Empty Wells: How well are we doing at spiritual well-being?

Abstract

This paper presents ten teachers' perceptions of spirituality and considers how these can be categorized. A small research project, recently undertaken, is described. Teachers' stories are contextualised with biographical details, and are presented within a framework of four dimensions of Spirituality (the inner, the social and moral, the environmental and the transcendental) and Spirituality is de ned metaphorically as a hologram with four dimensions. I argue that by viewing spirituality in four broad dimensions the bland consensus de nition can be avoided resulting in rich ful lling opportunities for developing children's own unique and varied spiritualities.

The use of visualisations to develop the aesthetic aspects of spiritual literacy

“…Fisher (1998) devised a model of spiritual well-being in relation to health, which featured domains of spirituality including personal, communal, environmental and global. Elton-Chalcraft (2002) conducted research with teachers examining their perceptions of spirituality and concluded that the data showed evidence of four dimensions which agreed with other literature in the area. These were defined by the terms: inner, social/moral, environmental and transcendental.…”

“…The examples here show evidence of the suggested dimensions of spirituality relating to the inner and communal aspects and elements of interconnectedness as discussed by Elton-Chalcraft (2002), Fisher (1998) and Ingersoll (1998) respectively.…”

“…Interviews with the children and analysis of the reflective work was carried out to examine, whether this recollection of the imagined physical journey aided a personal and spiritual experience after the event and whether the psychological expression of the imagined physical experience aided this in some way. Some evidence was found that the child's connection with the context could affect the depth and quality of interpretation in terms of quality or depth of spirituality as measured by indications derived from the work of Ingersoll (1998), Eaude (2003Eaude ( , 2005, Hay and Nye (1998), Hammond and Hay (1990), Elton-Chalcraft (2002) and others by having access to the stimuli. Analysis drew upon theories including psychosynthesis, which takes into account the uniqueness of the individual's life journey and therefore allows the children to make meaningful links within their schema.…”

Affirming presence: spiritual life and friendship with adolescents with developmental disabilities

“…Without true friendships, disabled persons will enjoy the new opportunities created by their equal rights most likely as 'strangers in a strange land'. (Reinders 2008, 187) If spirituality is, among other things, a matter of 'connectedness', which seems to be a reoccurring theme in this journal (Buchanan 2009;Buchanan and Hyde 2008;de Souza 2003;Elton-Chalcraft 2002;, then how do we nurture Galen's Christian spirituality? Can we discern it, measure it or foster it?…”

Using secondary students’ views about influences on their spiritual well‐being to inform pastoral care

“…The idea that there are four key domains of spiritual well-being, first proposed by the National Coalition on Aging, Washington DC (NICA, 1975), has been supported recently by studies with primary school pupils (in Hay & Nye, 1998 p.120), with secondary school educators (Fisher, 1999a(Fisher, , 2001, university students (Fisher, 2000) and primary school teachers (Fisher, Francis and Johnson, 2002;Elton-Chalcraft, 2002) and Australian 16-20 year-olds (deSouza et al, 2004). The four key domains refer to four different sets of relationship that people have with Self, Others, Nature and/or with God.…”