This autoethnographic article highlights how my background as a teacher and headteacher of young children led to and underpinned my interest in children's spirituality. My doctorate identified the search for identity, meaning and purpose within or outside a religious framework as central to the processes involved in spiritual growth. Subsequently, I became increasingly interested in connectedness, belonging, culture, the shaping of identities and difficult, potentially painful, aspects of children's lives. And in exploring inclusive ways of understanding and nurturing children's spiritual growth, emphasising children's agency and time and space in hospitable, holistic environments. Drawing on different disciplines steered me to a socio-cultural view where spiritual is a lens through which to understand young children and the contexts in which they live; and to re-examine under-researched ideas especially how children can be enabled to overcome barriers and flourish in a world where a focus on individualism and performativity makes this difficult.
In this article, I conduct a phenomenological investigation influenced by elements of autoethnography to show my evolution as a researcher in the field of children's spirituality. I use a series of short vignettes that serve as 'critical incidents' in the development of my thinking and I reflect on these phenomenologically using the lifeworld existentials of lived body, lived time, lived space, and lived relationships. My investigation reveals four key findings - (1) trust in my corporeal instincts - knowing what spirituality is, (2) my research is about the process, not the product, (3) the role of my trusted colleagues in my research endeavours, and (4) I re-interpret the past in the light of who I have now become as a leader in the field of children's spirituality. It is hoped that this approach may provide an avenue for other researchers in children's spirituality to consider.
Children's spirituality unequivocally connects to student experiences in schools due to their relationships with themselves, others, nature, and transcendence. These pillars allow students to enhance their awareness, value, and mystery in relationship with curricular content to become more spiritually sensitive citizens. This action research sought to understand the role of spirituality in a rural second-grade science and social studies classroom. Qualitative and quantitative survey, interview, observation, and artefact data were collected. The data was analysed through the constant comparative method and descriptive statistics. Themes emerged to produce three primary codes and 18 secondary codes for findings. The study found that students' spirituality is associated with content engagement and that teachers can nurture a positive classroom culture through spiritual citizenship.
The study presents the results of qualitative research into the concept of spiritual literacy as understood by forest preschool educators and its integration into educational processes. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The main thematic motifs highlight the personal journey towards spirituality, the perception of spirituality, the specifics of children's spirituality, a love for nature, and the development of spiritual literacy in preschool education. The findings indicate that some educators regard spiritual literacy as an important element of children's personal development, while others focus more on practical activities related to nature and creative learning. The integration of spiritual literacy into the educational process is understood as a means to support the overall development of the child and to enhance their personal and social skills.
Cancer profoundly affects the holistic well-being of young individuals, including spiritual dimensions alongside physical health. This study explores the spiritual concerns of pediatric cancer patients, their families, and nurses at Seyed al-Shohda Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. Using semi-structured interviews with 15 patients, spiritual concerns were identified and categorized into two main themes: Spiritual Needs of Children with Cancer and Spiritual Challenges of Children with Cancer. Spiritual needs included self-relationship, relationships with others and the world, and connection with God. Spiritual challenges involved ignorance, discrepancies between biological and lived bodies, and internal or external conflicts. These challenges influenced happiness, self-worth, and overall well-being, underscoring the need for tailored spiritual care. Addressing spiritual concerns may promote growth or, if neglected, lead to distress, highlighting the importance of spiritual well-being in holistic care for young cancer patients.
The search for meaning and purpose begins in childhood, yet despite the spiritual being part of some international curricula, performativity agendas in many education systems negate its importance in favour of metrics. However, education can play a crucial role in helping children and young people navigate this critical aspect of life which is central to wellbeing. In this article, I utilise a predominantly analytical autoethnographic approach to explore pivotal moments in mine and others' existential quests in educational settings. Adopting a multi-disciplinary lens, I use data from my youth, my careers in primary teaching and academia, and my research into children's dreams and 'imaginary'/invisible friends. I argue for children's spiritual voice(s) to be heard, and that adults have much to learn from them. This methodological process generates a counternarrative to dominant cultural discourses that overlook or undervalue children's natural, often intuitive, capacities to seek meaning and purpose.
