Being human, becoming whole : Understanding spiritual health and well- being
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2000
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Christian Education Vol. 43, no. 3 (2000), p. 37-52
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- Description: This chapter discusses what spirituality is and its place in education. Topics discussed are interest in spirituality, the nature of spirituality, dimensions of health, spiritual health and well being, and a model of spiritual health. Spirituality is innate, emotive, subjective, dynamic and not religion. Spiritual health and well being are reflected in the quality of relationships in four domains of human existence - people with themselves, with others, with the environment, and with a transcendent other. The model embraces the divergence of world views, beliefs and lived experiences of humanity, as expressed in the knowledge and inspirational aspects of spiritual well being in each of the domains.
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
Spiritual well-being and psychological type: a study among visitors to a medieval cathedral in Wales
- Authors: Francis, Leslie , Fisher, John , Annis, Jennie
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Mental Health, Religion & Culture Vol. 18, no. 8 (2015), p. 675-692
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- Description: This study explores the theoretical and empirical connections between spiritual well-being and psychological type by drawing on Fisher's model of spiritual well-being as assessed by the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure and Francis' classification of psychological type as generated by the Francis Psychological Type Scales. Data provided by 2339 visitors to St David's Cathedral in rural west Wales demonstrated that, when the four components of psychological type were considered independently, higher levels of spiritual well-being were associated with extraversion rather than introversion, with intuition rather than sensing, with feeling rather than thinking and with perceiving rather than judging. Further examination of these data suggested that the judging process (distinguishing between the feeling function and the thinking function) was of greatest importance in shaping individual differences in spiritual health.
Nurturing students' spiritual well-being : Caring for the whole child
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2008
- Type: Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Christian Education Vol. 51, no. 1 (2008), p. 7-20
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- Description: Spiritual well-being is reflected in up to four sets of relationships that people have; namely with themselves, with others, with the environment, and/or with God. Details are provided about quantitative measures for spiritual well-being used with students and teachers in Victorian Christian primary and secondary schools. The results obtained are presented and discussed. Case studies illustrate how such quantitative measures can be used to inform pastoral care of students to help ensure the holistic development of each child in our schools.