Church

Graham Rossiter*

REFLECTIONS ON ISSUES FOR CHILDREN’S SPIRITUALITY
AND PRIMARY SCHOOL RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Journal of Religious Education. 60, 3, 14-24.

Abstract
This is the third article in a series on children’s spirituality and primary school religious education. It is written not from expertise at the primary school level, but from a more general spirituality perspective. It is not a systematic review, but a reflection intended to raise issues and to promote further discussion on four areas:- The role of children’s imagination in learning; the place of story telling – especially Biblical story telling and Godly Play; interpretation of Scripture – especially the Genesis stories and the Gospel parables; and religious literacy. In each of these areas what is needed is a realistic and balanced interpretation of children’s spirituality that avoids the two extremes:- presuming spiritual activity that is beyond their age-related and psychological and mental capacities, but which can develop as they grow older; and a tendency to ignore or underrate the active involvement or agency of children in constructing their own understanding of spiritual and moral questions.

Introduction

This ongoing discussion of children’s spirituality and primary school religious education in Australian church schools was prompted by interaction with postgraduate religious education students on differences between primary and secondary school religious education. There is an evident coherence in the academic writings on children’s spirituality and religious education over the last decade. Much of it concentrates on psychological aspects (like awe, wonder, imagination, play, story etc.) making a valuable contribution to understanding the human dimension to children’s spirituality, complementing what has been written specifically about religious development (E.g. Adams et al. 2008; Berryman, 2009; Hay & Nye, 2006; Hyde, 2008; Nye, 2009).

While the

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