate spiritual messages the question is
  are these messages aligned with the spiritual
  development we would want to promote?