Teachers’ experiences of spirituality in Swiss secular high schools:An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Spirituality in education is a contested topic. This is certainly true for Switzerland where there has been avid media-led debate about teacher religiosity / spirituality and their influence on educational practices. This puts highly spiritual Swiss teachers in a dilemma: How can they integrate their spirituality in the classroom without causing controversy? The research literature indicates that spirituality is a complex phenomenon that generally has positive effects on teacher identity and pedagogical practice. Spirituality has also been shown to be a protective factor and a factor for greater well-being for teachers. Furthermore, spirituality can function as an alternative way of knowing in a school system that is largely defined by rationalism. However, teachers may choose to hide the spiritual aspect of their identity, because spirituality is a contested topic in public schools. While spirituality in education has received greater attention in recent years in various countries such as the UK, the US or Australia, the topic is practically non-existent in the public school sector of Switzerland. The present study used the qualitative method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). A repeat-interview process allowed for in-depth analysis and interpretation of the subjective lived experience of six Swiss secondary school teachers’ spirituality and its influence on their teaching practices. It is the first qualitative study on teacher spirituality in secular school settings in Switzerland. Its findings shed new light on this aspect of Swiss education and thus complement the existing literature. iv The key findings of this study were that spirituality is an important protective factor as well as a potent coping strategy for highly spiritual teachers. Spirituality is a key aspect of their teacher identity and a valid alternative way of knowing, but they implement spirituality often only through covert or indirect ways in the classroom. While they would wish to be able to implement it more directly, they feel that this is often not permissible. They perceive spirituality as a taboo topic in Swiss education and actively suppress aspects of it. However, they reported that the interview process helped them to reflect on and appreciate spirituality in education

Insights Into the Tensions Facing Western Christians Working Overseas in an Educational Faith-Based Organization:A Case Study

For the last 20 years, there has been a growing interest in researching faith-based organisations (FBOs) in international development. Much of the research on FBOs tries to analyse whether faith has a positive or negative impact on development. This often leads to contradictory results. This case study shows insights into tensions that FBO staff face on issues such as gender, evangelism and donor pressure. The results show that the picture of faith’s role in development is much more nuanced than portrayed by much of the existing literature. The conclusion offers recommendations for policy makers and member care personnel

Effects of spiritual change on the re-entry adjustment of Christian young adult humanitarian workers

Humanitarian work inevitably involves exposure to suffering, stress and trauma. Such exposure has a profound effect on an aid worker’s worldview and spirituality. The aim of this study was to use Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to do an in-depth analysis of how Christian young adult humanitarian workers in faith-based aid organizations experience such spiritual change and how it affects the re-entry into their faith community. Strategies for pastoral and spiritual care for the workers are provided

Serious play in education for social justice: An exploratory study

Fair Battles is a 12-week Swiss education for social justice program with the goal of sensitizing high school students about the impact of their consumer habits on society. The pedagogical concept of Fair Battles is to employ the tool of serious play to enhance students’ social empathy, which then leads to service learning projects. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the impact of the program by using pre- and post-program student surveys (n=16) and post program semi-structured qualitative student interviews (n=10). The survey data were analyzed using SPSS and the interview data were analyzed using template analysis. The results were organized according to Kirkpatrick’s four-level evaluation model. The quantitative results show a statistically significant increase in the post-program survey scores for the learning and behavior level. The qualitative results suggest that the program had a positive impact on students on all four of Kirkpatrick’s levels. The conclusions are that the Fair Battels program is impactful, that social justice education needs to be holistic and that the combination of serious play and service learning elements seems to be effective for social justice education. Further research in the area of social justice education and serious play is recommended.Fair Battles [Batallas Justas] es un programa suizo de educación para la justicia social que tiene una duración de 12 semanas y el objetivo de sensibilizar a estudiantes de secundaria acerca del impacto que sus hábitos de consumo tienen en la sociedad. El concepto pedagógico de Fair Battles consiste en utilizar la herramienta del juego serio para aumentar la empatía social de los estudiantes, lo que a su vez contribuye a proyectos de aprendizaje mediante servicios. Este estudio preliminar que aúna diversos métodos analizó el impacto del programa utilizando encuestas a estudiantes antes y después del programa (n=16) y entrevistas cualitativas semiestructuradas a estudiantes después del programa (n=10). Los datos de las encuestas se analizaron con SPSS y los datos de las entrevistas se analizaron mediante un análisis de plantillas. Los resultados se organizaron con arreglo al modelo de evaluación de cuatro niveles de Kirkpatrick. Los resultados cuantitativos muestran un aumento significativo desde el punto de vista estadístico en las calificaciones de las encuestas posteriores al programa en lo que respecta al nivel de aprendizaje y comportamiento. Los resultados cualitativos sugieren que el programa tuvo un impacto positivo sobre los estudiantes en los cuatro niveles de Kirkpatrick. Las conclusiones apuntan a que Fair Battles es un programa que causa un impacto, a que la educación en justicia social debe adoptar un enfoque integral y a que la combinación del juego serio con elementos del aprendizaje mediante servicios parece eficaz para la educación en justicia social. Se recomienda una investigación adicional en el ámbito de la educación para la justicia social y del juego serio

Using the radiocarbon bomb spike to constrain the age of soil organic carbon delivered to Lake Constance sediments

The residence time of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, such as soils and freshwater, sets the pace of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Understanding export pathways and turnover times of soil organic carbon (OCSoil) is crucial to assess responses to climate and land use changes. Our study aims to quantify the average turnover time of OCSoil in the catchment of perialpine Lake Constance. Lake sedimentary sequences integrate organic carbon from their catchment and aquatic primary productivity. They act as both burial sites of organic carbon (OC) and time series archives of catchment processes. Thus, they can bridge the gap between plot scale observations, e.g., on soil carbon turnover, and observations made at the outlet of major river systems. Sedimentary organic carbon sources include aquatic primary productivity, OCSoil, and rock-derived (petrogenic) OC. Stable carbon isotopes (δ13C) can be used to identify the relative contribution of these pools. The 5700-year half-life of radiocarbon (14C) coupled with the atmospheric nuclear bomb spike in the early 1960s can be used to infer the age and turnover rate of the OC pools on millennial to annual timescales. Bulk OC isotope analysis of a varved sediment core spanning the past ca. 110 years at quasi-annual resolution was used to constrain the age of soil carbon delivered to Lake Constance. We combined the geochemical data with a Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo-based approach to identify the most probable age structure of aquatic and soil-derived OC components and to quantify their respective contributions in addition to petrogenic OC. Radiocarbon analysis of sedimentary bulk OC reveals a well-defined but muted bomb spike in the early 1960s. However, bulk Δ14COC values remain below 0‰, implying a predominance of aged OC. Based on the δ13C-based three-component linear mixing model, we found these values to be the result of an OC mixture containing approx. 40% pre-aged soil carbon and up to 20% fossil petrogenic carbon. Accounting for these inputs, we estimated that soil-derived OC delivered to Lake Constance is centennial in age, implying interim storage prior or subsequent to erosion from the landscape