Pre-service teachers' spiritual well-being across time and faiths : Implications for religious education
- Authors: Fisher, John , Barnes, Philip , Marks, Genee
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religious Education Journal of Australia Vol. 25, no. 2 (2009), p. 10-16
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- Description: Spiritual well-being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have in up to four areas, namely with themselves, with others, with the environment, and/or with God. A recent study has shown that the lived experiences of teachers have a major influence on their perceptions of help provided to nurture students' SWB in schools. Fischer's (1999) 20-item Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) elicited pre-service teachers' ideals for SWB, and their lived experiences in each of the four domains, as well as the level of help these pre-service teachers believe is provided to school students in these areas of their lives. Data were collected from 1361 pre-service teachers in public, secular and religious universities, and Christian universities in Australia and Northern Ireland in 2000 and 2007-08. Significant variations were found in levels of SWB by gender and university type and between pre-service teachers from one year to another. The pre-service teachers in these studies were not overly optimistic about the level of help provided to nurture school students' relationship with God. This finding has implications for religious education in schools, as well as discussions of the holistic development and well-being of students. [Author abstract]
- Description: 2003007943
Leading the development of new models of schooling: Community-based Christian schools in Australia
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religious Education Journal of Australia Vol. 28, no. 2 (2012), p. 36-42
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- Description: Parent-controlled and community based Christian schools are a relatively new phenomenon in Australia. Nearly two-thirds of all students in Australia attend State, or public, schools. Around twenty percent attend Catholic schools, with the remainder attending other non-government or independent schools (Schools Australia, 2010). Most of the independent schools are tied to particular religious affiliations, such as Anglican, Baptist, Greek Orthodox, Islamic, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventist. Approximately forty per cent of these independent schools, roughly five percent of the total Australian student population, comprise other new Christian schools. This paper explores leadership issues in new Christian schools that foster religious education as an integral part of the total formation of the individual.
Spirituality and religious education in the national curriculum: A response to Duncan Reid
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religious Education Journal of Australia Vol. 28, no. 1 (2012), p. 3-8
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Duncan Reid's paper provided a springboard from which to launch into discussions about making space for Religious Education in the (Australian) National Curriculum (REJA, 27(2):10-15, 2011). Some brief comments are presented in this paper to expand thinking in the area of religious education with particular reference to spirituality. Due to size constraints and editorial direction, references of research in the area of spirituality related to religious education, that were edited out of the Australian College of Educators book on Australian perspectives on education and spirituality, have also been included here. It is hoped that this response will add to and help inform the debate about the place of Religious Education (and spirituality) in the evolving Australian National Curriculum.
Investigating spiritual well-being among Islamic Divinity and religious education students in Turkey
- Authors: Coskun, Mehmet , Fisher, John
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religious Education Journal of Australia Vol. 29, no. 2 (2013), p. 21-28
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- Description: In light of increased emphasis on universities being called to facilitate spiritual growth among students, the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure was used to assess four domains of spiritual well-being among 122 Divinity and 137 Religious Education students in Turkey. Students provided three responses to 20 items reflecting spiritual well-being, indicating their ideals for spiritual well-being, lived experience and how much university helped in each area. Another 16 potential factors were explored to help students develop their spiritual well-being, ranging from self-improvement to scripture. High scores on ideals for spiritual well-being, reported by both groups of students, underpin the lived experiences of Religious Education and Divinity students in each of four domains of spiritual well-being. Relating with God significantly influenced aspects of spiritual well-being but it appears that the highly religious students overstate the influence of religious activities, such as prayer and scripture, on their spiritual well-being. Universities provide small yet significant support in developing the four domains of spiritual well-being for these students. Overall, this study has shown many similarities, yet some significant variations in spiritual well-being between these Divinity and Religious Education students in Turkey. This project provides a sound base from which future studies can be launched to review, enhance and monitor university students' spiritual well-being and to determine the influence of these students' spiritual well-being on the clients they will serve after graduating and gaining employment.
