The spiritual life of teachers: A study of holistic education and the holistic perspective.

摘要

The purpose of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of holistic education by describing the connection holistic education teachers perceive between their spirituality and their pedagogy.;Using portraiture methodology, the study describes and examines four secondary holistic education teachers in holistic education settings. The participants represented four fields within holistic education: Waldorf education, Quaker Friends education, Parker Palmer's Courage to Teach Program and Rachael Kessler's Soul of Education passages program. Data collection consisted of interviews, curriculum document collection, classroom observations and descriptive storytelling around artifacts. Individual portraits of each participant were constructed for data analysis and interpretation in order to inform the research questions: How do holistic education teachers perceive their own spirituality, spiritual life and spiritual beliefs? How do holistic educators describe their pedagogy and curriculum design? How do holistic educators perceive that their spirituality affects their classroom practice and pedagogy?;There have been multiple findings from the study including: (1) Holistic education emphasizes the idea of connectedness; (2) Participants' spiritual wisdom is used as source of insight in pedagogy; (3) Participants demonstrate a holistic view of education that is grounded in their own holistic growth; (4) Participants view teaching as both sacred and a calling; (5) Participants believe that much of their success is dependent on their own authenticity as whole persons.;The study concludes that holistic education may be dependent upon teachers who have a holistic worldview grounded in their own attempts to live meaningful lives. Several principles of holistic education were drawn from the data: (1) Holistic education is based on a holistic worldview, philosophy and perspective that appears to stem from teachers who actively seek to live a spiritual and meaningful life; (2) Holistic educators desire to educate the whole student including the students's emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual aspects; (3) Holistic education is dependent on educators who have an awareness of the holistic and developmental needs of students and attempt to meet these needs through a wide variety of pedagogical approaches; (4) Holistic education seems to be dependent on teachers who have an inclusive-critical orientation toward spirituality and student spiritual development.