Exploring Spirituality and Culture in Adult and Higher Education
1. Edition February 2003
320 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBN:
978-0-7879-5723-0
John Wiley & Sons
Exploring Spirituality and Culture in Adult and Higher Education is written from the unique perspective of teacher, researcher, and author Elizabeth Tisdell who has extensive experience dealing with culture, gender, and educational equity issues in secular adult and higher education classrooms, and formerly in pastoral and religious education settings on college campuses. This important book discusses how spiritual development is informed by culture and how this knowledge is relevant to teaching and learning. For educators, an understanding of how spirituality is informed by culture, and how spirituality assists in meaning-making, can aid in their efforts to help their students' educational experiences become more transformative and culturally relevant.
Preface
Part I: Breaking the Silence: Spirituality and Culture in Adult Meaning-Making and Education 1
1. Introduction: Culture, Spirituality, and Adult Learning 3
2. Breaking the Silence: Defining Spirituality in a Culturally Relevant Educational Context 25
3. Spirituality, Religion, and Culture in Lived Experience: Overlaps and Separations 45
4. Between the Cultural and the Universal: Themes and Variations of Spiritual Experience 67
Part II: Claiming a Sacred Face: Identity and Spiritual Development 89
5. The Great Spiral: Spiritual Development as a Process of Moving Forward and Spiraling Back 93
6. Gender, Culture, and Spiritual Identity in Midlife Integration 117
7. The Role of Spiritual Experience in Developing a Positive Cultural Identity 139
8. Searching for Wholeness: Crossing Culture, White Identity, and Spiritual Development 163
Part III: Spirituality in a Culturally Relevant and Transformative Teaching Practice 183
9. Approaching Transformative Teaching Grounded in Spirituality and Cultural Relevance 187
10. A Theory-in-Progress of a Spiritually Grounded, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Philosophical Underpinnings and New Directions 203
11. Stories from the Field: Spirituality and Culture in Adult Higher Education Classrooms 219
12. The Possibilities and Challenges of Spiritually Grounded, Culturally Relevant Teaching 235
Epilogue: Final Reflections 259
Appendix: Research Methodology 263
References 271
Index 285
Part I: Breaking the Silence: Spirituality and Culture in Adult Meaning-Making and Education 1
1. Introduction: Culture, Spirituality, and Adult Learning 3
2. Breaking the Silence: Defining Spirituality in a Culturally Relevant Educational Context 25
3. Spirituality, Religion, and Culture in Lived Experience: Overlaps and Separations 45
4. Between the Cultural and the Universal: Themes and Variations of Spiritual Experience 67
Part II: Claiming a Sacred Face: Identity and Spiritual Development 89
5. The Great Spiral: Spiritual Development as a Process of Moving Forward and Spiraling Back 93
6. Gender, Culture, and Spiritual Identity in Midlife Integration 117
7. The Role of Spiritual Experience in Developing a Positive Cultural Identity 139
8. Searching for Wholeness: Crossing Culture, White Identity, and Spiritual Development 163
Part III: Spirituality in a Culturally Relevant and Transformative Teaching Practice 183
9. Approaching Transformative Teaching Grounded in Spirituality and Cultural Relevance 187
10. A Theory-in-Progress of a Spiritually Grounded, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Philosophical Underpinnings and New Directions 203
11. Stories from the Field: Spirituality and Culture in Adult Higher Education Classrooms 219
12. The Possibilities and Challenges of Spiritually Grounded, Culturally Relevant Teaching 235
Epilogue: Final Reflections 259
Appendix: Research Methodology 263
References 271
Index 285
"This should prove to be a groundbreaking volume. Every adult
educator will benefit from engaging in the conversation." (PAACE
Journal of Lifelong Learning, Summer 2004)
"...this book makes an important contribution to a new and
growing body of knowledge." (Journal of College Student
Development, December 2003)
"A Professor of Adult Education describes How Spirituality Can
Be a Valuable Teaching Tool" (By Dana Sobyra in The Chronicle of
Higher Education)
"The work is an easy read, not overly laden with references but
enough to give it authority." (TCRecord.org, 10/8/03)
"All teachers of adult and higher education should have a copy of
this book. It is a beautifully written meditative and practical
guide exploring the connection between culture and spirituality in
teaching that points us towards a transforming experience for both
teacher and student."
