Faith and beliefs about living and dying are fundamental constituents of spiritual development. However, children are seldom asked to talk about their experiences of life and death. This article has a twofold purpose. It first describes children's expressions on living and dying, as heard during a newly developed programme which encourages…

John Hull's recent educational writings have included several on what he calls the "money culture". This is analysed and criticised in this article. Hull offers a Marxist and a neo-Marxist account of the role of money in western societies utilising the labour theory of value, false consciousness and the materialist interpretation of history. It is…

Youth work in the United Kingdom is a profession requiring three years of training, and its beginnings are strongly rooted in a spiritual (often specifically Christian) context. Until the past few decades, spirituality was also integrated within the educational system. The author argues that intentionally bringing spirituality to the center of…

Speaking to the issue of spiritual development from her extensive experience as a youth work practitioner, the author notes several ideas she finds particularly compelling, among them that spiritual development interacts with, yet is distinct from, moral and religious development; that spiritual development is a core construct of identity…

This research investigates teenagers' perceptions of spirituality. The author considers how far teenage ideas mirrored the many academic theories of spirituality-in-education that have influenced policy makers. Comparisons are made particularly with the theories of four scholars who have dominated the debate over the last twenty years: Jack…

The study uses qualitative methodology to understand the "nature" of spiritual experiences that resemble self-realization or oneness, and the linguistic structures and representational knowledge used to comprehend and communicate such an experience. It draws upon Habermas' theory of communicative action to explain the nuances of communication as…

There is a wise proverb that insists it takes a whole village to raise a child to adulthood. In light of the expanding convolution of contemporary values, it is especially important to attentively nurture the inherent desire in each developing human person to seek good and avoid evil, especially during the critical years of adolescent formation.…

In retrospect, Anselm's motto "fides quaerens intellectum" (faith seeking understanding) could fairly be taken to reflect the author's life's journey, beginning with a period of intellectual rebellion against the faith of his Methodist parents as he was entering adolescence. At the age of 14, however, in a revelatory moment, and…

Sixty-one children (aged 9-17) from the United Kingdom (31) and Bosnia (30) were interviewed about the war in Iraq. Significant differences emerged in their views of the war. The Bosnian children were more affected by the Iraq War, more aware of who is involved in it, had different views about its causes, viewed the consequences of the war with…

As schools expand secularization and laws limiting religious expression increase, one must not forget the religious spirituality of the individual. Individual religious spirituality is still protected under the United States Constitution. Many researchers feel that this religious spirituality should be nurtured, not discouraged in public schools.…

When it comes to making the right choices for children with disabilities, families are the experts. To prove this point, the Hatton Project sponsored a grant wherein researchers interviewed members of 12 families of children with disabilities on factors that caused them to identify themselves as "successful." The results yielded eight lessons…

This article considers the state of service and experiential learning initiatives in higher education, especially in Catholic universities. Concluding that the Catholic mission of service, education, moral values, world concerns, and ecumenism can be integrated into student experience, the essay offers a model of service ethnography. Service…

If one asks any family, or a group of families, to share their experience with religious communities or to talk about the impact of their child on their spirituality, the answers one gets are rarely lukewarm. If the trust is there, stories emerge about how incredibly important their faith or faith community has been, on the one hand, or perhaps…

This article deals with the results and further consequences of my empirical investigation of Christian-Muslim families and their children in Germany. It gives an insight into the religious world of 4- to 12-year-old children in Christian-Muslim families through the analysis of evaluated interviews and drawings concerning religious practice and…

A 4-year qualitative study examined the influence of teaching hatha yoga, meditation, and qigong to counseling graduate students. Participants in the 15-week, 3-credit mindfulness-based stress reduction course reported positive physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and interpersonal changes and substantial effects on their counseling skills and…