Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Spirituality, Education & Society: An Integrated Approach
Spirituality, Education & Society: An Integrated Approach
Njoki N. Wane
University of Toronto
& Society
Energy L. Manyimo
University of Toronto
An Integrated Approach
and
Spirituality, education and society: An integrated approach argues the value of spirituality
in education as a way to address the lived experiences and personal knowledge of students, Foreword by Ali A. Abdi
with the goal of creating a more holistic, transformative educational process. This edited
volume has a wide array of viewpoints which all point to the importance of spirituality in the
authors’ personal lives, their communities and society at large. Spirituality is conceptualised
as a base from which to challenge dominant forms of knowing, while in the process being
able to center and engage with an important aspect of the student that has been missing
from current evaluations – their spiritual selves.Within the diversity of this volume it becomes
evident that spirituality cannot be confined to a singular definition and that educators must
be willing to create spaces to foster spiritual growth and exploration if we are to break away
from the commoditized, disempowering system that is so dominant today.
This edited collection is a valuable resource for students, practitioners, educators and admin-
istrators who wish to engage in transformational schooling. Its multidisciplinary approach
engages ideas around critical pedagogy, sociology of education, and inclusive schooling.
There is an increasing need for exploring novel paradigms of studying education in the con-
text of the dynamics that straddle social, economic and technological processes that have
come to characterize the world in recent years. This book is a timely contribution in this
respect as its focus transcends hitherto applied approaches that depend largely on western and Eric J. Ritskes (Eds.)
orientation. The book breaks new grounds in studying education and society that find sig- Njoki N. Wane, Energy L. Manyimo
nificant relevance in societies that are marginalized by the dominant western understanding.
The authors draw from the rich heritage of spirituality that is akin to the non-western social
paradigms to develop a rigorous but creative concept of schooling. I am sure practitioners,
researchers and students of education will find it a valuable source of practical and theoretical
information that would widen their horizon of understanding of sociology of education. - Tom
Mongare Ndege, PhD, Moi University, Kenya
Edited by
Njoki N. Wane
University of Toronto
Energy L. Manyimo
University of Toronto
and
Eric J. Ritskes
University of Toronto
SENSE PUBLISHERS
ROTTERDAM / BOSTON / TAIPEI
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
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the work.
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to the seekers; to those who are willing to move beyond
the dictated realms of quantifiable knowledge and search for meaning outside of
what can be physically experienced. May you find what you are looking for.
It is also dedicated to those who have gone before us – the faithful that have
blazed the path and passed down their knowledge for us to follow in their
footsteps. Without you, we would not be here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................. ix
Foreword
Ali A. Abdi ............................................................................................................... xi
Introduction
Njoki N. Wane & Eric Ritskes ............................................................................... xv
Chapter 3: Nourishing the Authentic Self: Teaching with Heart and Soul
Lisa Hart ................................................................................................................ 37
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The editors would like to thank the contributors to this volume for the way in
which they have opened their spirits and shared their stories; without you, this
book would not exist. There is something intimate about spirituality and the stories
that are shared here; we appreciate the courage it takes to reveal your soul in such a
public way. In receiving your stories, hopefully we have revealed and presented
them in ways that honour both the intimacy as well as the power that is inherent
within the stories and the act of telling them.
Not only is this book indebted to the people who have directly contributed
chapters but, much like in any project, there is a vast web of people who have
contributed in less direct, but no less important, ways. Much gratitude is given to
the people who have spoken spiritual words to us, both within the walls of the
academy and beyond them. To those who have spoken and acted into our lives, our
family, colleagues, friends and mentors, this book is a testament to how no one can
live, work or study in a vacuum – we are all connected in spiritual and physical
ways.
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FOREWORD
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FOREWORD
centering learning contours that neither enfranchise their inner existentialities, and
of course, never support their yearning for less measurable understanding of their
subjective locations, needs and aspirations. Needless to add that the education
system, as it is structured today in Canada and elsewhere, with its basically
colonialist and supposedly rationalist intentions and constructions, never aimed for
a spiritually amicable learning and teaching processes that enrich more than the
market needs of the schooling project. Indeed, it is these historically-located
rationalist assumptions, operations and expected outcomes that would generally
stifle the clearly needed spiritualizations of the pedagogical context. But to what
extent is education really rationalist, objective and effectively measurable? Perhaps
a more important question: whose rationalist, de-spiritualizing life systems are
being advanced in current relations of the schooling project? If these enlightenment
and by extension, modernist-driven ways of learning and teaching are
representative of one way of seeing the world, then the epistemic enfranchisement
of spirituality in educational research and schooling platforms should and will
delightfully disturb such hegemonic edifice of monocultural scientism which has
dominated the learning landscape for too long.
Undoubtedly, as should be clear from the many, diverse themes contained in this
book, the absence of spirituality in education represents more than a purely
rationalist prospect. More so, it is one hitherto functional and dangerous scheme to
diminish the knowledge foundations as well as the epistemological revival of
Indigenous and communal ways of knowing and social well-being. As implicated
in the pages of this exceptionally timely book, therefore, it should not be
uncommon to realize that in today’s less organic societies in Indigenous America
(North and South) and Oceania, Africa and Asia along with the huge diasporic
communities from especially the latter two, which now resides in North America
and Europe, and whose educational well-being has not been fully supported by the
conventional structures of schooling, the introduction of the spiritual could play an
important role in recasting the educational system as less alienating, more
subjectively connected, and capable of seeing beyond the economistic and biased
exam-driven walls of all learning and teaching. Needless to add that, beyond these
learners, people in all corners of the world, regardless of their social or ethnic
background, will definitely benefit from a spiritually enriching educational
experience.
In critically responding to these learning and human emancipation related
attachments of spirituality, this book powerfully achieves, via its five sections and
16 chapters, which range from analyzing the conceptual foundations/constructions
of the case, examining the methodological selves of the ‘story’, and critically
deformalizing its practices, a potentially multi-centering analytical perspective in,
not only convincingly advancing the indispensability of spirituality for our actual
educational existences, but as well, in discursively illuminating the expansiveness
of the meanings as well as the practices (yes, practices) of spiritually as directly
affecting, and in original, lived terms, impacting the ways we create meanings,
establish knowledge systems, behave or do not behave in our cultural contexts, and
make use of the resources that are available and that we use to understand,
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FOREWORD
appreciate, even recreate in our lived milieus. As the authors in this important
endeavor clearly expound, the noticeable absence of spirituality from the
educational research and from contemporary spaces of schooling, is to say the least
lamentable, and the coming of this work and other treatises that should follow it,
are essentially needed, and should awaken, one must hope, in all those whose
perception of public education as a primary public good is authentic and present,
an urgent sense of advancing the place of spirituality in all learning situations,
relationships and outcomes.
