Spiritual, Life and Values Education for Children by Lee, John Chi-Kin;

Short description:

This book offers various perspectives on children’s spirituality and its relation to life and values education from diverse socio-cultural and educational contexts. It brings together a collection of select research articles that were published over a period of 1999–2020 in the International Journal of Children’s Spirituality.

Long description:

This book offers various perspectives on children’s spirituality and its relation to life and values education from diverse socio-cultural and educational contexts. It brings together a collection of select research articles that were published over a period of two decades (1999–2020) in the International Journal of Children’s Spirituality (IJCS), to celebrate the journal’s 25^th anniversary.

Featuring contributions by leading international scholars from U.K., U.S.A., Canada, Hong Kong, China, and Australia, this volume offers a multidisciplinary snapshot of children’s spirituality and its relation to life and values education. It highlights the importance of socio-cultural and religious traditions, as well as perspectives on religious education and the spirituality of children shaped by religious, cultural and educational systems in specific societies and contexts. Chapters cover topics including the links between mirror neurons and human empathy and education; the relationship between spirituality and citizenship; the notion of inclusive spiritual education and the perspectives of spiritual education through the conceptual lens of transcendence, raised awareness and spiritualism; how outdoor play spaces can contribute to a child’s spiritual development through enriching activities; and approaches to help nurture students’ spiritual growth in their aspects of themselves (self), others, the environment, and with a Transcendent Other (transcendence).

This volume will be a key resource for researchers and postgraduate students interested in understanding children’s spirituality and its implications for spiritual, life and values education.

Table of Contents:

Preface  Introduction (1 of 2)—Children’s spirituality, life and values education: cultural, spiritual and educational perspectives  Introduction (2 of 2)—Children’s spirituality, life and religious education: socio-cultural and religious traditions and perspectives  1. Preparing Spirituality for Citizenship  2. Helps to Fostering Students' Spiritual Health  3. Attentiveness for children: proposing a neo-confucian curriculum for preschool education  4. A conceptual investigation into the possibility of spiritual education  5. The empathetic mind: the essence of human spirituality  6. Let’s play at the park! family pathways promoting spiritual resources to inspire nature, pretend play, storytelling, intergenerational play and celebrations  7. Children’s spirituality and theologising with children: the role of ‘context’  8. An inclusive spiritual education