Ann M. Trousdale

Black and White Fire: The Interplay of Stories, Imagination and Children's Spirituality.

This paper explores the potential for using narrative to foster childrens spiritual growth. It discusses the nature, origin and appeal of story and presents theoretical perspectives which form a rationale for using non‐sectarian childrens, adolescent and young adult literature for spiritual development. Such books avoid church‐and‐state controversies while providing a fresh approach to educators where religious and spiritual education are mandated.This paper explores the potential for using narrative to foster childrens spiritual growth. It discusses the nature, origin and appeal of story and presents theoretical perspectives which form a rationale for using non‐sectarian childrens, adolescent and young adult literature for spiritual development. Such books avoid church‐and‐state controversies while providing a fresh approach to educators where religious and spiritual education are mandated.

Intersections of spirituality, religion and gender in children’s literature

This paper explores the intersections of spirituality, religion and gender in contemporary children’s books published in the United States. Background for the discussion includes a history of religion in children’s literature and the history of women’s roles in the Christian tradition. Representative works of realistic fiction – historical and contemporary – and one work of science fiction are discussed.This paper explores the intersections of spirituality, religion and gender in contemporary children’s books published in the United States. Background for the discussion includes a history of religion in children’s literature and the history of women’s roles in the Christian tradition. Representative works of realistic fiction – historical and contemporary – and one work of science fiction are discussed.

Freedom, physicality, friendship and feeling: aspects of children's spirituality expressed through the choral reading of poetry

Reading and discussing poetry with spiritual themes can play a major role in childrens spiritual development. The communal, oral recitation of poetry has been a means of spiritual expression in many faith traditions. How would children respond to such a time‐honoured oral group experience with poetry? What might it reveal about their spirituality? These were the questions that prompted a qualitative study involving young people in the choral reading of poetry with spiritual themes. Participants were 19 students in a sixth‐grade classroom. We held three separate sessions with the class, each focusing on an aspect of childrens spirituality: relationship with the self and others, relationship with the natural world, and relationship with a reality beyond the material world. Findings indicate that the choral‐reading experience did provide the children an opportunity to express their spirituality, but in ways we did not anticipate. It was not the content of the poems that they pointed to as providing means for their spiritual expression, but rather aspects of the process of choral reading: freedom in interpretation, physicality in interpretation; a sense of friendship, of a safe, interpretive community; and the opportunity to express their ‘feelings’, their emotions.

Missing Links in Literary Response: Group Interpretation of Literature.

SummaryChoral reading and readers theater provide students opportunities to respond to and interpret literature through direct involvement. They provide aesthetic enjoyment of literature and go beyond aesthetic enjoyment to engage students on personal levels of understanding and response.Both choral reading and readers theater provide students alternative ways of knowing, alternative ways of responding to literature. They not only engage the linguistic intelligence but potentially engage and benefit the many other kinds of intelligence. Through the group interpretation of literature, many students who have not been drawn into full participation in the literary community of the classroom are provided the means of becoming a part of it.

Honouring the questions: shifts in the treatment of religion in children’s literature

Contemporary trends in the treatment of religion in children’s literature represent a dramatic shift from the religious didacticism of past centuries. Books from mainline publishing houses today that deal with religion tend to eschew religious assumptions or doctrine, focusing rather on the questions young people have. This article describes four categories of such questions: those arising when religious institutions or leaders disappoint or betray; intellectual questions arising from tensions between science and religion or the presence of suffering in the world; religious implications of social issues such as gender inequity or the break-up of family structures; and the quest for a faith tradition which one can embrace. A representative book in each category is discussed; other relevant books are included in an appendix. These novels do not provide definitive answers. While each reaches a satisfying conclusion, these conclusions are quite varied and open-ended. The pattern that runs through them in treating young people’s questions with respect as signs of intelligence and a normal part of a spiritual journey. Such books can provide young readers with a sense of companions on their own journeys.

A rose by any other name

In this article I describe a mental health programme that has clear, though unstated, adumbrations of the spiritual practice of mindfulness. The programme has been successful in the southern USA, an area noted for its religious and political conservatism. I provide a background of the historical, political, cultural and religious situation affecting spiritual education in the USA with which such programmes contend. Research methodologies include historical research, text analysis and personal interviews.

Peak Experiences Explored Through Literature

A sense of connection with the natural world is an often-noted aspect of children’s spirituality (Nye, 1998; Hart, 2003); it is in the natural world that many children report having “peak experiences” of peace, oneness, and timelessness (Schlarb, 2004). Yet encounter with the natural world is increasingly rare for many children today.