Abstract
The shifting religious and spiritual topography of the United States shows that while Christians are the dominant religious group, the population experienced a striking decline (7.8%) between 2007 and 2014; all the while, non-dominant religious groups experienced an increase (1.2%) in the same period (Masci D, Lipka M. Americans may be getting less religious, but feelings of spirituality are on the rise. Pew Research Center, 2016). Other significant changes have included the rise (6.7%) in persons identifying as religiously unaffiliated (e.g., agnostic, atheist, or no designation), declining religiosity, and an increasing sense of spirituality (Masci D, Lipka M. Americans may be getting less religious, but feelings of spirituality are on the rise. Pew Research Center, 2016). A related phenomenon, though not prima facie, is the groundswell of social justice and resistance movements across the landscape of US higher education. Western systems of knowledge production often reinforce a perceived “natural” logic that delinks religiosity, spirituality, and social justice. For some communities of color and people from minoritized social groups, perpetuating the disconnection of religiosity, spirituality, and social justice work may reflect an “apartheid of knowledge” (Bernal DD, Villalpando O, Equity Excell Educ 35(2): 169–180, 2002) that erases whole swaths of life and inhibits the production of knowledge under the veneer of scientific knowledge. This study will explore how spiritually engaged justice workers negotiate the nexus of their religious and/or spiritual communities and social justice work in systems of higher education. The project explores two broad questions: (a) In what ways does participation in a spiritual community facilitate and/or impede doing social justice work in higher education? (b) Secondly, what abilities, contacts, knowledge, practices, resources, and skills do participants cultivate in their spiritual communities that they find useful to their social justice work in higher education?
In this chapter, I will foreground the perspectives of justice workers who negotiate US systems of higher education while ascribing to religious and/or spiritual traditions that have roots in the Asia Pacific region and denote a broad spectrum of belief and practice (e.g., Bahá’í, Buddhist, Yoga, etc.). As an African-descended, spiritually engaged Christian activist, and Black woman in the United States, I bring womanist discursive lenses to explore the role of belief, spirituality, and religion in the justice work of faculty and administrators in US higher education institutions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
I utilize the terms emancipatory struggle, social justice work, and resistance synonymously in the chapter.
References
Antonio, A. L. (2002). Faculty of color reconsidered: Reassessing contributions to scholarship. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(5), 582–602.
Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The new Mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Auntlute Press.
Astin, A. W. (2004). Why spirituality deserves a central place in liberal education. Liberal Education, 90(2), 34–41.
Bernal, D. D., & Villalpando, O. (2002). An apartheid of knowledge in academia: The struggle over the “legitimate” knowledge of faculty of color. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 169–180.
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought in the matrix of domination. In P. H. Collins (Ed.), Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and politics of empowerment (pp. 221–238). Boston: Unwin Hyman.
Dei, G. J. S., & Asgharzadeh, A. (2001). The power of social theory: The anti-colonial discursive framework. Journal of Educational Thought, 35(3), 297–323.
Dillard, C. B. (2006). On spiritual strivings: Transforming an African American woman’s academic life. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Dillard, C. B. (2012). Learning to (re)member the things we’ve learned to forget: Endarkened feminisms, spirituality, and the sacred nature of research and teaching. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Estanek, S. M. (2006). Redefining spirituality: A new discourse. College Student Journal, 40(2), 270–281.
Giroux, H. (1992). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. New York: Routledge.
Hafner, M., & Capper, C. (2005). Defining spirituality: Critical implications for the practice of educational leadership. Journal of School Leadership, 15, 624–638.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.
LA Sacred Resistance. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.lasacredresistance.org/
Lindholm, J. A. (2007). Spirituality in the academy: Reintegrating our lives and the lives of our students. About Campus, 12(4), 10–17.
Lindholm, J. A., & Astin, H. S. (2006). Understanding the “interior” life of faculty: How important is spirituality? Religion and Education, 33(2), 64–90.
Masci, D., & Lipka, M. (2016). Americans may be getting less religious, but feelings of spirituality are on the rise. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
Rendón, L. I. (2000). Academics of the heart: Reconnecting the scientific mind with the spirit’s artistry. The Review of Higher Education, 24(1), 1–13.
Rendón, L. I. (2005). Recasting agreements that govern teaching and learning: An intellectual and spiritual framework for transformation. Religion & Education, 32(1), 79–108.
Rendón, L. I. (2009). Foreword by mark Nepo. Sentipensante pedagogy: Educating for wholeness, social justice, and liberation. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Roemer, M., & Sharma, V. (1993). Book review. Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education by Henry Giroux. The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 26(1), 82–85.
Shahjahan, R. A. (2010). Toward a spiritual praxis: The role of spirituality among faculty of color teaching for social justice. The Review of Higher Education, 33(4), 473–512.
Tisdell, E. (2000). Spirituality and emancipatory adult education in women adult educators for social change. Adult Education Quarterly, 50, 308–335.
Tisdell, E. (2003). Exploring spirituality and culture in adult and higher education. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Verter, B. (2003). Spiritual capital: Theorizing religion with Bourdieu against Bourdieu. Sociological Theory, 21(2), 150–174.
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91.
Young, I. M. (1990). Politics of difference: Five faces of oppression. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Zine, J. (2004). Creating a critical faith-centered space for antiracist feminism: Reflections of a Muslim scholar-activist. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 20(2), 167–187.
Zohar, D. (2010). Exploring spiritual capital: An interview with Danah Zohar. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://spirituality.ucla.edu/docs/newsletters/5/Issue_5/Zohar_Final.pdf
Zohar, D., & Marshall, I. (2000). SQ: Spiritual intelligence, the ultimate intelligence. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Zohar, D., & Marshall, I. (2004). Spiritual capital: Wealth we can live by. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jones Jolivet, T.L. (2019). Spirituality and Emancipatory Struggle in Higher Education. In: Jun, A., Collins, C. (eds) Higher Education and Belief Systems in the Asia Pacific Region. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 49. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6532-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6532-4_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6531-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6532-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)