Mata, J. (2012). Nurturing Spirituality in Early Childhood Classrooms: The Teacher’s View. In M. Fowler, J. D. Martin III, & J. L. Hochheimer (Eds.), Spirituality: Theory, Praxis and Pedagogy (pp. 239-248). Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press. ISBN: 978-1-84888-091-7

Abstract

Since the separation of church and state in the U.S., not only religion, but in consequence, spirituality as a whole, has been excluded form education[i]. When reflecting on early childhood education, it seems paradoxical, that even teachers working with young children who tend to see their students holistically, embracing and nourishing all aspects of their development, would steer away from spiritual matters in their classrooms. Through semi-structured interviews, I look at six practicing early childhood teachers’ understandings of spirituality, their openness to deal with spiritual matters in their classroom, and ultimately, their knowledge regarding the how-to of nourishing spirituality within their students. The findings for this paper stem from qualitative analysis[ii] of six interviews, designed to tap into three main threads: (1) definitions and understanding of spirituality, (2) nurturing spirituality in the classroom, and (3) teacher knowledge and preparation in spiritual development. The findings point to teachers understanding and considering spirituality as an important aspect of development, but not quite knowing how to incorporate spiritual matters in their curricula, given the settings they work in do not call for spiritual development or spiritual nourishment, as well as them lacking adequate preparation and professional development in this area. There seems to be a need for calling teacher preparation programs to redesign their curricula and include space and time for discussion of spiritual matters, to give teachers the opportunity to explore this subject and then, in time, be prepared to approach it with their students. I propose that teacher preparation programs take upon the mission of preparing teachers to open themselves[iii] and their classrooms to nourishing spirituality[iv] as well as advocate for more in-depth research in this area.

Key Words: Early childhood education, children’s spirituality, early childhood teachers, teacher preparation programs.