Cultivating the Spirit E-Book

Alexander W. Astin

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 349

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Cultivating the Spirit THIS GROUNDBREAKING WORK IS BASED on a five-year study of how students change during the college years and the role college plays in facilitating the development of their spiritual qualities. Students, the authors argue, grapple with the big questions in life: Who am I? What are my values? Do I have a mission in life? Why am I in college? What kind of person do I want to be? What sort of world do I want to help to create? Their answers to these questions help determine their academic and career choices and are tied to the development of personal qualities such as empathy, caring, and social responsibility. The study finds that, while students' religious engagement declines during college, at the same time they become substantially more caring, tolerant, connected with others, and actively egaged in a spiritual quest. Spiritual growth also enhances academic performance, leadership development, and satisfaction with college. The study provides strong evidence pointing to specific experiences during college that can contribute to students' spiritual growth. The need for spiritual development in college is apparent. Two-thirds of the students in the study express a strong interest in spiritual matters, well over half report that their professors never encourage discussions of religious or spiritual matters, and about the same proportion report that professors never provide opportunities to discuss the purpose and meaning of life. Cultivating the Spirit aims to raise the awareness of academic administrators, faculty, and the public at large to the vital role that spirituality plays in student learning and development. Throughout the book, the authors identify strategies for enhancing students' development and encourage the academy to give greater priority to the spiritual aspects of students' educational and personal development.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE - WHY SPIRITUALITY MATTERS

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “SPIRITUALITY”?

SPIRITUALITY AND HIGHER EDUCATION

SPIRITUALITY AND THE GLOBAL SOCIETY

THE STUDY

THE STORY

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

CHAPTER TWO - ASSESSING SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS QUALITIES

TWELVE CONTENT AREAS, OR DOMAINS

DEVELOPING MEASURES OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGIOUSNESS

THE LONGITUDINAL STUDY

MEASURES OF SPIRITUALITY

MEASURES OF RELIGIOUSNESS

DEFINING HIGH AND LOW SCORES ON MEASURES

MEASURES IN CONTEXT

CHAPTER THREE - SPIRITUAL QUEST

CONCEPTUALIZING SPIRITUAL QUEST

DEVELOPMENT OF SPIRITUAL QUEST DURING THE UNDERGRADUATE YEARS

DEMOGRAPHIC DIFFERENCES

IMPACT OF COLLEGE ON STUDENTS’ SPIRITUAL QUESTING

SUMMARY

CHAPTER FOUR - EQUANIMITY

MEASURING EQUANIMITY

EQUANIMITY IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

FACILITATORS OF EQUANIMITY

IMPEDIMENTS TO EQUANIMITY

SUMMARY

CHAPTER FIVE - SPIRITUALITY IN PRACTICE

ETHIC OF CARING

ECUMENICAL WORLDVIEW

CHARITABLE INVOLVEMENT

EFFECT OF COLLEGE EXPERIENCES

SUMMARY

CHAPTER SIX - THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

MEASURES OF RELIGIOUSNESS

CHANGES IN RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT

RELIGIOUS ENGAGEMENT

RELIGIOUS/SOCIAL CONSERVATISM

ROLE OF DENOMINATIONAL PREFERENCE

ROLE OF COLLEGE TYPE

SUMMARY

CHAPTER SEVEN - RELIGIOUS STRUGGLE AND SKEPTICISM

RELIGIOUS STRUGGLE

EVOLUTION OF RELIGIOUS STRUGGLE DURING COLLEGE

ROLE OF COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

RELIGIOUS SKEPTICISM

COLLEGE EXPERIENCES THAT AFFECT SKEPTICISM

SUMMARY

CHAPTER EIGHT - HOW SPIRITUAL GROWTH AFFECTS EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

IMPACT OF SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS GROWTH ON COLLEGE OUTCOMES

IMPACT OF COLLEGE EXPERIENCES ON OUTCOMES

ROLE OF FACULTY

SUMMARY

CHAPTER NINE - HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

PROFESSORIAL PERSPECTIVES AND CURRICULAR EFFORTS

WHY SPIRITUALITY MATTERS: A SECOND LOOK

WHAT PROMOTES SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT?

WHAT IS POSSIBLE?

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX - STUDY METHODOLOGY

NOTES

REFERENCES

INDEX

“This book challenges us to look where we have been reluctant to gaze and to engage with the most central features of student thoughts and commitments. I can only hope that the publication of this work will encourage many others to pursue these questions. We owe the distinguished authors our deep gratitude.”

