Journal article
How US Early Childhood Educators Understand Children's Spirituality: A Framework of Essence, Origin, and Action
Early childhood education journal
19 Mar 2024
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
This study explores in-service early childhood educators' understanding of children's spirituality. Utilizing the recently validated instrument, Early Childhood Educators' Spiritual Practices in the Classroom (ECE-SPC), responses to the question, "What do you understand children's spirituality to be?" were analyzed. Participants included 318 educators working in secular educational settings with children ages zero to eight years across 36 U.S. states. Findings reveal a multilayered understanding of children's spirituality. Through a grounded theory approach to data analysis using in-vivo codes in initial and axial coding, participants' responses were organized in a response framework comprised of three main categories of understanding spirituality: (1) as Essence in itself (f 208), (2) as its place of Origin (f 122), and (3) as Actions in relation to others or as ways in which it is practiced (f 86). This framework contributes to constructing a shared understanding of children's spirituality to build efforts toward promoting holistic development and intentionally nurturing the spiritual domain.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- How US Early Childhood Educators Understand Children's Spirituality: A Framework of Essence, Origin, and Action
- Creators
- Jennifer Mata-McMahon - University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyMichael J. Haslip - Drexel UniversityShahin Hossain - University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- Publication Details
- Early childhood education journal
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001187380600001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105001080657
- Other Identifier
- 991021893695404721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Education & Educational Research