Assessing spiritual well-being: relating with God explains greatest variance in spiritual well-being among Australian youth
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Childrens Spirituality Vol. 18, no. 4 (November 2013), p. 306-317
- Full Text: false
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- Description: How do we set standards in assessing spiritual well-being (SWB)? Most measures provide only scores on arbitrary scales. Therefore, if the questions differ, the scores are likely to as well. This paper reports on two scales developed with 460 Australian secondary school students, with diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, from state, Catholic, Christian Community and independent schools. The four domains model of spiritual health/well-being was the theoretical base from which 12 items were developed to reflect quality of relationships with each of self, others, environment and God/the Divine. The instrument with the five top-scoring items in each domain, known as Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), has been sought for use in over 200 studies in 20 languages. The second-highest sets of five items were extracted and found to form statistically valid factors, for a new instrument called SWBQ2. As would be expected, the mean values for the factor scores varied between SHALOM and SWBQ2, overall and by school type. However, regression analyses of the lived experience scores showed that relating with God provided greatest explanation of variance in SWB, on both measures. A double-response method introduced for SHALOM was also used with SWBQ2 to compare each person's lived experience with their ideals, better reflecting quality of relationships, rather than just the arbitrary scores. There was negligible difference in dissonance scores on the four factors in both measures, that is, in comparing the difference between ideals and lived experiences. This method showed consistency in the quality of relationships reflecting SWB, contrasted with variance shown using only lived experience, as mentioned above. Relating with God was again most influential on SWB. These findings have implications for methods used in assessing SWB as well as outcomes.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2204 Religion and Religious Studies
Comparing levels of spiritual well-being and support among pre-service teachers in Hong Kong and Australia
- Authors: Fisher, John , Wong, Ping Ho
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religious Education Journal of Australia Vol. 29, no. 1 (2013), p. 34-40
- Full Text: false
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- Description: A Chinese version of the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) developed in this study was shown to be a sound measure of spiritual well-being (SWB) in which 573 pre-service teachers from Hong Kong reported slightly lower levels of relating with themselves and other people, in Personal and Communal SWB, but higher levels of Environmental and Transcendental SWB compared with a group of 557 similar pre-service teachers at the University of Ballarat, Australia. Using regression analyses, investigation of the relationships between levels of spiritual well-being and helps revealed very similar results in explaining variance for each of the four domains, as well as overall spiritual well-being, for these two groups. Prayer, nature and being happy contributed most to explanation of variance in spiritual well-being in both groups helping others, friends, self-improvement, music, walks and other religious activities contributed variously as well. Common principles undergirded support provided for both groups of pre-service teachers' spiritual well-being. It was just a matter of degree as to how much they applied. SHALOM revealed more similarities than differences in spiritual well-being in these two groups of pre-service teachers, even though they were separated culturally and linguistically. These results do, however, raise questions about the efficacy of these pre-service teachers to adequately address school students' spiritual well-being.
God counts for children's spiritual well-being
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Childrens Spirituality Vol. 20, no. 3-4 (2015), p. 191-203
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Over the last three decades, qualitative studies of children's spirituality have variously mentioned God. During this time, nearly 300 quantitative measures of spirituality and well-being have been developed and employed with youth and adults. However, very little similar work has been done with children. An article in this journal reported development of a purported spiritual sensitivity scale. That paper is critiqued here on the basis of its statistical methods as well as its failure to mention God in a study with Australian Catholic school students. In this paper, spiritual well-being (SWB) is taken as being reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, with others, with the environment and/or with God. Empirical evidence derived from extensive studies with primary school children in State, Catholic, Christian community and other independent schools in Australia reveals that an instrument called Feeling Good, Living Life is a statistically sound spirituality measure for children. Of the four sets of relationships reflecting SWB, relationship with God explains greatest variance in SWB overall. In this respect, relationship with God is most important for SWB among primary school students, just as other studies have shown it to be among youth and adults.
Modelling the effect of worship attendance and personal prayer on spiritual well-being among 9- to 11-year-old students attending Anglican church schools in Wales
- Authors: Francis, Leslie , Fisher, John , Lankshear, David , Eccles, Emma
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Children's Spirituality Vol. 23, no. 1 (2018), p. 30-44
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- Description: This study employs a modified form of the Fisher 16-item Feeling Good, Living Life measure of spiritual well-being (assessing quality of relationships across four domains: self, family, nature and God) among a sample of 1,328 students drawn from year five and year six classes within Church in Wales primary schools, alongside measures of frequency of worship attendance and frequency of personal prayer. The data demonstrate frequency of personal prayer is a much stronger predictor than frequency of worship attendance in respect of spiritual well-being. This finding is consistent with the view that personal prayer is a key factor in the formation of individual spirituality.