-- David T. Abalos, professor of religious studies and
sociology, Seton Hall University
"Through a compelling blend of vivid biographical vignettes and
informed theoretical analysis, Elizabeth Tisdell explores how
spirituality fires adult and higher educators' efforts to create
culturally relevant practices. This will be a landmark text in our
efforts to understand spirituality's intersections with
education."
-- Stephen Brookfield, Distinguished Professor, University of
St. Thomas
"This book takes on a crucial topic at just the right time.
Adult and higher education is ready for a revival of engagement
with spirituality, and, along with this, the author manages to
weave in three other thick skeins of thought: development,
transformative learning, and cultural work. This book takes the
hugely important step of seeking the deep truth in the
interrelatedness of these skeins, and it moves the discourse ahead
in concrete ways."
--Laurent A. Daloz, author, Mentor: Guiding the Journey of
Adult Learners
"This book provides a valuable contribution to the literature on
teaching in adult education and higher education. It is a
pioneering work in the sense it is creating a direct link between
spirituality, culture, and learning in adult and higher education.
While there have been other attempts at addressing these issues,
this is the first book, of which I am aware, that links all three
together."
-- Talmadge Guy, associate professor, School of Leadership and
Lifelong Learning, University of Georgia
"This book reveals how spirituality exists as a powerful force
that shapes and impacts learners and their learning experiences. It
bravely treads where few have traveled by daring to discuss
spirituality, culture, and education in the same breath."
-- Juanita Johnson-Bailey, associate professor, department of
Adult Education and the Women's Studies Program, The University of
Georgia
"Tisdell has a unique perspective that is very much needed. Her
awareness that one's spiritual perspective is based on one's
idiosyncratic history which involves age, gender, experience,
preferences, and culture is immensely wise."
--Jane Vella, author, Learning to Listen, Learning to
Teach
educator will benefit from engaging in the conversation." (PAACE
Journal of Lifelong Learning, Summer 2004)
"...this book makes an important contribution to a new and
growing body of knowledge." (Journal of College Student
Development, December 2003)
"A Professor of Adult Education describes How Spirituality Can
Be a Valuable Teaching Tool" (By Dana Sobyra in The Chronicle of
Higher Education)
"The work is an easy read, not overly laden with references but
enough to give it authority." (TCRecord.org, 10/8/03)
"All teachers of adult and higher education should have a copy of
this book. It is a beautifully written meditative and practical
guide exploring the connection between culture and spirituality in
teaching that points us towards a transforming experience for both
teacher and student."
-- David T. Abalos, professor of religious studies and
sociology, Seton Hall University
"Through a compelling blend of vivid biographical vignettes and
informed theoretical analysis, Elizabeth Tisdell explores how
spirituality fires adult and higher educators' efforts to create
culturally relevant practices. This will be a landmark text in our
efforts to understand spirituality's intersections with
education."
-- Stephen Brookfield, Distinguished Professor, University of
St. Thomas
"This book takes on a crucial topic at just the right time.
Adult and higher education is ready for a revival of engagement
with spirituality, and, along with this, the author manages to
weave in three other thick skeins of thought: development,
transformative learning, and cultural work. This book takes the
hugely important step of seeking the deep truth in the
interrelatedness of these skeins, and it moves the discourse ahead
in concrete ways."
--Laurent A. Daloz, author, Mentor: Guiding the Journey of
Adult Learners
"This book provides a valuable contribution to the literature on
teaching in adult education and higher education. It is a
pioneering work in the sense it is creating a direct link between
spirituality, culture, and learning in adult and higher education.
While there have been other attempts at addressing these issues,
this is the first book, of which I am aware, that links all three
together."
-- Talmadge Guy, associate professor, School of Leadership and
Lifelong Learning, University of Georgia
"This book reveals how spirituality exists as a powerful force
that shapes and impacts learners and their learning experiences. It
bravely treads where few have traveled by daring to discuss
spirituality, culture, and education in the same breath."
-- Juanita Johnson-Bailey, associate professor, department of
Adult Education and the Women's Studies Program, The University of
Georgia
"Tisdell has a unique perspective that is very much needed. Her
awareness that one's spiritual perspective is based on one's
idiosyncratic history which involves age, gender, experience,
preferences, and culture is immensely wise."
--Jane Vella, author, Learning to Listen, Learning to
Teach
Elizabeth J. Tisdell is an associate professor of adult education at Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg. Her research interests include diversity and equity issues in adult education, feminist pedagogy, and the connection of spirituality and culture in educational contexts.