The Interconnectedness of Spirituality and Social Development: Themes for Education

Sudarshan Kriya of the Art of Living Foundation: Applications to Social Work Practice

“…It is at once Hindu-derived and abiding by New Age spiritual pathways with a focus on healing (Derezotes 2006;Bhagwan 2010a;Crisp 2010;Houtman and Aupers 2010). As seva or social service is an integral component of the technique's syllabus, it also moves into domains of macro practice with discourses on marginalisation, social justice and transformation (Coates 2007;Lee and Barrett 2007;Bhagwan 2010b;Prior and Quinn 2012;Gray and Coates 2013). The technique emphasises on its universal application, claiming to take into account cultural diversities (Bethel 2004;Hodge and Derezotes 2008;Worland and Vaddhanaphuti 2013).…”

Spirituality in social work in South Africa: Insights from a survey with academics

“…Education in South Africa began with restorative and rehabilitative work (Sewpaul and Lombard, 2004) before changing its contours towards a social development perspective. The broadening of the parameters enabled by postmodernist thought has allowed spirituality to emerge (Bhagwan, 2010c). Hence, an integration of the body-mind-spirit approach (Lee et al, 2009) is important in ensuring that South Africa does not remain at a disjuncture from the rest of the profession abroad.…”

“…At a micro-level, Rothman (2009) said that education should be underpinned by skill to assess the role of spirituality and spiritual practices in clients’ lives and to enable them to utilize spiritual strengths and resources and spiritual community resources to meet those needs. Spirituality is also interconnected with faith-based services (Cnaan et al, 2005) and social-justice issues (Bhagwan, 2010c; Canda, 1989) and hence it cannot be ignored within the context of macro-practice. To this end, education should focus on including and understanding all aspects of human diversity and integrating them in education, practice and research: social work students learning by use of ‘the whole self’, which includes spirituality and religious beliefs of practitioners and clients alike and social work administration and planning of faith-based organizations (Cnaan et al, 2005: 104).…”

“…Although micro-practice issues colour the spirituality literature, there are also conversations around anti-oppressive practice, social justice and transformation (Bhagwan, 2010c; Coates, 2007b; Derezotes, 2006). Spirituality has also been aligned with the strengths of marginalized populations as it taps ‘into their wisdom, resilience possibilities and hope as well as recognizing Indigenous and other non-Western modalities for social work practice’ (Wong and Vinsky, 2008: 1344).…”

Sustainability of Non-Governmental Organisations During Climates of Reduced Funding: A Case Study of the Johannesburg Jewish Helping Hand Society

“…These responses could be regarded as elements of the social developmental paradigm. Bhagwan (2010) asserts that both social development and spirituality have the same values of human dignity, equality, social justice and peace.…”