While much has been written about 'touching encounters' between nurses and patients, there is a paucity of literature concerning the look that passes between the nurse and the child in paediatric care and what this tells us about children's spirituality. Using a phenomenology of practice, we use the anecdotes of the second named author (Melissa) to explore 'the look' that passes between child and nurse, and what is revealed about the child's spirituality. Two particular 'looks' experienced in Melissa's practice - (1) smiling looks and fleeting glimpses, and (2) the painful look - are explored. Each look revealed something about the child's spirituality. We conclude from our modest investigation that while nursing practitioners need to be clinical, they also need to be mindful of engaging with the spiritual dimension to improve beneficial outcomes for spiritual care. We draw on a model of spiritual-informed care to suggest appropriate practices to enhance spiritual care.
During my first inspection experience as a primary school music teacher, it was noted that my work contributed to the spiritual nature of the school. Since then, my exploration into what both children's spirituality and spiritual pedagogy entail has formed the basis of my writing and research. This commentary paper documents my journey from a practitioner perspective to a deeper understanding which has sought to identify a philosophical underpinning for authentic teaching and learning. Exploration through the lenses of Heidegger and Hegel in particular have led to Bildung being adopted as a pedagogical framework, outlined here through examples from practice. The article concludes with an assessment of spirituality in my current field, early childhood education, and considers the importance of spirituality for an authentic pedagogy for and with young children.
This paper presents critical reflection on John Fisher's three decades of research, through three doctorates and beyond, in spirituality for health and well-being undertaken in educational, community and healthcare settings. Initial research led to a four domains model, which underpinned the development of several measures for students from primary to tertiary levels, which have been widely used and reported, together with a study of views from pre-school teachers and parents. Recent reflection on research from this model to measures, and importance of relating with God, led to a search for the foundation of spiritual development in human beings, which is where it should have begun. Considerable rumination on a variety of sources has provided a clear understanding that relating with God is THE source for spiritual birth, bringing each person's spirit alive, and that spiritual life is an ongoing process that can start now and go/grow forever.
Initiated by a surprising encounter at my daughter's bedside, this article traces my developing understanding and activity in the field of children's spirituality over the past 30 years. It emphasises children's innate spiritual potentials including transpersonal experience and identifies activities and some trends especially in the US in which I have been involved. The article describes the need for cultivating interior capacities related to psychospiritual development, emphasising the intertwined significance of the psychological and the spiritual. The role of contemplation and embodiment in education is specifically highlighted particularly as it relates to the urgency of countering potential effects of machine learning on human consciousness.
Using an autoethnographic approach, I explore how stories shape perceptions of reality, identity, and spirituality. Starting within a Catholic context, this journey evolves through international research and pedagogical experiments, leading to the creation of a symbol literacy approach. By using the concept of beginnings as a foundational narrative device, I trace the antecedents that influence my understand of spirituality, through a socio-cultural lens. The use of narrative led to an uncovering of common underlying threads within my personal journey and the movement of children's spirituality. Amongst those working in the field there is a consensus on honouring the child's agency and dignity, while in my specific trajectory I have been advocating for practices that connect children to the continuum of human experience. Ultimately, my journey led me to the conviction that spirituality is an all-encompassing reality that transcends fragmentation encompassing all aspects of human experience and understanding.
A compass is an instrument we use to find our way in unfamiliar territory. On moonless nights, we read a compass to discover north, south, east, and west to locate ourselves, move towards our destination, and not get lost or go missing. A spiritual compass has four directional points: emotion, cognition, imagination, and action that orient children as they move towards wisdom. In this essay, spirituality is defined as a felt sense of connection. The essay outlines the development of four directional points to convey support children need to feel well connected to those who care for them emotionally, cognitively, imaginatively, and socially and until they are well established on a foundational need for connection. The human spirit finds its direction by learning to use emotion, cognition, imagination, and action to build a personal/social world vision that addresses the unique questions arising at each point on a spiritual compass.
This article examines ideas about children's spirituality that are inscribed in the graphic memoir Marzi. Marzi uses word and image, and comic conventions, to represent the religious imagination and the spiritual experiences of the narrator-protagonist during the last years of communism in Poland. Marzi uses visual metaphor and conceptual blending to show the cognitive processes that lead Marzi to differentiate herself from her family's version of Catholicism. The ending of this text, and its references to kitsch capitalist culture, reinforces the sense of alienation young Marzi felt from the adult world and its religious institutions, and demonstrates the adult Marzi's ambivalent positioning with respect to the material culture of capitalism.
