Promoting Children's Spiritual Development in Education: A Review of The Literature and The Exploration of Teachers' Attitudes.

This thesis contains a study of the part teachers play in children’s spiritual development. All schools are required to contribute to such development by law. However, the notion of spiritual development is complex and few guidelines have been offered to teachers to help them in this area. While much has been written about children’s spiritual development, very little attention has been given to the views and attitudes of teachers. This study examines the views of 162 teachers about the spiritual through interview and questionnaire. The thesis begins with a review of literature relating to the place of the spiritual within education and one specific context in which it is to take place: the primary school. The empirical work includes data collected through interviews (and questionnaires) with twenty-seven teachers in five first schools. What emerged from these was a picture of teachers who were sensitive to their role in providing for children’s spiritual development, but who seemed to have little support or guidance in how to go about it. A key feature was the apparent lack of a shared understanding of the term ‘spiritual development’ and a wariness that it involved commitment to a particular religious tradition. Nevertheless, the teachers were able to identify where they believed the spiritual appeared in their work with children. Some of the patterns which emerged from the interviews were then developed into a questionnaire to reach a wider teacher population. Data from 132 questionnaire respondents was used to reflect upon the interview data and the literature outlined earlier. It was found that some of the features, issues and concerns which emerged from the interviews were shared by this wider group of teachers. However, there were also some differences and an attempt is made to establish possible explanations. As part of this, the identification of four teacher ‘types’ is made to describe teachers’ attitudes towards the spiritual in education. The thesis concludes with some reflections on the implications of the study, focusing particularly on the needs of teachers. Among these are suggestions for continued dialogue relating to the nature of the spiritual within formal education and greater reflection on what it means to take this area of the curriculum seriously

Promoting Children's Spiritual Development in Education: A Review of The Literature and The Exploration of Teachers' Attitudes.

This thesis contains a study of the part teachers play in children’s spiritual development. All schools are required to contribute to such development by law. However, the notion of spiritual development is complex and few guidelines have been offered to teachers to help them in this area. While much has been written about children’s spiritual development, very little attention has been given to the views and attitudes of teachers. This study examines the views of 162 teachers about the spiritual through interview and questionnaire. The thesis begins with a review of literature relating to the place of the spiritual within education and one specific context in which it is to take place: the primary school. The empirical work includes data collected through interviews (and questionnaires) with twenty-seven teachers in five first schools. What emerged from these was a picture of teachers who were sensitive to their role in providing for children’s spiritual development, but who seemed to have little support or guidance in how to go about it. A key feature was the apparent lack of a shared understanding of the term ‘spiritual development’ and a wariness that it involved commitment to a particular religious tradition. Nevertheless, the teachers were able to identify where they believed the spiritual appeared in their work with children. Some of the patterns which emerged from the interviews were then developed into a questionnaire to reach a wider teacher population. Data from 132 questionnaire respondents was used to reflect upon the interview data and the literature outlined earlier. It was found that some of the features, issues and concerns which emerged from the interviews were shared by this wider group of teachers. However, there were also some differences and an attempt is made to establish possible explanations. As part of this, the identification of four teacher ‘types’ is made to describe teachers’ attitudes towards the spiritual in education. The thesis concludes with some reflections on the implications of the study, focusing particularly on the needs of teachers. Among these are suggestions for continued dialogue relating to the nature of the spiritual within formal education and greater reflection on what it means to take this area of the curriculum seriously

Teaching religious education: primary and early years

Many trainee primary teachers are uncertain as to the place and purpose of RE in primary schools. This book is designed to alleviate such fears and give trainees the security and confidence to teach RE effectively. Trainees are encouraged to recognise their own religious position and understand how they handle their own beliefs and commitments in the classroom. In addition, they will learn how to be sensitive to children's religious viewpoints, allowing children to share their beliefs in a secure and supportive environment. A range of strategies help readers to provide engaging and appropriate RE across the primary age phase

Critical thinking skills for education students

This book has been written to help education students develop their understanding of critical analysis. It outlines the skills needed to examine and challenge data and encourages an appreciation of how this way of thinking can enrich the personal and professional development of students. It gives clear definitions of key terms and examples of how to analyse data. The book sets out how Action Learning Sets can contribute to analytical skills and helps students develop self-evaluation skills in order to recognize personal values and perceptions. This book will help develop confidence in using critical analysis through modelling, case studies and reflective tasks

Why do Muslim parents want Muslim schools?

The small-scale study focuses on a number of Muslim parents and practitioners who have rejected local primary community schools in favour of Muslim faith schooling. The rejection of the type of schools that we support and that we train our student teachers to prepare for prompts considerable concern. This concern has led us to question in what ways Muslim schools represent a challenge to our own educational beliefs and values. This study is an attempt to identify the source of that challenge and what it means to our understanding of ourselves as white educators and researchers and the work we do with trainee teachers. It leads us to question our perspective on a range of issues including diversity, inclusion, parental rights and ultimately the aims of education

Teaching humanities in primary schools

This book supports primary trainees in their learning and teaching approach to the core humanities subjects: geography, history and religion. It promotes an integrated approach to these subject areas and encourages trainees to reflect on the links between subjects, across the curriculum from the Early Years Foundation Stage through to Key Stage 2. The new edition has been updated to incorporate the revised Professional Standards for the Award of QTS and addresses key initiatives such as Excellence and Enjoyment, Every Child Matters and the Primary National Strategy for Literacy and Mathematics

Critical thinking skills for education students

ix, 115 p.; 24.5 c

Preparing primary school teachers to teach religious education

Under the guidelines for Initial Teacher Training, all potential primary teachers are required to learn about teaching religious education. However, religious education is not a high priority on ITT programmes and trainees may often have little introduction to it. Given the sensitive nature of religious education, what is the best way to prepare trainees for teaching religious education, and how far do we need to take into account their views about the subject? This article reports on a study involving trainees on a one-year PGCE course. All the students were preparing to teach in primary schools and were not specialist religious education trainees. The aim of the study was to discover how trainees felt about teaching religious education in the primary school and how far their feelings linked to their views about religion. The conclusions suggest that any effective preparation of the trainees needs to recognise the diversity of their starting points and allow them opportunity to reflect on their views of religion and religious education