Exploring trauma, loss and healing: spirituality, Te Whriki and early childhood education

摘要

Attention to spirituality is proposed to be a means of restoring and supporting well-being in early childhood educational contexts. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, the spiritual dimension is included in the early childhood curriculum Te Whriki. This holistic approach to education supported research in three different early childhood settings: a Montessori casa, a private preschool and a Rudolf Steiner kindergarten. Narratives (re)produced from the qualitative case study data are included in the article to show that young children experience and overcome adversity in their early years. The discussion is framed by the cultural theories of everyday life and attention to philosophical perspectives that encompass the spiritual. Spiritual withness, spiritual in-betweenness and the spiritual elsewhere are introduced as spiritual and transformative spaces in these settings. This account combines research, theory and pedagogical perspectives. It describes the concept of everyday spirituality as an ameliorating factor in these stories of loss and recovery.