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Educational contexts for the development of children’s spirituality: exploring the use of imagination

As a Chaplain working in the Anglican school system in Melbourne, Australia, my concern is with the spiritual development of students. This year I have been trialing the educational application of activities used in creative arts therapy. Continuing the theme of my recent doctoral studies in children’s spirituality, I am concerned that education should have a more holistic emphasis, where the experiences and creative imagination of children are valued. Creative arts activities engage children in learning that is intimately related to spiritual development, involving self‐understanding, understanding relationships, wider environmental connectedness and connection with the divine. This paper gives a brief theoretical base and two educational case studies to illustrate the use of imagination in spiritual development. The cases are taken from the religious education curriculum, but it is proposed that other subjects could also be used in this way. The first case study reports on the response of a year 8 class to the question ‘What do we do with jealousy?’ (25 students aged 12 years)—an emotional inquiry. The second study is an end‐of‐year activity for year 7 students, concerned with social bonding (21 students aged 11 years)—a social inquiry. This is a work in progress using the MIECAT (Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy) research method, as part of a master’s program.