—Lee S. Shulman, president emeritus, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus, Stanford University

“This scholarly work, anchored in ground breaking research, is MUST reading for administrators, faculty members, and student development professionals who believe that higher education should reach beyond professional and vocational preparation.”

—Arthur W. Chickering, special assistant to the president, Goddard College, author, Education and Identity, and coauthor, Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education

“Cultivating the Spirit offers a rich basis for the reframing of the curriculum and college life. The book is full of surprises even for the most knowledgeable of faculty and deans. A landmark book!”

—Claire Gaudiani, former president, Connecticut College, and author, Generosity Unbound and The Greater Good

“This book should be read by educators, parents, students, policy-makers, funding agencies everywhere, and by everyone interested in designing education in a more coherent, connected, and less fragmented way. The research and findings here will guide the future of higher education to create more compassionate, caring, and complete human beings to be leaders for the multidimensional challenges of the 21st century.”

—David Scott, former chancellor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“Cultivating the Spirit is destined to become a classic. It is the kind of ground-breaking and definitive research we have come to expect from the Astins and their colleagues, and it should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in student development during college.”

—Ernest T. Pascarella, professor and Mary Louise Peterson Chair in Higher Education, University of Iowa, and coauthor, How College Affects Students

“A meticulously researched study of the role of college education in nurturing students’ spiritual lives. This visionary book returns values like personal integration, social commitment, and aesthetic appreciation to the center of the college enterprise.”

—Reverend Scotty McLennan, dean for religious life, Stanford University, and author, Finding Your Religion

Copyright © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Portions of Chapter Two are taken from A. W. Astin, H. S. Astin, and J. A. Lindholm, “Assessing students’ spiritual and religious qualities,” Journal of College Student Development, in press. Reprinted with permission from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA), at the Center for Higher Education, One Dupont Circle, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Portions of Chapter Four are based on A. W. Astin and J. P. Keen, “Equanimity and spirituality,” Religion and Education, 33(2) (Spring 2006): 1-8.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Astin, Alexander W.

Cultivating the spirit : how college can enhance students’ inner lives / Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, Jennifer A. Lindholm.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-76933-1 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-470-87569-8 (ebk.) ISBN 978-0-470-87570-4 (ebk.) ISBN 978-0-470-87571-1 (ebk.)

1. College students—Psychology. 2. College students—Religious life—United States. 3. Self-actualization (Psychology)—Religious aspects. I. Astin, Helen S., 1932- II. Lindholm, Jennifer A., 1968- III. Title.

LB3609.A78 2010

378.1’98019—dc22

2010028491

HB Printing

To our granddaughters, Erin, Amalia, and Ila

—Alexander Astin and Helen Astin

To Mom, Cooper, and Bentley

—Jennifer Lindholm

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Psychologist Alexander W. Astin is the Allan M. Cartter Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, Emeritus, at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also the founding director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA and the author of twenty-one books and more than four hundred other publications. His research and writing in the field of higher education has earned him awards from thirteen different national associations.

Readers of Change magazine voted Dr. Astin as the person “most admired for creative, insightful thinking” in the field of higher education. A study in the Journal of Higher Education identified him as the most frequently cited author in the higher education field, and his book Four Critical Years as the most frequently cited book in the field. Astin has lectured at more than 250 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad, served as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, been elected to membership in the National Academy of Education, and is the recipient of eleven honorary degrees.

Helen S. Astin, a psychologist, is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Higher Education and Senior Scholar in the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. She has served as the associate provost of the College of Letters and Science at UCLA and as director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women. Dr. Astin is a trustee of Mount St. Mary’s College and has served as a trustee of Hampshire College. In the American Psychological Association she has been president of the Division of the Psychology of Women.

Astin is a recipient of the Distinguished Research Award of Division J of the American Educational Research Association and the Howard Bowen Distinguished Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Her research and writings have focused on issues of equity and inclusion with a special emphasis on gender inequities, leadership, the faculty reward structure, and spirituality. Among her books are Women of Influence, Women of Vision; Human Resources and Higher Education; The Woman Doctorate in America; Higher Education and the Disadvantaged Student; and Some Action on Her Own: The Adult Woman and Higher Education.

