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.
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]