Ali A. Abdi,
University of Alberta
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NJOKI N. WANE & ERIC J. RITSKES
INTRODUCTION
For too long spirituality has been an underexplored, often misunderstood aspect in
the field of education. This book is an attempt to show that exploring spirituality
within the context of education will create new pathways of understanding, for
educators and students. By weaving spirituality into learning and knowledge
creation discourses, educators as well as learners can foster spiritual growth while
strengthening the connections between the learner, knowledge and the process of
schooling. The main intention of writing this book is to create an educational space
that develops learners’ and educators’ spiritual interconnectedness in relation to
learning, schooling and the community at large. Spirituality is very important to
many people’s lives and valuing the spirituality of students and teachers means
valuing the uniqueness of individuals, regardless of race, gender, creed, sexuality
or ability. Spirituality has been silenced and marginalized as a discourse or
embodied knowledge in the academy. In this book we explore the questions and
issues of spirituality and its intersections with schooling from a wide range of
diverse perspectives. Often, the education systems like to believe that they are
eminently concerned with the real problems and dilemmas facing society, culture,
human suffering, and the struggle for liberation. In the business of this never-
ending search for liberation, there is no time for what people consider as spiritual,
which is considered to be “otherworldliness and esotericism” and of little value. In
this book, we argue that the spiritual quest is inherently part and parcel of
liberation and resistance as well as a vital part of society and the search for holistic
living and learning; it is a search for guiding visions and values within this world
and for the many people who occupy this planet. What academics perceive to be a
flight from the ‘real’ is often a quest for the heart of the real (Tacey, 2002).
Spirituality is about personal empowerment, personal and collective
transformation, and relationships.
For instance, many of us do not think about breath, yet if we were to stop and to
imagine that there would be no human or any living being without air, it would
lead us to recognize and pay attention to that certain aspect of who we are as
something that is collective and common to all of us – Breath. Thich Nhat Hanh,
says in western culture we are always focused on the future and not on just
“being”. We are always working towards something, always blinded by the next
step so that we forget many of the inner journeys we are taking. We are so goal
oriented, that we forget the little changes we make. We have such high ideals of
what change means that we do not pay attention to the very breath that we need
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NJOKI N. WANE & ERIC J. RITSKES
and that our next door neighbour needs to sustain us to make these anticipated huge
changes. As a result, we direct our energy to those places that may not be attainable
at the moment, forgetting the many inner changes that need to take place in order
to create the spaces that are conducive to real spiritual change. What we are
advocating in this book is that we need a different level of consciousness, a new
way of seeing the world around us: A focus on the self and our spiritual selves as
intricately connected and vital to the environments, goals, locations, changes and
desires that we seek to attain.
Many times, when we bring spirituality in our academic discussion, it is closely
followed by discomfort and there is an instant disconnect that is created; the
inevitable critiques of the rigor of your academic engagement or your level of
theorizing, that you are advocating soft discourses that should be left to those who
are not of the academic world, spirituality as only for those who peep from a
distance at academic walls. Academics who lay any claim to spiritual knowledge or
experience are asked to leave it at the doors of the academy upon entry and politely
(or perhaps not so politely) asked to pick it up as they leave, almost as if there is a
fear that spirituality will somehow ‘taint’ the academic spaces. Spirituality in the
academy is like mixing water and oil – there is inevitable and strict separation – but
this should not be. We cannot divorce the intellect from our invisible being – that
is, who we really are bell hooks, writing on spirituality in education, said: “We
can’t begin to talk about spirituality in education until we talk about what it means
to have a life in the spirit …. To live a life in the spirit, to be true to a life of the
spirit, we have to be willing to be called on – often in ways that we may not like”
(2003, p. 158). What this means is that, for educators who genuinely invoke the
spirit and strive to connect with others at deeper levels that appeal to the emotional
consciousness, to the heart, there is no place in the academy for them. As
educators, we have to address both needs for intellectual as well as emotional
growth. The structures that surround us have many tactics and methods of
suppressing the spirit and creating oppression, depression and many times spirit
injury. As academics, activists and educators we must be willing to recognize the
damage that our current systems are inflicting on us, society and students and
choose to bring the spirit into our work in ways that challenge existing structures
and that create spaces for the ‘whole self’, spaces that embrace spiritual and
emotional knowledges.
The study of spirituality is also a call to the integration of hope, love and unity
into our research, our lives and our classrooms. It is about creating organic spaces
of trust and respect. Even the utterance of such words as hope and love in academic
spaces brings awkwardness and disjointedness – these words don’t seem to belong
in such a place that values abstractness, cold truth and numbers. Bringing
spirituality back into the academy is not a rejection of logic or reason but a
rejection of the privileged position that it is given; it is a call for the inclusion of
hope, love, respect, diversity, peace, community and humour – the things that make
us whole. For too long the academy has rejected these aspects to its detriment, this
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INTRODUCTION
book then is also a call for the rejuvenation of the academy, the introduction of a
vitality and holism that has been largely absent.
The arguments presented in this book are that, if we do not pay attention, if we
separate the spirit from the self, if we allow the self to be disconnected by the
current education system – how can we expect things to change? The explicit goal
of this work is transformation. We cannot afford to be oblivious to the oppressive
structures that are continuously reproducing themselves in society and,
consequently, in education. We need to bring this level of consciousness to our
work in order to bring transformation. Some readers may not see the relevance of
what we are talking about and the subject at hand. The academic structure
functions to appeal to meritocracy and any deviation from the norm is challenged,
devalued and even ridiculed. What is not obvious to many scholars is the fact that
the academic discourse deals with abstract knowledge that appeals to the cognitive
faculties of the brain. Where it places value is on logic, reason and mental
abstractions. There is no emphasis or recognition that, in order to function as a
normal human being, you need to develop all aspects of yourself – that is the
invisible you – which some people refer to as spiritual self. In most academic
institutions, this is not encouraged and it becomes very difficult to talk of
spirituality in the academy. bell hooks argues:
Most of my teaching experience has been in climates that are totally, utterly,
and completely hostile to spirituality. Where colleagues laugh at you if they
think that you have some notion of spiritual life. … my teaching practice has
been…within an environment that is utterly hostile … Not naming that
hostility but working with it in such a way that the spirit can be present in the
midst of it: that the fire burns bright without any generation, anything in the
environment generating it. (2003, p. 162)
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NJOKI N. WANE & ERIC J. RITSKES
essential that we critically examine the impact of Eurocentric education and the
spiritual scars which emerge as a result of the indoctrination of learners into a
Western system of thought, as this is primarily what is valued in academia. If we
are to proceed in an ethical manner, we must interrogate the implications of an
educational system which reifies Eurocentric systems of thought, and a particular
method of generating knowledge. The insidiousness of privilege must be
acknowledged and challenging this must be thought of as part of the task of
introducing spirituality and holistic learning into the academy. Part of the privilege
of the dominant is that such ongoing connections between Eurocentric learning,
privilege, and the absence of spirituality are not remarked upon. Perpetuating
dominant frameworks on already suppressed indigenous spiritual beliefs is harmful
not only to the students but other educators (Potter, 1995, p. 73). As alternative
epistemological frameworks are widely rejected within academia, the outcome for
many students, especially those who come from a background where spiritual
knowledges are valued, is disengagement from one’s spiritual ways of
understanding and knowing the world. This results in epistemological dissonance.
