The Quest for Meaning and Purpose in Education

• In Event: 43.016 - Forming Lives of Meaning and Purpose: A 21st Century Mission for Schools of Education?

Abstract

Theoretical Overview
Recent psychological research has shown that when young people have a sense of meaning and purpose their physical and mental well-being is enhanced (Bundick, Yeager, King, & Damon, 2010). Meaning and purpose serve protective functions by warding off negative lifestyle choices for adolescents (Brassai, Piko, & Steger, 2011). But meaning and purpose cannot simply be taught through transmission models of education because there are dimensions of meaning and purpose that only can be acquired through an individual’s inner quest (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006). This quest-like nature of meaning and purpose call for open-ended pedagogies and curricula that acknowledge subtle dimensions of meaning and purpose, integrating those that are self-related with those that extend beyond the self (Bronk & Finch, 2010).

Objectives
A Jesuit and Catholic university such as Boston College would appear well-suited to educate for meaning and purpose. However, in many ways this potential has gone unrealized in recent years. For instance, courses in the philosophy and history of education, once foundational to all schools of education, are now only rarely offered. These would be precisely those courses which invite students to explore their belief systems and to crystallize a sense of meaning and purpose for their emerging professional identities.

Methods
Given this dilemma, this paper presents current efforts to create a new kind of what is being called “formative education” for mission and purpose in the Lynch School. These include: da comprehensive literature review of the current psychological literature on meaning and purpose; a review of current revisions of Lynch School curricula and course offerings with consideration of their capacity to address meaning and purpose; and challenges to the elevation of meaning and purpose in contemporary schools of education.

Results
Preliminary investigations indicate numerous complexities in the quest for an education for meaning and purpose. First, while there is universal acceptance that meaning and purpose are essential for education, the definitions of what are ignoble and praiseworthy understandings of meaning and purpose vary. Second, even if one wished to assert that meaning and purpose should foster well-being, research indicates that at certain junctures lives focused on the individual’s happiness diverge from those that are focused on prosocial purposes (Baumeister, Vohs, Aaker, & Garbinsky, 2013). This then raises an ethical dilemma: Should educators advocate for a life of meaning, though this may at times entail a sacrifice of happiness? Third, at a practical level, how should issues about meaning and purpose be addressed in the curriculum offered in schools of education today?

Scholarly Significance
These dilemmas require educators to think beyond the kinds of constraints that a data-driven and instrumental approach to education have imposed on curricula in recent years. Nor can faculty in a school of education simply focus on the familiar measures of school rankings, which exclude issues of meaning and purpose. How to overcome these familiar and now deeply embedded hindrances to an education for meaning and purpose represents a major challenge and a prime opportunity for schools of education.

 

Author

• Dennis L Shirley, Boston College