Barbara GiorgioAcademic Adviser ACU

About to be PhD Student Wollongong Uni

Psychologist-in-Training

Rehab

b.giorgio@mackillop.acu.edu.au

bag19@uow.edu.au

“VALUING” EDUCATION FOR FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS:

The Role ofConnectedness and Hope

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF A COHORT OF AUSTRALIAN

1st yr PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS

Abstract Plagiarism is a symptom of a systemic problem inherent in educational

institutions which becomes reflected in the behaviour of its population. Rather than a private moral issue, its psycho-social-spiritual roots lie deeply embedded within society’s ascriptions of meaning and valuing processes. Values has become just another catchall bag for institutions wanting to be seen doing the right thing and are being taken at face value, not as “lived experience”. Valuing is a process that issues from innate goodness. It is a guiding principle toward self and other, communal and world advancement. The current obsession with plagiarism highlights confusion about what is being valued and how meaning is being ascribed in the educative enterprise. Plagiarism as a lack of integrity signals a systemic lack of commitment to worthwhile personal, communal and global goals through an abandonment of spiritual self-care, care of other and of the environment, and a lack of responsibility for creating the future. When learning fails to be a spiritual endeavour and to have an altruistic motive, dishonesty accrues no personal moral censure. The problem is created through education’s fostering “the split mind” of the “verbal and unlived” mind of the university pitted against the “lived but typically unverbalised” mind of the individual (Paul, 1990). This conflicting valuing gives rise to public disengagement from the pursuit of a higher consciousness and the abandonment of a moral fixed point. The present study reveals the private valuing that students engage in which remains an untapped resource of enormous creative potential for education.

Plagiarism

Symptom of systemic problemBehaviour reflecting society’s

confused valuingLack of commitment to worthy goalsAbandonment of caring and

responsibility

Learning not spiritualNo altruistic motive

Academia’s “Split Mind”

(Paul, 1990)

“verbal and unlived” vs “lived but unverbalised”

conflicting valuing leads to disengagement from the pursuit of a higher consciousness through the abandonment of a moral fixed point

“recent research provides useful, if sometimes surprising insights into students’ values and behaviours and suggests guidelines for more effective policy and practice” (Dr D’Angelo)

The Study

Main Thesis the private valuing of students remains an untapped resource of enormous creative potential

~ a challenge for education

Day 1 “stealing information”, “protecting academic integrity”, “rules”, “cheating”, “vigilance”, “infractions”

Day 2’s keynote address: to treat educational integrity as a legal /administrative problem is “both inadequate and ultimately damaging to the academic values they seek to protect” (Dr D’Angelo)

Education like Medicine palliates - treats symptoms never eradicating causes

- plagiarism as a legal or administrative problem is about external “control” or “policing”

- punitive action for accidental infraction of petty rules

- missing the trees for the wood

- cutting down the plant, leaving the roots

- issue is what gives meaning and purpose to life - - valuing: innate goodness vs societal pressure

consumerist, materialist, impersonal, synthetic, superficial, now-focused, me-focused, diversion-addicted

age, illness and death-phobic

“Surviving Cancer” - a personal exploration of the theme

Theme: illness results from being

unable to find sources of meaning, hope, comfort, peace, strength and connection in life

“spiritual distress” `human and ecological abuse`disintegration of relationships `fragmentation of community `world order ever on the brink of chaos

THE PRESENT MID-LIFE VIEW“In a time when we possess more financial

wealth, material goods, and technological conveniences than ever before, we suffer from chronic stress and anxiety, information and choice overload, a decrease in perceived happiness, feelings of loss of control, deterioration in interpersonal trust and connectivity, and an epidemic of escalating depression”

Lombardo and Richter (2005, p.1)

A Model of Human Caring Educational Foundation of the Future

(Hoover, 2002)

» intrapersonal» interpersonal» environmental» global» transpersonal

Education for Future Consciousnessis a Spiritual Endeavour

Motivational Force:the need for deeper sources of meaning

• in the self before the other• in the self as other

Activating Principle:valuing

“Valuing” as process vs

“Values” as product

“tool kit” values approach

vs

complex, personalised process of ascription of meaning and purpose in life whose core

principle is adapting to change or “learning”

Ie. Education is Focused Learning

based on Implicit Valuing

“Valuing” as a process

• a present-focused outlook• a future-orientated vision • an on-going guiding principle • a personal commitment to self-

growth • a commitment to communal and

world advancement

The Present View of Youthto take us into the Future

Results of the research on Psych students re

• Are they spiritual?

