Starting Our Spiritual Journey: Community and Belonging

• In Event: Spirituality in Education: Becoming an Awakened School

Abstract

Objectives
The objective of this presentation is to share a case study of a PreK through 12th grade coeducational, independent day school located in the Midwest/upper South. Our community is religiously, racially, socially and economically diverse with students from over 40 zip codes. Our team has begun the process of redesigning our school’s culture to be more intentionally spiritually supportive. We will share our experiences implementing three of the 11 drivers of a spiritually supportive school (Authors, 2021). Our school has chosen to focus on developing an intentional lexicon, the adaptation and creation of rituals to reflect our desired shifts in school culture, and honoring and uplifting the inherent worth of all of our school community members.
Perspective
As an independent school, we were inspired by the research showing the benefits of spiritually supportive education, transformative relationships, and a whole child approach intentionally focused on the mind, body, and heart. Given that our school is a secular, non-religious institution, we were drawn to the ways in which a school can cultivate the development of the inner self and connection to something larger than self. In order for our children to develop more resilience, they need to learn that they are more than the sum of their parts and pieces. One of the first steps in resetting our culture was helping our community become comfortable with the word “spirituality” and how that is defined at our secular school.
Modes of Inquiry
This presentation will display an instrumental case study. We, the participants, will share insights that help us refine the process of how a school designs a spiritually supportive school culture (Stake, 1995). The choice of case study is appropriate to our particular school as it is the best example of a school expressing a desire to intentionally shift its culture to be more spiritually supportive and describing the process of doing so.
Data Sources
Leaders from the school will present our work from the 2021-2022 school year in working with our Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students, and parents to implement our chosen three drivers of a spiritually supportive school. We will share our process of determining which drivers we wished to initially focus on, as well as how we went about implementing intentional changes in our school so as to work towards a spiritually supportive culture. Data provided will be observations from across the community, but may include other data sources, including data captured during leadership and faculty retreats, interviews, or surveys.
Significance
We believe that sharing our experience of navigating the process of cultural change to move our school to be spiritually supportive will provide greater insight into the efficacy of the process, as well as provide future considerations for other schools. This is an exciting time in education. Research is now showing us what good educators have always instinctively known. Whole child education, transformative school culture, and a sophisticated spiritual connection and understanding can be cultivated and therefore needs to be in schools.

Authors

• Robert Macrae

• James McGuire, Louisville Collegiate