Deborah Fraser

Secular schools, spirituality and Maori values

New Zealand has had free, state, secular education since 1877, but just what is meant by secularism is changing. Since the 1980s the growth of Maori education initiatives has mushroomed and these place emphasis on Maori values and beliefs, including spirituality. In addition, in 1999 a definition and statement on spirituality appeared in the health and physical education national curriculum document. This statement referred to values, beliefs, meaning and purpose. It also incorporated a Maori model of well‐being which places the spiritual alongside other dimensions of humanity. This article explores the concept of spirituality in secular schooling in New Zealand. Some influences from Maori culture are explored with particular reference to values, ethical decision‐making and spirituality. Interviews with Maori teachers highlight how moral decisions often reflect spiritual beliefs and practices. It is argued that schooling has a moral obligation to reflect indigenous values if understanding, respect and cul...New Zealand has had free, state, secular education since 1877, but just what is meant by secularism is changing. Since the 1980s the growth of Maori education initiatives has mushroomed and these place emphasis on Maori values and beliefs, including spirituality. In addition, in 1999 a definition and statement on spirituality appeared in the health and physical education national curriculum document. This statement referred to values, beliefs, meaning and purpose. It also incorporated a Maori model of well‐being which places the spiritual alongside other dimensions of humanity. This article explores the concept of spirituality in secular schooling in New Zealand. Some influences from Maori culture are explored with particular reference to values, ethical decision‐making and spirituality. Interviews with Maori teachers highlight how moral decisions often reflect spiritual beliefs and practices. It is argued that schooling has a moral obligation to reflect indigenous values if understanding, respect and cultural identity are to be promoted and cherished. It is also suggested that spirituality challenges what we have traditionally considered as learning at school.

Strangers in their own land: friendship issues when children have cancer

More children than ever before are surviving childhood cancer. While treatment protocols have improved, there is little consideration given to their ongoing educational needs, including their social needs for positive peer relationships and friendships. This qualitative study of 12 families included children from four to 15 years of age. Most of the children were attending primary school and half were still undergoing treatment. Interviews in family homes were undertaken with parents, children with cancer and their siblings. The results show that most of these children with cancer have special social relationship needs beyond the impact of absence from school. This article focuses specifically upon friendships and peer relationships which often change dramatically when a child has cancer. Such changes can place children with cancer at risk both academically and emotionally. Some suggestions for addressing this issue are explored.

Creativity, mood disorders and the aesthetic.

This article explores the sensitivity and mood disorders found in a number of gifted people. Dabrowskis theory of positive disintegration provides the theoretical framework through which issues for these people are examined. Personal narratives and poems from gifted young people provide insights to their sensitivities and struggles. The aesthetic is proposed as one way in which to understand their needs. There are direct implications for parents, teachers, health professionals, and creative people when mood disorders are considered developmental rather than purely pathological. In particular, the therapeutic influence of expressing strong feelings through creative writing has merit in terms of support. Dabrowskis theory and the use of the aesthetic deepens both our understanding and our appreciation of the gifted.

Some Educational Implications For Spiritual Giftedness

In an increasingly secular society, spirituality (rather than religion) is more pervasive than ever before yet the area seems to be amorphous and hotly contested. Even Gardner has declined to commit to spirituality (or more broadly, existentialism), as an intelligence. What therefore, does this mean for students who have heightened spiritual awareness and ability? How do we identify these students let alone, begin to enhance their spiritual development? This paper contrasts the claims surrounding spiritual giftedness including a comparison of moral, cognitive and theological dimensions. An analysis of what appears to be common to spiritual experiences provides a useful framework for examining this intriguing yet controversial area. Some implications for gifted students are suggested with examples drawn from classroom research.

State Education, Spirituality, and Culture: Teachers' Personal and Professional Stories of Negotiating the Nexus.

