This article examines the notion of spiritual development as it was conceptualised for state schools in Britain through the Conservative Government's education reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, reforms which also introduced the National Curriculum. The article puts forward the argument that spiritual development was conceptualised in such a way as…

This article aims to enlarge the conversation about religion and public education by inviting readers to think about the benefits to be gained in society by providing a comprehensive religious studies curriculum in our public schools. In such a program, students will develop knowledge and understanding about various religious traditions, forge…

According to a study of student religiosity conducted by the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), 80 percent of students express a strong interest in spirituality. They are not only spiritual, but they are also religious. Over half of all students attend religious services at least once per month. Indeed, according to the UCLA study, eight…

Among the biggest challenges of teaching at a Christian institution of higher education is determining how best to integrate issues of faith into our teaching. Beginning level foreign language classes pose unique challenges for this integration because the students' language skills do not allow them to engage in extended discourse. Referring to…

Spirituality has become increasingly important in counseling, with prayer being the spiritual intervention of choice for Christian counselors. The controversial nature of including prayer in counseling requires careful consideration of ethical issues. This article addresses the intersection of spiritual interventions, particularly prayer, with…

Empirical research exploring the spiritual lives of young children in Australia is a field in which scholarship is beginning to emerge. This article reports on one particular finding that emerged from an Australian study seeking to identify some characteristics of children's spirituality in Catholic primary schools. The characteristic has been…

This article examines how one spiritual, Black, male, first grade teacher and one spiritual, Black first grader name music as a spiritual practice. The data arise from a 1-year multicultural feminist critical narrative inquiry. The findings demonstrate how the participants' age, ethnicity, class, and spirituality shape music as a spiritual…

Over the last fifty years, in three distinct waves of research, psychologists have investigated the religious thinking of children and adolescents. However, they have differed substantially in their conceptual frameworks, methods, and conclusions, making it difficult for educators to determine the overall implications of their findings for…

This article, which formed the opening keynote address of the Fifth International Conference on Children's Spirituality, addresses the place of children in the globalized social economy. It begins by arguing that current attitudes in the West towards children are conditioned by several contradictions in consumerism. Children, no longer as…

The authors review the professional literature related to spirituality and ethics in counseling. The American Counseling Association's (1995, 2005) code of ethics was used as a basis for exploring the possibilities and limits/ boundaries appropriate for discussion of spirituality in counseling. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Female prisoners in recovery may anticipate defeat when projecting possibilities for their future hopes and dreams. These clients often identify with and attach to the role of prisoner and addict. This article describes a 12-week group treatment program, titled by the author as "Prayerformance." In this work, female prisoners in recovery have an…

Oral history interviews form the basis of an investigation into both the context and the everyday actions that contributed to the learning environment for women within the Catholic Worker Movement during the 1930s and 1940s. Findings reveal that narrators (a) were grounded in a variety of learning environments including family, Catholic Church,…

Children's religious education is traditionally oriented to initiate children into a religious tradition. The idea--that the child must first receive input and then, when growing up, can start thinking critically--is based on images of children as "not-yet-adults" who should be socialised and protected. Here I will develop an ethical reflection on…

The Foundation for Child Development Child and Youth Well-Being Index Project at Duke University issues an annual comprehensive measure of how children are faring in the United States. The Child Well-Being Index (CWI) is based on a composite of 28 "Key Indicators" of wellbeing that are grouped into seven "Quality-of-Life/Well-Being…

Describes imagination as the cognitive faculty that mediates a person's relationship with God. Discusses imagination's integrative function and its realm of pure possibility which facilitates openness to God. States that only through imagination grounded in God's spirit can humankind hope to perceive, with increasing degrees of clarity, God's…