Creative dissociation is a skill developed by many students to allow them to
survive the academic experience. It is these issues that we are evoking in this
anthology. Incorporating a spiritual paradigm would challenge us to recognize that
we are all connected in diverse ways and at varying levels of being and would
promote the re-valuing of diverse ways of knowing. There must be the recognition
that there are very real consequences to how we operate in the academy and in
society at large; in this way, we are held ethically and morally accountable for the
implications of our theorizing.
How then, do we incorporate and integrate the spiritual in the academy?
Spirituality has always been about inclusiveness; hence our practice needs to center
this. We do not want to perpetuate a hierarchy of values. Elsewhere Wane (2007,
2009) has indicated that there is no need to name our spirituality, however, we
should allow the space for it and provide space for students to define their
spirituality from their roots or religious backgrounds because the definition of
spirituality has to be open ended. What we are advocating is to have spirituality
included in the discussion, for the inclusion of voices and knowledges that have
been silenced. Some people may see this as moral or therapy work, but this is not
what we are pushing to have in the academy. It is allowing people to be authentic
to who they are and to their experiences. In this book then we are engaging with
questions such as: What is spirituality? What are the spiritual ways of knowing?
How do you situate yourself in the discourse of spirituality? What is your entry
point? What do you mean if you refer yourself as spiritual person? What factors
contribute to how you define your spirituality? How do you nurture the spiritual
self? What does spirituality entail? Why do we need to break the silence about
spirituality in education? How does being spiritually inclined help us in our work,
our research, our writing, our teaching? What would be the end result if everything
we did had a spiritual component in itself? What is the connection between
spirituality and learning; knowledge production; health; work; social justice;
culture; research; higher education? What do we mean when we talk of spiritual
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NJOKI N. WANE & ERIC J. RITSKES
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INTRODUCTION
spirituality through kototama (the “spirit of words”) can lead to the regaining of a
balanced mind. She examines the immense power of words and thoughts in re-
valuing suppressed knowledges and in re-valuing the spiritual aspects of students
which are inherently tied to language and indigenous knowledges. She warns that
spirituality is much like a knife, it can be used negatively to divide or harm others
or, if we use it carefully, as a useful tool.
In Chapter 7, “The role of spirituality in Maori and Tibetan villages”, Jia Luo
uses his research in Tibet to examine commonalities between the Tibetan and the
Maori response in indigenous communities towards the integration of indigenous,
mother-tongue education. He argues that notions of ‘quality’ must be evaluated
through the lenses of indigenous knowledge, spirituality and culture. He argues that
top-down development approaches to education are doomed to failure while
community driven responses will lead not only to maintenance of indigenous
traditions and languages but also to the enrolment and achievement goals that
policy-makers desire.
In Chapter 8, “The dialectics of Western Christianity and African spirituality”,
Akena Adyanga explores how spirituality and the related practices of healing,
sacrifices, and rituals are deeply rooted in the everyday life of the Acholi people of
Uganda. These practices and values have been devalued through Western
Christianity which has led to the destabilization of communities. Adyanga explores
to what extent syncretism is possible and the importance of indigenizing local
education systems as to value the community’s spiritual and indigenous practices
and knowledges.
Part four focuses on spirituality as intricately tied with personal experiences as
the authors explore meanings and implications of spiritual learning through the lens
of their own experience. In Chapter 9, “A spiritual journey in the academy: My
personal experience”, Energy Manyimo challenges himself to re-envision how he
conceives of African spirituality in the context of his spiritual journey as an
academic. He uses an Afrocentric and indigenous knowledges framework to
answer the questions: What is spirituality? Why is it important to practice
spirituality? When is it important to introduce spirituality in the education system?
How should it be introduced and by whom?
In Chapter 10, “‘My name in Mohammed but you can call me John’: Canadian
racism, spirit injury and the renaming of the indigenous body as a rite of passage”,
Aman Sium challenges the practice of re-naming and Anglicizing the names of
Indigenous people upon arrival in Canada. He shows the importance of naming in
Indigenous cultures and uses his own personal experience to show how the practice
of renaming is closely tied with policies of assimilation and racism and how it
results in spirit injury for Indigenous bodies. The relationship between renaming
and spiritual disconnection is explored in the context of Canada and the classroom
and explains why Indigenous people need to reclaim the history and past that is
represented in names and the process of naming.
In Chapter 11, “Holding relationships as sacred responsibilities: A journey of
spiritual growth and being”, Nadia Salter discusses how relationships are a vital
part of everyday life and how integrating spirituality into one’s life or educational
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NJOKI N. WANE & ERIC J. RITSKES
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INTRODUCTION
Many of the chapters in this book deal intimately with the personal and
experiential nature of spirituality. While there are certainly some who will decry
this approach due to a perceived lack of academic rigour or objectivity, what we
seek to highlight is the rich and valuable work that is to be done in exploring how
spirituality affects each of us in unique ways and in ways that allow us to approach
the work of transformation, both in society and in schooling, in new and powerful
ways. The goal of the book is to explore connections both to aspects of our whole
selves that have been suppresses and subordinated within the academy and also to
others around us.
This project, Spirituality, Education & Society: An Integrated Approach is a call
for the creation of an academic community which sees the value of spiritual
knowledges in creating communities where compassion, hope and love are valued.
It is in these places that transformation becomes possible and where learning
becomes a healing, sacred process rather than the dehumanizing, consumptive
process that it so often is today. When spirituality is valued both as a personal
pursuit as well as a form of connection and relationship, space is created for
communities who value diversity and inclusivity. Educators who use spiritual
knowledge value the power that is found in diversity. Hopefully, as you read and
use the texts found in this book, you are taken in by both the diversity of the voices
as well as the common message that they are advocating: spiritual knowledge is an
irreplaceable aspect of the whole self and, if we are serious about transformative
learning, we must engage with this aspect of all learners.
REFERENCES
hooks, b. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. New York: Routledge.
Tracey, D. (2002). Student spirituality and educational authority. International Journal of Children’s
Spirituality, 7(22), 171-182.
Wane, N. N. (2009). Black Canadian feminist thought: Perspectives on equity and diversity in the
academy. Journal Race Ethnicity and Education, 12(1), 65-77.
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INTRODUCTION
2
CHILDREN IN SPIRITUALITY DISCOURSE
thought, as it is one valid source of information, but it does not provide a platform
to discuss the spiritual aspects of children’s lives. It is essential that the whole child
be valued in discussions of spiritual development.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
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SUSANNAH COLE
4
CHILDREN IN SPIRITUALITY DISCOURSE
SPIRITUALITY
5
SUSANNAH COLE
6
CHILDREN IN SPIRITUALITY DISCOURSE
developmental theory illustrates that it does not value subjective and intuitive
thinking and is grounded in a specific set of assumptions about the mind that
reflect a Western, male scientific point view. Devaluing knowledge that is viewed
as non-intellectual, illogical, and irrational fragments our understanding of spiritual
development.