This paper explores the implications of spirituality for teaching and learning in multicultural state schools through the examination of several teachers’ personal and professional narratives. In attempting to capture the intangible, these narratives provide insights into the possibilities, both conscious and unconscious, of creating a climate that fosters spirituality. The classroom stories of a spiritual nature that the teachers recounted (while many and varied) revealed some common themes that related to the climate of the classrooms. Sensitive issues of faith, beliefs, and culture emerged and the teachers’ narratives illustrate ways in which inclusive communities can be fostered. The paper provides examples of cultural and social inclusiveness with a focus on two major themes: the relationship between life and death, and fostering a sense of belonging.

From the playful to the profound: What metaphors tell us about gifted children

Although some metaphors have lost their novelty through overuse, the unexpected quality of other metaphors appeal to creatively gifted children given their proctivity for language and imagination. The unexpected connections that comprise metaphor manifest the creative process and can give rise to innovative expressions and concepts. Creatively gifted children have an extraordinary facility with metaphor, using these expressions in ways that reveal advanced metalinguistic ability. In addition, the metaphors they create reflect a wealth of ability from profound emotional and spiritual dimensions to playful and humorous insights into the human condition. A range of metaphors composed by children are presented and discussed in terms of what they indicate about the personal worlds, special talents, and emotional insights that are often typical of the gifted. Moreover, some of these metaphors appear to play a cathartic role for their authors whereas others seem to provide an engaging vehicle for creatively gifted childrens delight in the world of language and ideas. The approach to creative writing described in this article also has the potential to assist with the identification of those with linguistic talent.

Writing to learn: A Collaborative Endeavour

SUMMARY An interrelated problem in teaching and learning development in higher education is that staff development may be divorced from the disciplines in which teaching and learning occurs, at least this is the case in the New Zealand context. For example, while staff developers may engage with discipline‐specific tasks alongside staff, developmental units on university campuses exist independently of academic departments. A corollary of this is that the development of students’ learning skills such as essay writing, is perceived as the responsibility of learning developers on campus rather than academic staff. This can create an artificial division between teaching and learning. This paper outlines a process which has successfully been used to address these concerns. The focus on ‘writing to learn’ with undergraduate students was a collaborative endeavour which included staff developers working alongside academic staff and students within subject tutorials. This placed the developer at the nexus of both...

Interactive group activity: a socially mediated tool for opening an interpretive space in classroom research

An ongoing challenge in classroom research is to understand children’s perspectives on their learning. While learning is highly individual, it is also significantly social and this raises methodological challenges. An Interactive Group Activity (IGA) is one of several data collection strategies used during the action research phase of the Connecting Curriculum, Connecting Learning project (2010–2011) focusing on arts-based curriculum integration. This article concentrates on the IGA tool as a means of uncovering children’s meaning making following an extended period of learning. Of particular note is the use of an arts pedagogical device to introduce the IGA to children, a device that frames the purpose of the task. In effect, the IGA acts as a group assessment device underlining the socially mediated nature of children’s learning. This article describes how the IGA tool evolved, gives its form and structure, argues for its affordances and suggests possibilities for its wider use.

Mood disorders and poetry: Archaeology of the self

The focus of this article is on poetry therapy as a readily accessible resource about mood disorders. An examination of poems that reveal each writers ability to explore moods with a particular focus on the experience of depression is presented. The creating and sharing of these poems has benefits for both writers and readers in terms of witnessing mood, understanding the inner life, and healing. As such, poetry therapy is well suited as an archaeology of the self which is vital in the treatment of depression. It is also argued that there is a distinct need for the inclusion of poetry therapy as part of the repertoire of support for those who suffer from depression.

Examining and disrupting rituals of practice in the primary classroom

Much of what happens in primary classrooms reflects a number of rituals and routines that have largely become an unconscious part of teachers’ repertoires. While these ‘rituals of practice’ provide a framework or structure to learning in classrooms, they are often left unexamined. These taken-for-granted ways of teaching require close examination in order to ascertain their merit or otherwise for childrens learning. This paper outlines some rituals of practice in primary classrooms in the Arts (dance, drama, music and visual art). It outlines the nature of these rituals and discusses how some were disrupted by teachers-as-researchers in collaboration with their university colleagues in a joint research project. The findings suggest that research partnerships of this nature provide a supportive environment for questioning assumptions and enacting alternatives that promote learning.