Spirituality and leadership development in higher education

Sturm, Ronald E. (2007) Spirituality and leadership development in higher education. Masters, Department of Counceling and Family Therapy, Central Connecticut State University.

Abstract

This thesis explored the significance of introducing spirituality and initiating a personal search for meaning and coherence into the higher education setting. This was accomplished through an exploration of various author’s works and interviews with faculty who specialize in spirituality and leadership development in higher education. Through a series of qualitative interviews with higher education administrators and other experts in the field of student affairs administration, this research explored Spiritual Intelligence (Zohar & Marshall, 2000) as it relates to producing an effective, compassionate and holistic learning and teaching environment in college and university campuses. The interviews focused on how the interviewees infused spirituality into higher education administration and student affairs. Interview questions also sought to understand how interviewees’ personal experiences influence their involvement with folding spirituality into their professional and academic work. The interviews were structured and offered a series of short open-ended questions intended to obtain information on current trends in Spiritual Intelligence and meaning making on college campuses. Individual wholeness and defining a complete and integrated sense of self in the context of connection to community were also explored. Finally, implications for introducing the teaching and fostering of spiritual intelligence were explored followed by suggestions for introducing spirituality into student and academic affairs.