Piaget’s cognitive theory has been criticized at several levels – for the purposes
of this paper, I’ve chosen to focus on just a few. First, his theory does not
acknowledge that children learn within multifaceted sociocultural environments
(Rathus & Rinaldi, 2009). We cannot understand the spiritual nature of children
without an appreciation of diversity and the importance of reciprocal learning
between children and adults. Second, Piaget has presented his work in the form of
a stage-theory, which inherently requires changes to be discontinuous (Rathus &
Rinaldi, 2009). Yet, children have innate knowledge and their cognitive abilities
are continuously developing and growing as they are introduced to new
experiences. Finally, the theory fails to mention integrating these cognitive abilities
to reflect an appreciation of both intuitive and logical thinking. In fact, Piaget
believed that for children to be truly rational, their development needed to move
away from emotions (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1993). This belief is irresponsible
because an appreciation of children as spiritual beings is severely limited without
valuing emotion.
Spiritual ways of knowing delve into non-quantifiable domains related to
subjective, intuitive, and relational knowledge production (Shahjahan, 2006).
These domains are rarely discussed in current developmental psychology texts.
However, I have witnessed spiritual knowing in children and it is my belief that
spiritual knowing is the underlying source of cognition. Infants are born with
innate knowing and an ability to experience connection. Johnson (1999) suggests
that the roots of intelligence can be observed in an infants drive to seek and create
meaningful patterns and relationships. The connection between cognitive
development and spiritual ways of knowing is not a notion found in traditional
developmental theories. Through my own process of transformative learning I have
discovered several alternative perspectives of child cognitive development put
forward by Tobin Hart (2003), Alison Gopnik (2009), and Barbara Kimes Myers
(1997) that highlight spiritual ways of knowing.
Children show us the beauty of vulnerability with their honesty and remind us of
the simplicity of the moment when the mundane elicits awe (Hart, 2003). From the
moment of birth, children demonstrate empathy as they identify with the people
around them and literally take on the feelings of others. The roots of care and
compassion are evident early in our lives. Children have an incredible ability to
create and imagine long before they read and write. The touchstones for our
spiritual being are found in our childhood (Hart, 2003). Alison Gopnik (2009), a
psychologist and philosopher, believes that children are actually more intelligent,
thoughtful and conscious than adults. Children are not primitive adults gaining
perfection with age. They have different, though equally complex and powerful
minds, brains, and forms of consciousness. Children’s brains are wired to take in as
much sensory input as possible. They are capable of paying attention to everything,
which makes them successful at finding out about the world rather than just acting
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8
CHILDREN IN SPIRITUALITY DISCOURSE
SPIRITUAL EDUCATION
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SUSANNAH COLE
they are when we don’t make space for all their experiences. We teach them that
there is only one right way to live. Therefore, children progressively shut down and
hide parts of them that don’t fit with adult expectations, creating a ‘shadow’ (Hart,
2003). ‘Shadow’ can be described as the negative or undeveloped side of the
personality composed of characteristics people are denying (Earl, 2001). Hart
(2003) poignantly states: “shadow is created when we stand between ourselves and
our own light” (p. 179). Children don’t need to be rescued from difficult
experiences; they need a space that supports a range of experience. Neglecting to
address all the spiritual aspects of children’s lives sends them the message that the
most important aspects of their lives are not okay to talk about. It reinforces the
notion that life is about what we are told to know and not about what we know for
ourselves. Dei (2004) reminds us that when educators deny spiritual knowing,
either through a lack of awareness or an inability to engage with students on a
spiritual level, their teaching practices can become destructive rather than
liberating. Denial does not lead to wholeness; therefore, children who are restricted
in their expression are left without the support and encouragement they need to
meet their full potential (Hart, 2003). In accordance with my definition of
spirituality, I assert that spiritual education involves acknowledging and teaching
sacredness, respect, compassion, and connection.
I believe schools play a crucial role in shaping a child’s worldview, values, and
character through both visible and invisible means. Visibly, children are taught a
curriculum based on Western scientific principles that value logical reasoning and
emphasize individual achievement, competitiveness, materialism, and objective
knowing (Lindhom, 2007). Observable and measurable knowledge is highly
esteemed (Shahjahan, 2006). More dangerously, within the school system a hidden
curriculum reinforces compliance, competition, a single answer, and the notion that
authority and truth are found outside of oneself, in a teacher or textbook (Hart,
2003). Spiritual ways of knowing that include subjective and intuitive knowledge
are not acknowledged as valid forms of representation.
Western curriculum has become consumed with external variables and objective
solutions because these elements are easily quantified; whereas the internal realm
is often ignored or discredited (Palmer, 2003; Hart 2004). Shahjahan (2006) points
out that the view of the world as interconnected is made invisible and illegitimate
in our current education system. This leaves children with a feeling of emptiness
and a fragmented life that lacks purpose and meaning. In classrooms, students
often find themselves disconnected from the aspects of their lives that matter most
to them. What happens in relationships, the space between ‘you and me’, is often
lost in chaotic classroom environments (Hart, 2003). Theologian Martin Buber
wrote that “spirit is not in the I, but between the I and you. It is not like the blood
that circulates in you, but like the air in which you breathe” (as cited in Hart, 2003,
p. 67). This relational dynamic lies at the centre of our spiritual lives and forms the
basis for compassion and sense of community. To make space for this in the
classroom, teachers need to deepen their understanding of themselves and support
their students to do the same. Thomas Merton, a poet, social activist, and writer,
believed that “the purpose of education is to show a person how to define himself
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DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was
so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams
underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead
necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys
arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass
away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into
anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only
those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse
understand all about it.
“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by
side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it
mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
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CHILDREN IN SPIRITUALITY DISCOURSE
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that
happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play
with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you
are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by
bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes
a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily,
or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time
you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out
and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter
at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who
don’t understand.”
“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not
said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse
only smiled.
“The Boy’s Uncle made me Real,” he said. “That was a great many years
ago; but once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for
always.” (Williams, 1922, p. 1)
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Cognition and education (pp. 294-312). New York: Falmer Press.
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Mazama, M. A. (2002). Afrocentricity and African spirituality. Journal of Black Studies, 33(2), 218-
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Williams, M. (1922). The velveteen rabbit. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell.
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ERIC J. RITSKES
INTRODUCTION
An ever increasing body of work is emerging within the pedagogical arena that
explores the realm of spirituality and its implications within a classroom (Tisdell
and Tolliver, 2006; Groen, 2008), in curriculum (Fraser, 2004), for student
development (Love, 2001; Kessler, 1999; Hindman, 2002), or within the academy
as a whole (Shahjahan, 2006; Rendon, 2000). The emergence of this body of work
stems from what is perceived as an ever widening chasm that separates Western
education from the “whole person”, suppressing and silencing aspects of student
life that are important in the quest for a holistic education experience. This chapter
examines the definitions of spirituality that are emerging out of this Western
educational discourse and contends that the current definitions undermine the
collective power of spirituality by centering the individual as the sole locus of
spiritual determination in a sort of spiritual solipsism. The current discourse of
spirituality has been born out of resistance to organized religion and its coercive,
imperialistic endeavors but, in rejecting the organized structures of religion,
spirituality has engaged in the other extreme, namely Western liberalism and its
dogmatic emphasis on individual rights – throwing any notion of collective
spirituality out with the proverbial bath water.
