Exploring Spirituality and Culture in Adult and Higher Education

Preface

Part I: Breaking the Silence: Spirituality and Culture in Adult Meaning-Making and Education 1

1. Introduction: Culture, Spirituality, and Adult Learning 3

2. Breaking the Silence: Defining Spirituality in a Culturally Relevant Educational Context 25

3. Spirituality, Religion, and Culture in Lived Experience: Overlaps and Separations 45

4. Between the Cultural and the Universal: Themes and Variations of Spiritual Experience 67

Part II: Claiming a Sacred Face: Identity and Spiritual Development 89

5. The Great Spiral: Spiritual Development as a Process of Moving Forward and Spiraling Back 93

6. Gender, Culture, and Spiritual Identity in Midlife Integration 117

7. The Role of Spiritual Experience in Developing a Positive Cultural Identity 139

8. Searching for Wholeness: Crossing Culture, White Identity, and Spiritual Development 163

Part III: Spirituality in a Culturally Relevant and Transformative Teaching Practice 183

9. Approaching Transformative Teaching Grounded in Spirituality and Cultural Relevance 187

10. A Theory-in-Progress of a Spiritually Grounded, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Philosophical Underpinnings and New Directions 203

11. Stories from the Field: Spirituality and Culture in Adult Higher Education Classrooms 219

12. The Possibilities and Challenges of Spiritually Grounded, Culturally Relevant Teaching 235

Epilogue: Final Reflections 259

Appendix: Research Methodology 263

References 271

Index 285