• How?

• What do they value?

• So what?

Academics intellectually / emotionally resistant to

spirituality (Exline, 2002)

• “Spiritual caring” Anandaraja and Hight (2001): “compassionate presence, listening and encouragement of realistic hope”

McSherry, Draper & Kendrick (2002) • Spirituality - the search for meaning

and connectedness in face of isolation and the unknown

Every act arises from

- an evaluation of the significance of a phenomenon

- against societal values plagiarism is not dishonest

- Research shows personal valuing contradicting this

~ proving Paul’s thesis of “split mind”

“valuing” and the “philosophical mind”

• A mind which “…probes the foundations of its own thought, realises that its thinking is defined by basic concepts, aims, assumptions and values… (and) gives serious consideration to alternative and competing concepts, aims, assumptions and values…” (Paul, 1990, p. 450)

morality and call to goodness of fertile young minds “squashed under the weight of conflicting

valuing” as they are “socialized into un-reflectiveness” (Paul, 1990, p.451)

• Kezar and Rhodes (2001): education’s lacks rooted in disregard of the affective – ie. lived experience, moral character, critical reflection

• Constructivism - no stable reality accurately perceived nor one true interpretation

• -humans “actively and proactively, construct and construe the realities to which they respond” (Steinfeld, 2000, p.356)

• Yes, but according to their valuing

Sorokin (1954): love, the shared foundation of all human valuing

• Positive Psychology: Seligman (2000), Rotter, (2000), (Post, 2002) on love and altruism

• we know very little about unselfish love which transforms individuals, groups and societies into altruistic and creative members of a global family

• Rochford (2003, p.1) hope - “future-oriented” and “undefined”, “… turned beyond the world (of suffering) toward the coming of its end …to know incompleteness … to have faith in ultimate good” 

• antithetical to materialist “being-in-the-world” • “transcendent” - the highest part of the human is

spiritual, based on things unseen, to come

Transcendence - how we construct meaning and maintain integrity in face of

conflicting forces that create addictions fuelled by consumerist living

Seligman (2002) virtuous character: identification with reality or goal “beyond oneself”

Antithetical to individualism: works against finding meaning and purpose Lombardo & Richter (2005, p.46):

“Transcendence is anathema to our modern emphasis on the ego, self-gratification, and subjectivism –something beyond our private realities needs to become our center of gravity, our standard of truth and value …extreme individualism and egocentricity work against future consciousness”

Spirituality • Highest, most natural human quality “the most

human of the character strengths (involving) coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe and one’s place within it” (Seligman & Peterson, 2004, p.533; Boyer, 2004)  

• “Hopeful Intelligence” (Kelly, 2005) in a consumerist world “anticipates release into a fuller dimension of life along with spiritual freedom and personal responsibility. In the midst of suffering, death, failure, meaninglessness, fear and guilt, (to) find a transcendent and intelligent ground of the universe”.

The Study• 77 1st yr UOW psych students

predominantly young, female • spirituality relevant but not New Age nor

Traditional Christianity • rather, humanistic values • no religion, atheism or agnosticism • Hope (psycho-spiritual) rating ahead of

morality and conduct (behavioural) followed by peace and friendship (collectivist)

Spiritual Transcendence • the most relevant measure of existential

concerns • – not its dimension of Prayerfulness but

Universality and Connectedness• Beliefs about Spirituality correlate with

features of Spiritual Transcendence • ie. unity, connection, meaning and purpose, personal and global responsibility, a sense of goodness

Content analysis of open-ended responses to H O P E questions

Meaning and Purpose in Life come from:

• OTHER: Connectedness to significant others (50%),

• SELF: Reliance on personal qualities (20%),

and positive attitudes (13%)

• BELIEF: Religious beliefs (10%)

Instruments

• The Spirituality Rating Scale (McSherry, Draper & Kendrick, 2002)

• The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions Scale (Nasel & Haynes, 2005)

• The Spiritual Transcendence Scale (Piedmont, 1999)

• HOPE questionnaire ( Anandaraja & Hight, 2001)

