The Current Status of Spirituality-Based Co-Curricular Programming by Student Affairs Practitioners in Higher Education (original) (raw)
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Christian colleges and universities in the United States hold great potential for cultivating interdisciplinary skills and casting a new vision for the intersection of science and religion. However, very little is known about the research and teaching that occurs in science and religion at the member institutions of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), an influential group within American Christian higher education. This report details the current state of play in science and religion on CCCU campuses by presenting results of sector-level data analysis, content analysis of course catalogs, and qualitative interviews of Christian college faculty and administrators.
The Review of Higher Education, 2008
Recent years have seen increasing interest in issues of meaning, purpose, authenticity, and spirituality in higher education. There are numerous definitions of spirituality, but the key terms and elements constructed by those who have written extensively about spirituality include such aspects as: seeking personal authenticity, genuineness, and wholeness; transcending one's locus of centricity; developing a greater sense of connectedness to self and others through relationships and community; deriving meaning, purpose, and direction in life; being open to exploring a relationship with a higher power that transcends human existence and human knowing; and valuing the sacred (
The Question is the Answer: Naropa University's Contemplative Pedagogy
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The new millennium has seen a resurgence of interest in spirituality and religion among college students across the spectrum of American institutions of higher education. The Lilly Foundation has found that the fastest growing undergraduate major is religious studies. And yet this growing interest is not confined only to religion per se; it is also expressed in undergraduate interest in spirituality. In 2005, the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA surveyed over 112,000 matriculating freshmen attending 236 diverse colleges and universities across the country, reporting this: The study reveals that today's college students have very high levels of spiritual interest and involvement. Many are actively engaged in a spiritual quest and in exploring the meaning and purpose of life. They are also very engaged and involved in religion, reporting considerable commitment to their religious beliefs and practices. As they begin college, freshmen have high expectations for the role their institutions will play in their emotional and spiritual development. They place great value on their college enhancing their self-understanding, helping them develop personal values, and encouraging their expression of spirituality. 2 The HERI report goes on to say that three-fourths of college freshmen say that they are searching for meaning or purpose in their lives; nearly half of the students surveyed say that they consider it "essential" or "very important" to seek opportunities to help them grow spiritually. Two-thirds reported that they derive strength, support and guidance from their spiritual or religious beliefs. 3 They additionally expressed the expectation that college will help them develop emotionally and spiritually. These expectations raise unique challenges for the religious studies department and professor. In the 1960's and 1970's, religious studies departments charted a course to become legitimate academic departments at public universities, freeing themselves from the often apologetics' stance of
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In an unpublished national research study, "Religious, Secular, and Spiritual Identities in Higher Education," which evaluated how universities addressed issues of religious diversity on campus, interviews with university professionals, students, and community members revealed that the institutions that were successfully engaging in religious, secular, and spiritual identity work were changing their policies and practices at the administrative level in order to support these worldviews. Institutions at which students and members of the campus community generally articulated a sense of belonging and could pinpoint specific policies and practices to support this belonging were deemed successful at addressing religious, secular, and spiritual identity. These institutions exhibited patterns of policy and practice that coalesced around four emerging themes. These "Four Pillars of Policy and Practice" combined to create institutional climates that were markedly different in comparison to other institutions. Since 1998's historic Education as Transformation Conference at Wellesley College (Kazanjian & Laurence, 2000), higher education has been on a trajectory toward incorporating religious, secular, and spiritual identities into student development theory and practice. Efforts over the past 20 years have shown significant advancement in research-based understandings. For instance, the UCLA Spirituality and Higher Education Study (Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2011) highlighted significant opportunities that can exist for students when a university supports spiritual exploration. Other literature has suggested that spiritual expression and involvement in campus religious groups decrease the number of students' mental health issues (Small & Bowman, 2012), while also increasing their resilience, persistence, and overall satisfaction with the college experience (Kuh & Gonyea, 2005; Means & Jaeger, 2016). These important contributions to research highlight the transformative work that can take place on college campuses when religious and spiritual identities, as well as secular forms of meaning-making, are supported.