Spiritual and Moral Development in Schools

Citation

Davies, B. (2009), "Spiritual and Moral Development in Schools", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 23 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem.2009.06023gae.003

Spiritual and Moral Development in Schools

Article Type: Book reviewes From: International Journal of Educational Management, Volume 23, Issue 7

John West-Burnham and Vanessa Huws JonesNetwork Continuum2007ISBN 978-1-85539-138-3

It is always a challenge to have joint authors to see if the reader can see the join. In this book you clearly can. The Part 1 reads like “all I have ever read about learning and education” with enormous amounts of quotes to demonstrate this, which somewhat spoils the use of the book. The Part 2 is a statement of practice which is at times a statement of the obvious. This is followed by an unoriginal case study in Part 3. What about the central theme of the book?

Schools are required by law to promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development but this is not by chance. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is crucial for individual pupils and it is crucial for society as a whole. Most teachers would see it as the heart of what education is all about – enabling pupils to grow and develop as people. The authors see spiritual and moral development at the heart of being an educated person. The aim of Part 1, is designed “ to provide a background on the key themes” this is achieved as it sets out the principles for the practical section of the book and provides much to think about. However, the chapters on deep learning, community and happiness while thought provoking could be in any book on effective learning, not necessarily one about spiritual and moral development. Most effective teachers will agree that “spiritual and moral behaviour has to be learned” but this is not a book to give a quick route to improving spiritual and moral learning in schools.

What it is though, is a vehicle to promote reflection and debate, exactly what it claims to do! The reader is presented with an enormous amount from at least one author's reading. Lists, extracts and sources become an intellectual diversion, while some quotations promote reflection and the questions raised help the reader to engage with the text the volume of unanswered and unorganised questions and myriad of citations conflict with the aim “to provide a resource for teachers” (p. 3). Part 2 focuses on how the themes of Part 1 can be developed in practice. There is little new thinking here, most chapters include characteristics which are evident in many effective schools. Headteachers are hardly likely to be taken by surprise with new ideas for enhancing a child's self identity by: “The habitual use of a child's name or public recognition and celebration”. The case study reads as a self indulgent record of one school's journey and at times seems trite! This is a poor end to the book.

Sadly, as is often the case these days, the production values are poor. It should be possible to produce a list without inadvertently changing font or inserting bold characters where they do not belong and there are a number of typos which should not creep into a published work.

Brent DaviesThe University of Hull, Hull, UK