Jennifer A. Lindholm is special assistant to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at UCLA and director of the Spirituality in Higher Education project. From 2001 to 2006 she served as associate director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute and as director of the institute’s Triennial National Faculty Survey. Dr. Lindholm also served as visiting professor of higher education and organizational change in UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.

Lindholm’s publications focus on the structural and cultural dimensions of academic work; the career development, work experiences, and professional behavior of college and university faculty; issues related to institutional change; and undergraduate students’ personal development.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is based on a seven-year study very generously supported by the John Templeton Foundation. We are especially grateful to Arthur Schwartz, formerly executive vice president at the foundation, who approached us eight years ago with the idea of undertaking this national study of students’ search for meaning and purpose. Thank you, Arthur, for your enormous support and early guidance in conceptualizing the study and for challenging us to think critically, creatively, and expansively. Kimon Sargeant, vice president of human sciences, has served as the foundation’s project officer over the past four years. We appreciate his trust in us and his willingness to be a supportive facilitator of this work. We also appreciate the interest and support of Pamela Thompson, vice president of communications.

From the start, we were fortunate to have two groups of advisors: a Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) of scholars in the field of religion and spirituality and a National Advisory Board (NAB) that included national leaders from the field of higher education. From the TAP we owe a special debt of gratitude to John Astin, Arthur Chickering, Peter Hill, Ellen Idler, Cynthia Johnson, Mike McCullough, Scotty McLennan, Ken Pargament, and Christian Smith for their help and wise counsel through all stages of the project. Members of our NAB, including Rebecca Chopp, James Fowler, Claire Gaudiani, Nathan Hatch, Arthur Levine, Carol Geary Schneider, David Scott, Huston Smith, Beverly Tatum, Diana Chapman Walsh, and William Willimon, not only served as sounding boards but also provided helpful advice at crucial stages of the work.

We also want to thank Ken Wilber for several helpful suggestions concerning the design of our pilot survey instrument. David Brightman, senior editor at Jossey-Bass, was very helpful in expediting the review and production of our manuscript. Our copy editor, Jeffrey Wyneken, also made a number of very helpful suggestions. Throughout the study we have worked closely with colleagues at Widmeyer Communications, who helped in many ways to communicate our findings to the larger public and to make our project more visible nationally.

During all phases of the project we have also been very fortunate to have worked with a number of very talented graduate students from UCLA’s Higher Educational and Organizational Change program: Alyssa Bryant, Shannon Calderone, Christopher Collins, Estella Gutierrez-Zamano, Jennifer Mallen, Kyle McJunkin, Lisa Millora, Nida Denson, Julie Park, Leslie Schwartz, Hanna Song Spinosa, and Katalin Szelényi. Their help in virtually all phases of this project has been critical, and they will all remain our friends and colleagues. Our heartfelt thanks to all of you and our warmest best wishes as you continue your careers as teachers, scholars, and higher education professionals.

The administration and staff of the Higher Education Research Institute and the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies have also been an important part of the success of this study. Special thanks to Kit Mahoney, Carmen Kistner, Mary Rabb, Thomas Rimbach, and Anna Pearl for their loyalty and critical assistance with the many administrative aspects of this project. Kathy Wyer was also very helpful in providing us with critical editorial assistance in the preparation of this book. Thank you, Kathy, for your sharp eye, wise suggestions, enthusiasm, and overall support.

Finally, we want to express our deepest gratitude to all the institutions and especially to the students and faculty who participated in the study. Without your thoughtful responses to our surveys and interviews, this study would not have been possible.

CHAPTER ONE

WHY SPIRITUALITY MATTERS

This book is about the spiritual growth of college students. It is based on a seven-year study of how students change during the college years and the role that college plays in facilitating the development of their spiritual qualities.

Our primary reason for undertaking this study has been our shared belief that spirituality is fundamental to students’ lives. The “big questions” that preoccupy students are essentially spiritual questions: Who am I? What are my most deeply felt values? Do I have a mission or purpose in my life? Why am I in college? What kind of person do I want to become? What sort of world do I want to help create? When we speak of students’ “spiritual quest,” we are essentially speaking of their efforts to seek answers to such questions.

How students deal with these questions has obvious implications for many very practical decisions that they will have to make, including their choices of courses, majors, and careers, not to mention whether they opt to stay in college or drop out and whether they decide to pursue postgraduate study. Seeking answers to these questions is also directly relevant to the development of personal qualities such as self-understanding, empathy, caring, and social responsibility.