ABSTRACT
The terms ‘meaning’, ‘connectedness’, ‘moral and/or spiritual values’ and ‘resilience’ have begun to appear at regular intervals, both in Australia and at the international level, in various reports on health and well-being, suicide prevention and on children and communities at risk.1 However, while Britain and other western countries have incorporated, to varying extents, some understandings of spirituality into the educational context,2 the secular character of Australian society creates a serious barrier to any recognition that spirituality may have a role in the educational process since, for many, spirituality and religion are seen as synonymous, or certainly, very closely intertwined. As such, Australian educational policies and documents tend to skirt
around any language that may have spiritual connotations. Instead there has been some discussion of the place of resilience and values in education3 without any acknowledgement that these elements may, indeed, be expressions of or outcomes linked to the spiritual dimension of the individual’s life in terms of the layers of connectedness s/he may feel to the Other in their community, in the wider world and creation and, possibly, also to a Supreme Power/Being, that is the spiritual dimension (see de Souza, 2003b, 2004). Further, the need for these layers of connectedness to be nurtured and given expression in the contemporary world where few countries can live in isolation or ignorance of the global context has not been clearly articulated or recognized.