Full Details of the Study Relevant to this Paper in Conference Proceedings

The HOPE survey results -locus of internal support is external to the self

found in relationship to others (affiliation), principally family, then friends

-corresponds to view of spirituality as “connectedness”

-personal qualities for internal support: positivity, determination, motivation, strength, self-worth

-external supports like sport, hobbies, nature

not important 

The greatest obstacle to education is the belief that spirituality has no intellectual

significance • Moral structures of the future require a profound

change in the conception of essential relationship • Relatedness needs to be taught along every dimension

of living as an understanding of the interdependence of all forms of life on the planet and a new sense of responsibility towards them

• At present, most relationships and therefore societies, are pervaded by power relations of dominance and submission. Authentic relationships are based on love not force (Kelly, 2005)

Summary of The Study• exposes the lived valuing of students which Paul

(1990) claimed goes unrecognised in universities. It highlights how they ascribe meaning and purpose to life in terms of what they rate as important. Inherent to the valuing process of this group is a “spirituality” that defines self in terms of its relationship to other while dealing with the world through their personal strengths and attitudes of positivity, determination and self-worth, and a transcendent vision of hope.

Conclusion

• insight into students’ valuing for more effective policy and practice

• an educative process that draws on, promotes and extends such valuing in every activity

• curriculum design, programming, assessment, evaluation seeded from the fundamental human question: What meaning are we giving this according to what valuing process? Without bringing back every rationale to its first causes, we can never hope to promote integrity

Future Directions

• If affiliation is shown to be prime valuing among the cohort studied, education’s task then is to foster, develop and extend this natural process toward a more other-centred “valuing” that enhances global citizenship, social responsibility and moral commitment. What and how they learn ought to reflect their natural tendency toward connectedness but in a direction of greater “otherness” and a sense of career and work as “service” based on their revealed personal strengths

Implications • Lombardo & Richter ( 2005); Seligman (2002);

Aristotle: evolve future consciousness through the focused development of a core set of character virtues

• -          this research shows students actively engaging in valuing and finding sources of meaning and hope in their personal lives,

• -          university mission statements do not acknowledge this

• -          course content and teaching approaches do not acknowledge and extend the fundamental motivations of students as “spiritual” beings

•  

Intervention

• Values and Spirituality (1 semester 6 credit points)

• a core assessable component of every first year university course

• inservicing of staff at your university or go to the source

• set of 12 Modules

Published by the Brahma Kumaris Educational Society

info@valueducation.comeduwing@bkmail.org

www.valueducation.com

• Developer: Denise@valueducation.com

Academy for a Better World

Theoretical ModulesModule 1 Introduction to Education in Values and SpiritualityUnit 1 Concept, Definition and Classification of ValuesUnit 2 Necessity for Education in Values in AustraliaUnit 3 The International Context

Module 2 Spirituality and ValuesUnit 1 How to Develop Spirituality and Values Unit 2 Challenges to Your Spirituality and ValuesUnit 3 Religion, Spirituality and Secularism

Module 3 Perspectives of the Major Religions in AustraliaUnit 1 Major World ReligionsUnit 2 Newly Developing Spiritualities

Module 4 Consciousness and “The Divine”

Unit 1 Perspectives on Consciousness

Unit 2 Perspectives on God, Supreme Power, Source of Values

Module 5 Meditation and Values

Unit 1 Forms of Prayer and Meditation

Unit 2 Positive Thinking

Unit 3 Emotional Maturity

Module 6 Values in Your Life

Unit 1 Values in Life

Unit 2 Social Integration

Unit 3 Value-Based Life Skill

Module 7 Personal development

Unit 1 Self-Mastery

Unit 2 Character Development

Unit 3 Why it’s Good to be Good and Bad to be Bad

Module 8 Values in Society

Unit 1 Empowerment for the Oppressed

Unit 2 Overcoming Addictions

Unit 3 Responsibility for the Environment

Practical Modules

Module 9

Manual for Personal Progress

Module 10

Field Project for the Development of Values

Module 11

Spiritual Retreat

Module 12

Sustaining a Values-based Life

Thank-you• Questions• Contact me after presentation for info• Copies of my two books on Surviving Cancer

through Meditation and The Healing Power of Spiritual Poetry

• available for $15 for both • Don’t have copies of Programme Modules- too

bulky to carry on train – must be ordered• VERY CHEAP AS PRINTED IN INDIA AND

produced by voluntary labour – NON-PROFIT