I will argue that any definition of spirituality needs to acknowledge the value of
connection, as conceived in indigenous spirituality, as vital and inherent to its
being: a connection to all aspects of the self, connection to one’s community,
connection to history, and connection to a higher power or larger framework. It is
through this connectivity that spiritual power is constructed and spiritual resistance
is empowered and without it, spirituality falls prey to individualism and relativism.
Finally, I will attempt to elucidate some of the implications that such a
collaborative spirituality might have on the classroom and the academy. The
impetus for spirituality to be brought into the classroom is based on a desire for
change to how we educate, a desire to resist the current patterns of thinking and,
according to Kessler (1999), a desire for connection.
I come to this topic from a position of spiritual and mental struggle. Not only do
I struggle to locate myself within the discussion of resistance and spirituality but I
also struggle with the possibility of being able to locate myself at all. I recognize
and am aware of my full participation within the discourses of Western domination
that I am implicated in through my skin color (white), my heritage (European), my
religion (Christian), my gender (male) and my sexuality (heterosexual). I do not
posit these influences as something apart from who I am, in some sort of nebulous
“out there” (Howard, 2006), but recognize that I come from a position of
illegitimate privilege and who I am is embedded in domination. While not
overlooking the influence that these locations have on my work, I also understand
the difficulty of discovering how they influence my work (though undoubtedly they
do) as well as the challenge in locating what I have left unsaid; what remains
hidden is undoubtedly the most insidious. While I cannot escape these locations,
my work hopefully resists against these discourses from within them; as Dei &
Asgharzadeh (2001) clearly state: it is not possible to claim impartiality or
indifference and I do not choose to do so. As Budd Hall (2000) states in his preface
to Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts, “I can’t change my race or gender,
but I am able to shape my approach to my work” (p. xiv). My move or shaping,
then, is one of resistance. This resistance comes not in the form of the post-colonial
which not only falsely demarcates periods of oppression, but as Dei (2000) also
argues, post-colonial discourses disturbingly ignore the histories and lived realities
of indigenous peoples. So instead it is an anti-colonial resistance that I choose to
mobilize, one that seeks to challenge and ultimately bring down colonial
relationships within society through epistemologies of the colonized.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The anti-colonial framework that I apply to this chapter seeks to both affirm
indigenous ways of knowing while at the same time interrogating the intersections
of power and knowledge that are inherently imbedded in any type of knowledge
production. This framework also recognizes that knowledge does not reside in one
site or location but is produced as a result of multiple, localized lived realities and
experiences. This position avoids succumbing to the post-modern tendency to
oversubjectify individual voices or experiences and rather chooses to recognize the
value of individual experience within the framework of collective histories, as Dei
(2005) states: to see unity in diversity. Knowledge, then, is bound up not only in
the individual but also in the collective and communal identities, in recognizance
of the multitude of flows and cycles that occur in knowledge production. Not only
does this framework challenge how knowledge is created but also how totalizing
theories are used to simplify complex realities, choosing instead to focus on the
fluidity and flexibility of a discursive framework (Dei & Asgharzadeh, 2001).
I theorize colonial here, not strictly in its historical context nor as alien and
foreign, but more broadly as discourses and forces of domination, imposition and
exploitation. This approach does not seek to devalue, homogenize, or misrepresent
the unique qualities of the historical representations of colonialism that were
imposed on indigenous groups by Western nations but rather argues for more
nuanced approaches and interrogations of how different forms of colonial power
have been enacted in different ways, in different locations, in different times, in
different spaces, and how these might work in conversation with each other. There
is a caution here in creating an ‘umbrella’ term that veils the intricacies of its many
members but, in recognizing this danger, there must be the move away from
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homogenizing the issues and towards giving each colonized body a voice and
many allies to raise their voice in unison with. Not only this, but in eschewing false
dichotomies, an anti-colonial approach does not seek to set up the colonizer as
‘other’, aware of the dangers in setting up such dichotomies and recognizing the
spectrum and complexities inherent in domination.
In light of these complexities, resistance is viewed in localized ways and as
embedded within daily actions and choices, with the understanding that
“colonizing practices can be unending and deeply embedded in everyday relations”
(Dei, 2005, p. 273). An anti-colonial framework seeks to explore these various
manifestations of colonization to uncover similarities and differences that might be
of value in the resistance of and the dismantling of colonial powers. This approach
also seeks links and alliances between those who resist domination in different
forms (gender, class, race, disability, etc.) in an effort to explore how lived realities
are shaped by multiple forms of power relationships. It rejects any singular
approach to anti-oppression and supports solidarity in the struggle against the
multiplicity of dominations.
In seeking to affirm indigenous knowledges, of vital importance is to theorize a
‘working definition’. In constructing a ‘working definition’, an anti-colonial
framework recognizes the fluidity and ever-changing nature of knowledge while
challenging the Western discourses that seek to fix, categorize, contain and reify;
as Battiste (2000) argues, “The quest for universal definitions ignores the diversity
of the people of the earth and their views of themselves” (pp. 36-37). An anti-
colonial framework also recognizes that “at each arrival at a definition, we begin a
new analysis, a new departure, a new interrogation of meaning, new
contradictions” (Davies, 1994, p. 5). This process of arrival/departure, in relation to
indigenous knowledges, resists being defined by others which has too often been
the case as Western academies and discourses have tried to contain and define
indigenous knowledges and bodies in order to dominate and control them; it allows
indigenous people to define for themselves what ‘indigenous’ means.
In defining indigenous knowledges, too often the tendency has been to locate it
solely in the past and to fall prey to what Macedo (1999) calls a “blind
romanticism”. Locating indigenous knowledges in the past only serves to reify and
enclose, to position indigenous knowledges as out of sync with ‘modern’ times, as
a relic to be discarded for something better. Instead, I seek to define indigenous
knowledges along the lines of Dei, Hall and Rosenberg (2000) who not only
associate indigenous knowledges with the long-term occupancy of a certain place
but define it as, “The sum of the experience and knowledge of a given social group
[which] forms the basis of decision making in the face of challenges both familiar
and unfamiliar” (p. 6). Indigenous knowledges are dynamic rather than static,
constantly being created and re-created in the face of new obstacles, experiences
and locations, yet never losing what makes it ‘indigenous’. Indigenous knowledges
are created in relation to a specific location or place but, just as colonialism
uprooted indigenous peoples it also uprooted their knowledges which are
constantly adapting, creating, re-creating and persisting (Purcell, 1998). In falling
prey to a blind romanticism or static definitions rooted solely in past or place, not
only are indigenous knowledges reified but a false dichotomy is imposed in which
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We see our present with as little understanding as we view our past because
aspects of the past which could illuminate the present have been concealed
from us. This concealment has been effected by a systematic process of
miseducation characterized by a thoroughgoing inculcation of colonial values
and attitudes. (qtd. in Macedo, 1999, p. xv)
Institutes of education, sanctioned by the state, serve to further the agendas of the
state and social structures of exploitation (Dei & Asgharzadeh, 2001). This chapter
recognizes that education has been used to silence and subsume the voices and
knowledges of indigenous people, divorcing them from their histories; still it
chooses to view education as a key site of resistance, giving indigenous peoples
agency and power to resist even within systems of domination.
