Spiritual development is an epistemological journey of seeking to make meaning of life's activities, order, and relationship between events (Love, 2002). This process occurs when students experience a degree of dissonance that pushes them to question what they know, how they know it, and expand their understanding based on new experiences and…

The Bible has long been valued and esteemed as the primary text for Christians all over the world. It tells the story of God and of the Christian faith and it provides guidance for Christians on how to live faithfully for Jesus Christ. Thus, one would expect a knowledge and understanding of the Bible to be a high priority--of utmost…

Current models of spiritual development suggest that adolescents have limited capacity for spirituality and spiritual experiences. Adolescents are seen to have immature moral and ethical judgment and be incapable of deep spiritual experience due to lack of cognitive development. This mixed-methods study explored the existence of spiritual…

Biblical texts mandate parental involvement in children's religious education. Researchers consider it important as well. Through analysis of interviews, site documents, and a focus group this phenomenological study seeks to provide a rich description of parents' experience with involvement in the religious education of their elementary children.…

There is growing evidence in the theoretical literature regarding the importance of religion and religiosity in people's lives, particularly concerning their health and well-being. Spirituality, a related but different concept, has been less well studied, especially empirically, but shows promise as a mechanism for coping with deleterious social…

The purpose of the qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of K-5 elementary teacher in Dekalb County, Georgia who perceived the influence of their spirituality on the behavior and academic achievement of students. The sample included 14 elementary school teachers that were purposefully selected from a local…

There is limited research into the value, purpose and function of Mental Health (MH) Chaplains. Yet, they are employed within National Health Service Trusts in the UK. Eight MH Chaplains were interviewed to explore how they see their value, purpose and function. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The data reveal…

Globalisation as a worldwide integrating force leads to changes in the social structures, values and mindsets of people. Parents raise their children expecting they would take care of them in old age but the globalised economy has given rise to a materialistic culture in which children migrate to other cities or countries. Parents accept this in…

In this dissertation, I develop an instructional design strategy for emerging young adult leaders (EYAL) in the Swaziland Leadership Academy (SLA). The study was prompted by my desire to evaluate and improve the learning within the SLA. In Part I, I review literature related to adult education, the Swazi epistemological context, and instructional…

This study examines the experiences of gay-identified college men related to their faith and sexual orientation identity development. The findings suggest that for gay-identified college men, faith and sexual orientation identity development includes examination of one's faith and sexual orientation identity, important relationships, and a desire…

This article reports a qualitative study that explored South African conceptions and enactment of life purpose. Data collected using semi-structured interviews with 25 first-year university students (female = 56%, age range = 18-25) offer a unique insight into African young adults' conceptions of life purpose. From a phenomenological analysis…

This qualitative study explores how the spiritual epistemology of Black, gay and bisexual, cisgender men in college changed during their spiritual journeys and how participants used spirituality in their collegiate lives. External forces, such as family members, religious text, and church settings, initially shaped many participants' spirituality,…

This article uses case study methods and theories of literacy as social practice to explore how an adolescent developed her religious identity and religious literacies in relationship with more secular identities and literacy practices across multiple social contexts. It further examines how the youth engaged her religious identity and religious…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of the use of spiritual intelligence into women academic leadership practices. The study designed to provide a clear understanding of the effectiveness of the use of spiritual intelligence practices within women academic leadership practices. In addition, the study will be an ideal…

This research examined the phenomenon of spiritual growth in students taking an online religious education course at Brigham Young University-Idaho. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 students who reported positive gains in spirituality as a result of the course. Students described their experience in the online course and the…