Children's Spirituality - Teachers' Perspectives

The developing interest in spirituality in the Western world over the last decade has created opportunities for spirituality to be raised from the forgotten dimension of children s lives to a status that has enabled it to be included in educational dialogue. With the emergence of interest in spirituality a slow but significant change has begun to take place. The monopoly that religion once had on spirituality is no longer present. For teachers in classrooms, the evolving understanding of spirituality and the development of new language to describe it, presents a challenge to nurture their own spirituality in order that they might nurture the spiritual lives of children. Teachers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to provide a balanced education for children that includes the spiritual dimension. This book discusses many of the issues related to spirituality in the classroom such as: relationships especially the teacher-child relationship, the classroom climate, values and beliefs, identity, the search for meaning and spirituality and the curriculum.