Finally, anti-colonial discourse is a discursive framework, a dialogue. It is a
process rather than an arrival. This is especially apparent as I struggle to attenuate
my position in this chapter; I am acutely aware of how little I know about what I
am doing and I echo Hanohano (1999) in stating, “[I am] begging your compassion
as I stumble on – for I don’t know anything” (p. 210). As Dei (2000) argues,
learning is not always about acquiring new knowledge but working with the power
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of not knowing, of revealing the knowledge that has always been within you but
obscured; hopefully this chapter works towards bringing this type of personal and
public revelation. Spirituality and the anti-colonial framework are also closely tied
to humility and I approach this project with the highest level of regard for those
who have ‘gone before’ and have struggled with the topic before me, as well as
holding the humble hope that I can add to the discussion.
This anti-colonial framework is particularly important to this chapter, not only
in its focus on epistemologies of the colonized but also in its understanding of how
all aspects of knowledge, from literature to politics to spirituality, come together to
create social understanding (Dei & Asgharzadeh, 2001). An anti-colonial
framework recognizes the power in struggle and resistance, as well as in
celebrating the spiritual aspects of life through art, literature and oral traditions, as
a way to move beyond a preoccupation with victimization as well as a way to
incorporate the language of hope. Finally, it recognizes the power of the
‘indigenous’ in creating and sustaining resistance to dominant forms, recognizing
the power of working with fluid and ever adapting definitions and realities.
DEFINING SPIRITUALITY
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reaching personal fulfillment. Spirituality could be the positive force to counter the
ills of religion.
This polarization of spirituality and religion is evident in society as a whole and,
as a microcosm, in schooling and the academy. There has been an explicit
dichotomization that posits spirituality as acceptable, personal, liberating, and as a
mature entity while religion is demonized as institutional, constraining and childish
(Johnson, Kristeller, and Sheets, 2004). Spirituality was born as a counter-
discourse or resistance to the hegemonic, restrictive reigns of religion but, in the
process, it created its own regimes of truth, its own definitions, and its own
dominant discourse (Foucault, 1978; Estanek, 2006) which not only appropriated
indigenous traditions into a ‘spiritual stew’ but, in defining itself through
individualism, silenced the voices of communities and other collective groups. Any
notion of collective spirituality was silenced through a discourse of individualism.
The emergence of spirituality as its own discourse has provoked a large body of
work that has struggled to define exactly what spirituality is: as Palmer (2003)
states, “Spirituality is an elusive word with a variety of definitions – some
compelling, some wifty, some downright dangerous” (p. 377). Most definitions are
understandably broad and abstract as they try to accommodate all varieties of
spirituality, attempting to negotiate the connections between religion and
spiritualityand yet facilitate a divergence. The common thread in these attempts is a
focus on the individual as a locus for ‘authentic’ spirituality. By placing the locus
of spirituality in the individual there is room to accommodate a multiplicity of
spiritualities, little need to come up with a clear definition of what spirituality
entails, and also a clear delineation from the congregationalism of religion. Bennett
(2003) states that spirituality is the organizing story or force of one’s life, Hindman
(2002) takes the approach that spirituality is who we really are inside, which agrees
with Chittister (1990) who argues that spirituality is what we are and how we act.
These definitions emphasize the individual and are in line with many of the
definitions emanating from recent research in spirituality (Rose, 2001; Love, Bock,
Jannarone, and Richardson, 2005; Palmer, 2003). To find an ‘authentic’ spirituality
one must be able to discover the ‘authentic’ self – the approach and direction is
inward. Personal spirituality is independent of other people and their spiritualities;
the histories, forces and discourses at work around the individual; and independent
of any realm outside of the core self. The primary concern is with moving inward.
This affirmation of individualism is in line with Western society’s move toward
secularization and liberalism. York (2001) defines secularization as a society-wide
decline of interest in organized religious traditions. As spirituality is freed from the
rules of religion it becomes a fluid and disparate entity. For Western society this
has led to an upswing in spirituality, as seen in the New Age movement which
views the individual alone as the “locus for selectivity and determination of belief”
(York, 2001, p. 366). Secularization and spirituality are in this way tied together in
promoting individualism in the model of Western liberalism. York (2001) goes on
to argue that this Western New Age spiritualism is an outgrowth of Western
capitalism (the ‘religious consumer supermarket’) and falls into the same traps as
Western liberalism in denying difference through individualism in effort to further
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INDIGENOUS SPIRITUALITY AS RESISTANCE
hegemonic culture. It was this culture of consumerism and individualism that has
led writers to explore spirituality as a cure or alternative in the first place, but
instead of escaping the Western hegemonic discourse they are merely reproducing
it within this new discourse of spirituality.
This self-dependence and individualism are not completely insular in that they
ignore any type of relationship but, rather, in that they place all relationships as a
secondary effect. It is only after a discovery of the authentic self that it is possible
to look outward to relationships in other realms; spirituality is “how I live at the
center of who I am. I live at a center with an image of who I am, how I am
embodied and in touch with the concrete …. My spirituality is the way I live at my
center … [italics mine]” (Johnson, 1983, p. 252). This spirituality has self at the
center of the formation and not until the self is uncovered can the individual
understand their relationships with the world around them. Schneiders (2003)
argues that this inward-outward thrust “implicitly defines spirituality as a private
pursuit for personal gain, even if that gain is socially committed” (p. 177). To put it
simply – spirituality as it is conceived here is limited by self; as Rendon (2000)
states, “I can make a difference for others only if I make a difference for me” (p.
11). As a private gain it is reproducing Western liberalism, secularism, and
capitalism within the discourse of spirituality.
The primacy of ‘me’ is connected to the search for an ‘authentic self’ or, as
Robinson (2004) calls it a “solid me” (p. 108). As alluring as it is to think that there
is something pure and discoverable within all of us, this argument ignores the
always ongoing construction and fluidity of self. There seem to me to be three
areas that need to be troubled in this search for the ‘authentic self’. First, the search
for authenticity promotes a spiritual hierarchy of “more authentic” and “less
authentic” which is inherently fragmentary and marginalizing rather than unitary.
Those who have ‘attained’ a certain level of authenticity can claim priority in
spiritual discussion and the voices of those who are ‘not spiritual enough’ are
silenced. Second, in the search for what is pure and innocent within us, the
multiplicity of forces and discourses that interact with us and through us are
ignored, especially in the ways that they might shape our journey or even our
“authentic self”. Third, in imagining such an authentic core, the self and spirituality
are seen as static, unchanging, and contained when, as I will argue later, this is
exactly the opposite of how we need to view spirituality. As our life experiences,
perceptions, feelings, and understandings of spirituality change, are we moving
away from our authentic spiritual core or is it rather a move towards spirituality as
a connected, fluid, uncontained identity?
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INDIGENOUS SPIRITUALITY AS RESISTANCE
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INDIGENOUS SPIRITUALITY AS RESISTANCE
are: connection to the elders who are the “repositories of knowledge from time
immemorial” (Hanohano, 1999), as well as connection to the ancestors that have
gone before. This connection to history is an important one as it actively
participates in the decolonizing project. Fanon (1963) examines how colonization
sought to distort and misrepresent the past, divorcing people from their histories.