In this study, the relationships between adolescents' self-compassion, subjective well-being, and patience levels were examined. The research included 313 girls and 187 boys aged 13-18 in Gaziantep, selected through purposive sampling. The Self-Compassion Scale, the Adolescent Subjective Well-Being Scale, and the Patience Scale were used to collect data. The findings showed that girls had higher levels of subjective well-being than boys, particularly in the dimensions of positive emotions and relationships. Subjective well-being varied significantly by age and the mother's education level. Additionally, adolescents' self-compassion levels differed depending on their parents' survival status. The analyses revealed that higher self-compassion was associated with greater subjective well-being and patience. Moreover, self-compassion significantly predicted both subjective well-being and patience.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of therapeutic toys designed by nursing students on the pain and anxiety levels of sick children before treatment and on the satisfaction of parents and students. The sample consisted of hospitalised children between 3-6 years old, their primary caregivers, and third-year nursing students. Nursing students designed therapeutic toys in the paediatric nursing course and used them to play with children in the experimental group 30 minutes before treatment. The data were collected using Personal Information Form, Student Satisfaction Survey, Parent Satisfaction Survey, Wong-Baker FACES (R) Scale, and Children's Fear Scale (CFS). The mean Wong-Baker FACES (R) scores were significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group. The experimental group also had a significantly lower mean CFS score than the control group (F = 5.073; p = 0.028; eta 2 = 0.965). The results also showed that most mothers and nursing students were highly satisfied with the intervention.
This review critically examines the interplay between spirituality and giftedness, advocating for a holistic perspective that transcends traditional, solely cognitive conceptions of giftedness. By synthesising insights from interdisciplinary frameworks - including Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent, Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, and Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration - the paper explores how spiritual sensitivity, ethical awareness, and emotional resilience contribute to the development of gifted individuals. The review highlights the evolution of giftedness from a static measure of intellectual capacity to a dynamic construct that incorporates moral and spiritual dimensions. Furthermore, it discusses the implications of integrating spiritual development into educational policies and practices, drawing on both Western and Eastern educational paradigms. Ultimately, the study underscores the importance of fostering comprehensive educational strategies that support the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth of gifted individuals, thereby enhancing their overall well-being and social responsibility.
This study aimed to examine the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between psychological resilience and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among adolescents affected by the February 6 earthquake. The sample consisted of 894 adolescents and Data were collected using "Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Scale for Children", "Child and Youth Resilience Measure", and "Self-Compassion Scale for Children". The results revealed a negative correlation between post-traumatic stress and psychological resilience, a negative correlation between self-compassion and post-traumatic stress, and a positive correlation between self-compassion and psychological resilience when examining the effect of psychological resilience on post-traumatic stress, the inclusion of self-compassion in the analysis showed that the indirect (mediating) effect of psychological resilience on post-traumatic stress through self-compassion was statistically significant and in a negative direction (-0.087; p < 0.001). This indicates that self-compassion strengthens the protective effect of psychological resilience on post-traumatic stress.
This study examines how Chilean in-service early childhood educators conceptualise children's spirituality building on a larger U.S. mixed-methods project. It analyzes the responses of 87 educators to Q7 of the Early Childhood Educator's Spiritual Practices in the Classroom (ECE-SPC) instrument, utilising NVivo 14 for coding. Three key dimensions of children's spirituality emerged: Personal, Interpersonal, and Intangible-Immaterial. The Personal Dimension views children's spirituality as essential and innate, fostering emotional expression, self-awareness, and connection. The Interpersonal Dimension frames it as a learned capacity for relationships shaped by external values. The Intangible-Immaterial Dimension defines children's spirituality as a connection with the immaterial, encompassing perceptions, feelings, or beliefs in a spiritual being that supports moral growth. These findings underscore a multilayered understanding of spirituality and offer insights for teacher education and professional development. Recognising spirituality as integral to holistic child development encourages educators to incorporate the spiritual domain into early childhood classrooms, fostering inclusive and comprehensive learning environments.
