8: The Mystery of Spirit: Implications for Integrating a Spiritual Perspective in Secular Education

This chapter addresses how educators can integrate a spiritual perspective in secular education, providing guidelines for nurturing a healthy development in students. The emphasis of this chapter is a spiritual perspective versus a contemplative approach. Contemplative approaches are typically based on research-based approaches linked to improvements in achievement, positive affective factors, and other improvements in student’s learning. The integration of these approaches in the educational process is a positive development; however, my view is that a significant component of a spiritual perspective in holistic education should be a focus on transformation of Being. This chapter explores a few approaches for facilitating transformative spiritual growth that are appropriate for a secular setting. The concept of transformation understood as a spiritual process will be introduced, then three general topics will be discussed: the Mystery of Spirit, building a foundation for adult spiritual growth, and the need for inner work.