Linda Smith (1999) argues that a vital part of the decolonization process is “about
recovering our own stories of the past” (p. 39). This spiritual connection to the past
through elders and ancestors is a reconnection to, or reclamation of, hidden
histories and obscured memories. I am not trying to position a sort of authentic or
romanticized ‘past’ that is the basis for validity but positioning the role of history
along the lines of Lattas (1993) when he states that, the past needs to be recreated
and viewed “as a way of formulating an uncolonized space to inhabit” (p. 254).
Longwood, Muesse and Schipper (2004) recognize the use of older mentors in
spiritual or religious development but the indigenous connection to elders is based
on more than a student/mentor relationship. Holmes (2000) looks at how land was
given voice through the elders, blood memory was kept alive, and heart knowledge
was expressed; all of these coming together to form an ancestry of experience. It is
this lived experience of those who have gone before which shapes our spiritual
self, as Holmes (2000) explains: it is through the elders that knowledge lodges in
the heart. Hanohano (1999) calls the elders repositories of knowledge from time
immemorial, Kirkness (2002) speaks of giving voice to the ancestors through the
knowledge of the elders, and Garrett (1996) sees elders as parent, teacher,
community leader, and spiritual guide. The elders then are important mediators in
spiritual connections and, subsequently, in knowledge production; as Holmes
(2000) describes in regards to indigenous Hawaiian peoples, knowledge is a gift
from a higher power which is then revealed and contextualized through
relationships.
Not only is there a connection to the elders but to those in the community that
have passed on. Dei (1993) and Mazama (2002) examine how indigenous African
cultures view life and death as inherently linked and how the ancestors’ role in the
community is to guide and protect the living. Mayuzumi (2006) looks at how
connection to the ancestors through the Japanese tea ceremony is how Japanese
women can connect with history and create and expand one’s spiritual space. Being
able to connect to common ancestors is also critical in symbolizing the social unity
of a community (Dei, 1993). This connection speaks to how the present cannot be
theorized without another dimension; it is never as simple as what you can see.
This connection is also vital in the resistance to Western ideas of time and
boundaries; those who have passed on slip in and out of the present, the past
experience actively informing the knowledge production of the present. Spirituality
is not only mutually inter-dependent with events in the present but also with history
as symbolized by the lived experiences of the elders and ancestors.
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Buddha nature, or Great Spirit” (p. 28) but, in the indigenous understanding, this
connection goes deeper than simply recognizing a higher power. It is recognition
that beyond the physical, knowable world is something larger than the conceptual
ordering of community and individuals, a world too full to talk about. This
connection highlights an awareness of an alternative framework that exists beyond
the tangible and scientific. Portman and Garrett (2006) show how Native American
peoples believe that all things are alive and have spiritual energy; everything has a
connection to this alternative framework which exists in balance with the physical.
This connection to higher mysteries speaks through silence, subverts traditional
modes of verification, can be felt through intuition, dreams or visions, and is
experiential. It is unquantifiable and ever-changing; the Great Mystery.
This connection is often understood and expressed through creative expression,
through songs and chants, proverbs and storytelling, rituals and ceremonies, again
pointing to the value of indigenous languages in these forms. Wane (2005) states
that rituals take us beyond our social locations and positioning to allow us to
interconnect at a higher level, as well as allowing us to move beyond the part of
self that wants to restrict possibilities. Portman and Garrett (2006) explain that
Native American traditional ceremonies are designed to keep the self in good
relations with those around them and with a higher power. Oral forms of
communication, such as singing, poetry and storytelling, communicate a
connection to something higher, another dimension that is not easily explained in
the words themselves and often the only way of expressing what is ‘unsayable’.
The spiritual connection is emphasized through the personal connections and
context of these oral events and narratives, as Lakota chief Harold Dean Salway
said, “You have a tendency to lose some of the spirituality when it’s down in black
and white” (qtd. in Barringer, 1991, p. 1).
This connection exists outside the realms of Western scientific discourses and
resists their ordering of the world through the traditional senses, adding a spiritual
sense. It also resists how history and knowledges are viewed, in that they are not
embedded in the text (the story, the song, the poem) but enacted upon through the
telling or the performance, they are both engaged in and derived from social
activity (Cohen, 1989). In the indigenous context, knowledge of the higher realm is
revealed through performance which acts as a bridge between the physical and the
spiritual dimensions. Not only this but rituals and storytelling explore the
intricacies of the community in ways that cannot be done otherwise, exploring the
interplay between personal and collective, the intertwining of spiritual and
physical, and the mixture of mythology and history. This spiritual connection to a
higher realm is always an exploration, always a process rather than an arrival, and
always shrouded in mystery; still, through its very denial of definable boundaries it
plays a role in resistance. Ward (1990) states, oral narratives and its listeners do not
“seek to construct from the text a unified meaning; rather [they are] attentive to the
text’s refusal to mean” (pp. 88-89).
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imperialistic discourses which seek to posit their knowledge as the only valid form.
Dei and Doyle-Wood (2006) see indigenous spirituality as an active and
“revolutionary spirituality” that is vital to the anti-colonial project. Spirituality is
not resistance simply as a defensive stance to hegemonic Western discourses but it
is also constructive, giving ways and spaces to explore power/knowledge
relationships through connections and working towards restoring the language of
hope. I do not seek to put forward a romanticized notion of resistance and struggle
for the sake of struggle; it is not a grand movement or popular uprising but a
collection of everyday choices that cumulatively and incrementally build for social
change. I also am aware of Foucault’s (1978) assertion that resistance is never
external to power and that there needs to be nuanced understandings of how
resistance works in relation to structures of power.
Weedon (1987) posits that everything we do is either in compliance or
resistance to dominant discourses and, consequently, how we perceive spirituality
is an important form of resistance. Through connectedness we resist the Western
liberal discourse of individualism that posits science and Western rationality as
primary. In choosing an indigenous spirituality of connectedness, we are creating
space for multiple ways of knowing, for a renewed understanding of the common
relationships that we share, and opportunities to interrogate why we see the world
as we do. Dei (2002b) states that spiritual knowledge “simultaneously upholds
‘objectivity’ to the subjective experience and similarly some ‘subjectivity’ to the
objective reality” (p. 7). It breaks down binaries and begs for more nuanced and
multi-faceted approaches to reality. Gearon (2001) clearly states, “A spirituality of
dissent resists easy assimilation into the systems of cultural representation … and
always presents a challenge to the systems which control such representations” (p.
296).
How can a spirituality of resistance be brought into a setting such as the academic
classroom where knowledge is closely controlled and validated through dominant
Western discourses? How can a spirituality that is rooted in activity and experience
make the transition to the classroom where learning is normally passive? Finally,
how can a spirituality that is connected to a wide range of forces move to the
Academy where knowledge is divorced from its connections and where knowledge
is commodified and individualized? These are the questions that arise when
resistance happens both ‘within and against’ dominant discourse and institutions
such as the Western academy.
