Overview

This collection of essays explores the mythopoetic and spiritual elements of a pedagogy that seeks to encourage ‘imagistic'  thinking and learning in order to enrich the more logical and rational world of science. In this context, learning is understood broadly to include the gaining of skills and information, intertwined with processes of personal and social change. For the scholars and educators from across Australia, UK and North America who have contributed to this volume, learning is never simply an isolated behaviour but rather a personal and social act in which morality and ethics are necessarily implicated. In this book, they explore ways in which learning can be enriched (or impaired?) by reflective narratives (the work of mythopoesis) and underpinned (or undermined?) by a cultivation of different forms of transcendence (the work of spirituality). The first chapters of this volume look at the links between spirituality, mythopoesis and learning, traversing questions of endurance of hardship, art, philosophy and spiritual conviction. The second series of essays explores the applications of spirituality and mythopoesis to learning in both formal and informal settings, and during various life stages.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1
Peter Willis and Anne Morrison

Part 1: Perspectives
2 De profundis: spirituality, mythopoesis and learning for hard times 15
Peter Willis
3 Shoes for the journey of life: art and mythopoesis 31
Rod Pattenden
4 A dialogue on love and curriculum studies 42
Timothy Leonard and Sam Rocha
5 The return of the gods: Heidegger and mythopoetic curriculum theory 51
Steven Hodge
6 The mythopoetic approach to belief in God: experience, imangination and faith 70
David Tacey
7 The mythopoetic character of religious belief 88
Robert Crotty
8 Slowliness: spirituality in a speedy world 104
Bernie Neville
9 Pursuing a deconstructive subjectivity in education: the case of equanimity meditation 114
Robert Hattam
10 Wyrd knowledge: towards an understanding of spirituality through reflective practice and mythopoesis 130
Cheryl Hunt

Part 2: Applications
11 Two teachers 149
Catherine Madsen
12 Disclosing self through essay writing: glimpses of ontological transformation 154
Maria Piantanida
13 Rhythm, ritual and reverence: practical spirituality in the Waldorf curriculum 166
Tom Stehlik
14 Engaging the heart and soul of our communities through community celebrations and gatherings 181
Julieanne Hilbers
15 Spirit place: being present in the land 197
John Cameron and Vicki King
16 In border country: connecting self, the other and spirit in transformative learning 206
Linden West
17 Being for the world: the mythopoetics of a mystical orientation 218
Jennifer Sinclair
18 Story giving birth to hope: spirituality and models of learning in Rachel's Vineyard Ministry 229
Peter Maher
19 Learning to die, learning to live: mythopoesis in the baby boomers' search for wisdom 241
Meg Hegarty
20 Let me tell you a story: an example of the mythopoetic in palliative care education 256
Margaret Byrne
21 In my other life I'm a shaman 273
John Knight