First presenters now published authors
Bianca Reynaud
Public relations assistant
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
Papers by the first Avondale academics to present at an international conference on children’s spirituality are now published in a book of the proceedings.
Barbara Fisher and Sandra Ludlow’s papers appear in the published proceedings of a conference on children’s spirituality. Credit: Brenton Stacey.
Barbara Fisher and Sandra Ludlow from the School of Education shared their research with delegates at the fourth triennial conference of the Society for Children’s Spirituality at Concordia University Chicago (River Forest, IL, USA). Their papers now appear in Exploring and Engaging Spirituality for Today’s Children: A Holistic Approach (Wipf and Stock, 2014).
Barbara spoke about a literacy program she has developed called Bible Reading 4 Beginner Readers. It is designed to “encourage five- and six-year-olds, both readers and non-readers, to interactively experience the Bible on a personal level.” In the book, Barbara notes the rapid decline among English speakers in Bible reading and biblical literacy. She argues that engaging with the Bible as a beginner reader will at our most impressionable age encourage a relationship with God.
Sandra’s contribution: applying contemporary early childhood theory and pedagogies to the process of “scaffolding” emergent spiritual awareness. She summarises the latest research on cognitive awareness, neuroscience, social emotional development and socio-cultural theory for children and the significant number of programs that foster a child’s spiritual awareness and relationship with God. Her argument: combining the research with these spiritual scaffolds is the most effective way of encouraging spirituality and a relationship with God in children.
Exploring and Engaging Spirituality for Today’s Children reflects a range of faith traditions and draws on four major themes: the theological and historical foundations of children’s spirituality; engaging parents and congregations; engaging methodologies; and exploring children at risk.