This is such an important question!

Spirituality is such a widely and subjectively defined term and also a term which can evoke immediate responses in folks. For many years, I have taught a graduate course at Prescott College called "The Spiritual Components of Environmental Education" where the very first assignment is to explore various definitions of spirituality, articulate what parts of those definitions resonate and which do not, and then each student generates their own definition based on the exploration. A lively discussion usually follows where it is often expressed that defining something like spirituality is dynamic and fluid.

What seems most important to me is that we, as practitioners, understand our own understanding of this term for ourselves, recognize our own biases and challenges within our own spiritual journeys, and realize that we cannot define this for others, but rather can create experiences in our programs which might open the door for our participants to have their own spiritual connections with the natural world.

Below, I will post an article I authored with a colleague of my, Dr. Richard Jurin. I will also post the two books I use for textbooks in the class I mentioned above. There as so many interesting articles out there on this subject! :)

Thanks for this conversation! The question of "What is spirituality and environmental education?" and the acknowledgment that it can mean many things to many people makes me think of a two-way street. On the one hand, as environmental educators, we may seek to weave spirituality into our programs and practices. On the other hand, as spiritual beings, we may seek to weave environmental education into our spiritual programs and practices. The former might look like starting an EE program off with mindfulness and gratitude, or by exploring with a class how various societies connect spiritually with nature. The latter might look like building environmental education activities and experiences into the programming at a religious institution. These are just a couple of examples.

As has been discussed, with our professional EE hats on, we must be careful to respect and honor the different spiritual perspectives of others. No one wants to go to a program (e.g., at a nature center) and feel that some else's spiritual identity or values are being pushed on the participants, who may have a different spiritual identity and set of values. Given these sensitivities around respecting others' perspectives, I gravitate towards ways to bring EE to spirituality, rather than spirituality to EE. For example, if I spent a moment during a nature program talking about my beliefs in Jesus and God, that might upset some, even though it is part of my spiritual experience and connection to the natural world. However, if I built more outside time and nature exploration into Sunday school experiences for preschoolers, I am leveraging my own background and skills as an environmental educator and my membership in a spiritual group to weave together EE and spirituality.

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this! What are some examples you envision in this two-way street of weaving EE into spirituality and spirituality into EE? Or, do you view it not as a two-way street but something different altogether?