Indigenous knowledges and spiritualities resist being labelled, reified and
corralled into a curriculum. The goal is not to learn about indigenous spiritualities
but to learn through them, to use them, and to embody them. Dei (2000) states,
“indigenous knowledges do not ‘sit in pristine fashion’ outside of the effects of
other knowledges” (p. 111); they are meant to be used as methodology rather than
be subject-ed to a book, lesson plan or discipline. The separation of spirituality
from practical application, schooling and other forms of knowledge only furthers
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INDIGENOUS SPIRITUALITY AS RESISTANCE
the problematic beliefs that spirituality can be sequestered or ignored as part of the
whole person. Through methods of indigenous spirituality, community and
connections can be encouraged and fostered, collaborative forms of knowledge can
be affirmed, space can be created for individuals to feel connected, and a greater
understanding of how spirituality can exist outside of the private sphere can be
built.
By talking about integrating indigenous spirituality in the classroom there is the
recognition that this resistance is still within the dominant discourses and systems
of education and is, in this way, limiting (Foucault, 1978). This has been a popular
topic among anti-colonial and anti-oppression scholars, can the ‘master’s tools’
dismantle the ‘master’s house’? Anti-colonial writers such as Fanon (1963) have
recognized the implications of setting up colonized/colonizer binaries that ignore
the complexities within them and to separate spirituality and indigenous
knowledges from the academy does the same. Dei (2000) calls the academy one of
the most important starting places for decolonization work, a place to lodge a
sustained critique of Western domination. I agree that to create spirituality and
indigenous knowledges as outside of the academy only serves to create rather than
dismantle binaries, yet this does not mean accepting the system as flawless; as Dei
(2000) poignantly puts it, it is not about “opening the ‘club’ to new members, but
rather, examining the whole idea/structure of the club” (p. 119). It involves looking
for ways to create a framework where knowledge can be created collaboratively,
multiple groups and individuals centered, and mutual inter-dependence affirmed.
I will put forward three ways in which I believe indigenous spirituality can be
mobilized and affirmed in a classroom setting to resist dominant classroom norms,
whether it be at the primary schooling level, secondary schooling or in institutes of
higher education.
29
ERIC RITSKES
connections and relationships that ground the learner to the larger historical,
political, and spiritual contexts (Dei, 2002). This interrogation needs to go beyond
superficial difference, that is often currently paraded, and towards examining
individual particularities. This is not to promote a fragmentation around
individualism or to succumb to relativism but to understand that individualism can
be explored within the context of connectedness and community. It is through
relationships that individuals are shaped and formed; we need to learn how to
explore these relationships in new ways that go beyond what we have done to this
point.
30
INDIGENOUS SPIRITUALITY AS RESISTANCE
31
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active, embodied learning which will challenge the system in place and allow space
for each student to ‘fit’ in their own way. Cajete (1994) looks at an indigenous
centered curriculum “Creative Process: The Centering Place,” that takes students
out of the traditional classroom and engages them with nature, history, philosophy,
community, mythology, and the whole self in ways that make the knowledge active
and alive. The students interact within the community and within nature in ways
that allow them to explore spiritual connections. Thinking of an active, embodied
spiritual learning will sometimes entail thinking outside of the box of the
educational system, of the classroom, and the assigned curriculum in an effort to
provide an inclusive education that centers each student and allows them to explore
their spiritual and whole selves.
Within the classroom, games can bring students together and help them grow
connections, art can help them encounter processes steeped in meaning and
mystery, and having students bring in objects that have spiritual meaning for them
to discuss with the class can be positive ways of promoting a connected spirituality
through embodied learning (Kessler, 1999). Stories and songs, both the process of
creating them and performing them, can help to convey the connections between
the spiritual and the physical. Collaborative projects of creation can show how
individuals work within the frameworks of community. These activities should not
be confined to ‘fine arts’ or ‘drama’ but can inform dialogue across the disciplines;
as David Hanlon (2003) argues, “History it seems to me can be sung, danced,
chanted, spoken, carved, woven, painted, sculpted and rapped as well as written
…” (p. 30). Wane (2006) describes a group activity that she does with her class
that involves collaboration and tangible examples of how colonial violence severed
and distorted tradition knowledges and realities. Cajete (1994) describes a process
where art, biology and mythology are brought together to allow students to explore
their connections to Mother Earth and the interplay of the elements through
painting, sculpting, journal writing, storying and other art forms. Active spiritual
learning cuts across the disciplines and refuses to be subject-ed.
CONCLUSION
The spiritual resurgence that we are seeing in the academy is important in being
able to produce an education system that allows for the participation of the whole
self but without the proper emphasis placed on connectedness this spirituality loses
its power of resistance and reproduces dominant Western liberal discourses of
individualism. Not only are we connected to individuals around us but we are
connected to history through those who have gone before, connected to larger
frameworks beyond what we can empirically prove, and connected to our whole
self. The beauty of bringing spirituality into the classroom is that there is no
formula or set method but an infinite amount of possibilities that are dependent on
the connections of the individuals within the class. There is no amount of reading
or learning on the topic of spirituality that can ensure students will emerge with a
greater understanding of their spiritual connections; when spirituality is used as a
32
INDIGENOUS SPIRITUALITY AS RESISTANCE
methodology what can be given to students is a space and the tools to use, if they
so choose.
Bringing a connected spirituality into the classroom is never simple as it
necessarily interacts with the messy world of reality; as Battiste (2000) states,
“Indigenous knowledge is the way of living within contexts of flux, paradox, and
tension, respecting the pull of dualism and reconciling opposing forces” (p. 42).
Spirituality is not intended to be separated from reality or to sit in “pristine
fashion” outside of other forms of knowing, it is meant to be used and to be
constantly created and re-created in context of each individual’s connections with
each other (Dei, 2000). ‘Working definitions’ and fluid boundaries become vital as
spiritualities interact and constantly create and re-create knowledges. It is in the
understanding of our mutual inter-dependence and our enactment of it that
resistance gains power.
A spirituality of resistance also moves away from the language of victimization
and negative criticism towards something constructive and creative; as Wane
(2008) recognizes, “It is imperative that I stop spending my time critiquing the
totalizing forms of western historicism and engage in the discourse of possibility,
where the missing voices and knowledges can be heard and validated” (p. 194). If
resistance is to be meaningful and sustainable it needs to stop constantly
responding to criticisms and critiques and to engage in positive ways with other
voices who seek constructive resistance, strengthening and building up alternative
systems of education, ways of viewing spirituality, and ways of knowing. This
involves sometime being quiet and listening to the multiplicity of voices and
experiences in each classroom. This approach is not asking educators to don the
proverbial rose-colored lens but to work toward empowerment through positive
construction, moving towards hope, and embracing possibility.
This chapter presents no definitive answers or strategies but, hopefully, rather
connections and possibilities to be explored further by teachers, administrators, and
educators. A connected spirituality encourages the spirit of exploration as we seek
to uncover the relationships that shape who we are and how we can positively work
within these relationships, resisting those that seek to dominate and encouraging
those that seek to promote peace and openness. The classroom is a vital space in
working toward spiritual understanding and in giving individuals a place to safely
explore the many connections that they bring to the community. We need to
embrace the complexity of these connections and struggle to create safe spaces for
exploring these complexities; this is the journey of a connected spirituality.
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