Teachers taking spiritual turns: A practice-centred approach to educators and spirituality via Michel Foucault

• Published in: Educational philosophy and theory Vol. 56; no. 6; pp. 537 - 546
• Main Author: Low, Remy Yi Siang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 11-05-2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Ambiguity; Confusion; Coronavirus (COVID-19); Educational philosophy; Foucauldian analysis; Foucault; Foucault (M); Foucault, Michel; High school students; Interconnections; Pandemic pedagogy; Professional development; Religion; Religious Factors; Secondary education; Secondary schools; Spirituality; subjectivity; Teacher attitudes; Teacher beliefs; Teachers; Teaching Methods; Transformation; Truth; Australia
• ISSN: 0013-1857; 1469-5812
• DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2023.2252579

In the face of challenging circumstances, many teachers turn to spirituality for sustenance and strength. Yet spirituality's place in education and in educators' lives has long been a matter of confusion and contention, not least because of the ambiguity of the term in its common usage. What is its relationship to religion? And what defines it? In this article, I submit that the later work of Michel Foucault offers a helpful approach to spirituality that displaces those questions-drawing attention away from beliefs and/or attitudes professed, and towards the process of practical self-transformation that subjects undertake for the sake of a truth that is actualised in the body. To be spiritual in this sense is more a matter of what one does than what one believes or who one is. To offer a sense of why it matters in the lives of educators, I draw on the experiences of a San Diego high school teacher confronting interlocking personal, professional, and political challenges as a detailed example.