Interests in Spirituality

Welcome to the Interests in Spirituality web site. Here you will find a variety of links, articles, ideas, references, and comments about Spirituality and different experiences in this field. My primary interest as an early childhood educator-researcher lies within spirituality and children, but any other link to this topic is welcome here as well.
If you have any feedback, ideas or any comments on what you find here, please contact me at jm655@columbia.edu and don't forget to leave your impressions in the Guestbook before you leave.

This coming June 2009 (14 to 17) will see the 3rd Children's Spirituality Conference housed in Concordia University in Chicago.
I'm scheduled to present a paper on children's spiritual experiences in kindergarten classrooms and be part of a panel on qualitative methodology for educational research.
I'm very excited! If you're there, please stop and say hi.

I received this via email and thought someone might be interested.

Religion and Diversity Education: Cultivating Global Citizenship
July 13-16th and 20th, 2009, 9AM - 4PM
Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
254 W. 31st St., 7th floor, New York, NY  10001

Course Description: It's true: we're a global community. In Religion and Diversity Education: Cultivating Global Citizenship, you'll learn how to assess the state of multicultural education in your classroom, adapt your curriculum for establishing an inclusive environment, and prepare students to participate in society at a global level. Cultivating Global Citizenship explores: Tanenbaum's 7 Principles for Inclusive Education, samples from our curricula, theories of multicultural education, globalization trends, and Professional Teaching Standards so that you learn how to integrate religion and diversity education into your classes and standard curriculum.

Who should attend: Primary and secondary school teachers from both public and private schools, curriculum developers and after school and summer enrichment educational directors. Accessible to all, the course is particularly applicable to educators working with K-5 students.

Credit:  New York City public school teachers are eligible for 3P credits, while New York State educators can earn professional development credits.  Private school and non-New York educators are encouraged to attend and will receive a certificate of completion.

Cost: This term, we are able to offer Cultivating Global Citizenship at a reduced price.  Originally $450, tuition is reduced to $150 for a limited number of New York City public schools teachers thanks to a generous grant.  To make it accessible to all teachers, Tanenbaum is offering the course to state, private and other educators for $250.

To register: New York City and state employees should register through the New York City Department of Education - click here to register.  All other participants should register directly with Tanenbaum by emailing our education team.

Course Instructor: Mark E. Fowler is Tanenbaum’s Manager of Programs.  Mark has been involved in New York City's education community for over 20 years as a high school teacher and skilled educator, facilitator and trainer who worked with teachers, counselors, administrators and students at the Anti-Defamation League on prejudice reduction, conflict resolution, and reducing bias and bullying.  He is a sought-after keynote speaker and facilitator who has addressed organizations throughout New York on issues of equality in race, gender, sexual orientation and religion.  Mr. Fowler earned a B.A. in English and Education at Duke University and was trained as a Mediation and Conflict Resolution Specialist with the NYC Department of Education.

For more information, contact us at education@tanenbaum.org or call (212) 967-7707 x135.  We look forward to seeing you this July!

The New School is housing a Social Research Conference titled The Religious/Secular Divide: The US Case. It will take place this coming month of March (5 and 6)  in New York City.
You can check out the agenda, the speaker's bios and the abstracts to the talks at their website.
I'm planning to attend, so if you are going let me know and we can sit together and deliberate.

"Why is it that we know 'spirituality' when we meet it, but can't define it? Why do our explanations fail to satisfy?" Barryman (2001, p. 9)

Spirituality is not an easy term to define. Some define it along the baseline of religion, others view it as separate and independent of religious beliefs, but still understand spirituality as a connection to a greater source, an otherness that goes beyond our tangible material limitations.

Miller (2000) explains that for her "above all, spirituality is an intimate connection to God" (p. 40) But not all authors agree with the notion of God, yet they tend to see spirituality as a universal human characteristic. Elkins (1998) explains that "spirituality is a universal human phenomenon found in all cultures and in every age; it is not the exclusive possession of any religious group" (p. 5).

Going back to this notion os spirituality as "otherness", Hart (2003) explains that "spiritual refers to an intimate and direct influence of the divine in our lives" (p. 8). Bosacki (2001) agrees that the term spirituality deals with "connections and relations to ourselves, others and the world around us. It refers to both a sense of inferiority or an inner reality and a sense of being connected beyond one's own self, connected to something 'greater'" (p. 157). Schoonmaker (2006, in a personal communication) explains that to her and from a faith tradition, spirituality is the "otherness that connects us to the universe".

Some authors view spirituality as a combinations of otherness and human nature. DeMarco (2000, as cited in Stutts and Schloemann, 2002) defines spirituality as "the relationship between the self and a higher power that is dynamic, interpretive, rational, and integral part of human life" (p. 26). Champagne (2001) also agrees that "spirituality cannot be dissociated either from the human or from what is beyond the human, in transcend and in immanence" (p. 83).

Spirituality, can thus be understood as the connection humans have with divinity, a connection that originates in a human trait, goes beyond the individual to tap into the essence of life and provides humans with a greater consciousness and understanding of being.