Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

426 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
An important aspect of learning is creating a space. Thus for my classes that deal with cultural
issues, or adult learning, I bring symbols of the elements of the world—earth, wind, fire, and water,
because learning takes place in the context of our life experience in the world, and these symbols
can serve as a reminder of that, and implicitly takes learning to what the heart of spirituality
is about—the interconnectedness of all things. I am also trying to set up an environment where
students will explore the meaning that they map to symbol, so that learning through symbol, and
affect, as well as the obvious academic readings can be a part of the learning environment right
from the beginning. I also begin each class with a brief check-in of joys and difficulties that have
been a part of the learning lives they’ve had since the last time we met. This five-minute activity
is an attempt to create a learning community that honors the life experiences of the learners.
I usually begin my own classes that focus on cultural issues with an assignment where learners
write aspects of their own cultural story. Stories touch our hearts and put a human face on the world
of ideas. Thus learners’ initial assignment will include story readings, and a written assignment
of analyzing aspects of their own story (with some guidelines) related to the content., such as how
their own awareness of their cultural identity developed. In particular, they describe their culture
of origin in terms of their race, ethnicity, religion, and class background; the cultural mix of the
communities in which they grew up; what messages they received about themselves and “others”
through both the overt curriculum and the hidden curriculum in schools and in other institutions;
who important cultural role models were for them. In essence, in this initial assignment, I am
attempting to pose questions that might help them think about how their cultural consciousness
developed, and the role of social structures in shaping their identity and their thinking. I try to
model this by sharing some of my own story. In particular, as a white woman trying to deal with
cultural issues, I discuss pivotal points in my own ongoing understanding of what it means to
be white, as a system of privilege, and how it interacts with my Irish Catholic female cultural
upbringing, and how I am still very much working on this. Sometimes I share a poem, or a song,
that has been meaningful. My intent is to encourage students to do the same in their own writing:
to use critical analysis and their creativity in analyzing their own stories relative to the larger
society.
I rarely use the term spirituality in my classes. But at a point in the class, I ask them to bring
or create a symbol of their cultural identity. Often, their use of art, poetry, music, and other
artform and use of this cultural symbol touches on the spiritual for some people, and encourages
it to be present in the classroom. Others don’t map to such activities in that way, but whether
or not one experiences something as “spiritual” depends on the learner. Furthermore, learners
also generally do a collaborative teaching presentation on a particular subject. They use multiple
modes of knowledge production in their presentations. They often incorporate the spiritual and
cultural, as well as the affective and analytical in these presentations, that is grounded in their own
cultural experience, and suggestions for social change. This ensures its cultural responsiveness. In
closing, we often make use of some of what they created throughout the course in a final activity
that hints at a ritual through use of song, poetry, dance, art, and ideas from significant reading in
stating our intent of next steps for action; after all, there are limits to what can be accomplished
in any given education context, including in higher education where I teach.
In conclusion, it is clear that it is time for the field of educational psychology to continue to
move forward from its historically positivist underpinnings that paid little attention to gender
or culture, to not only attend to these issues but to consider how culture interconnects with
spirituality. Furthermore, a culturally responsive educational psychology and teaching practice
that attends to spirituality by drawing on the role of imagination, and how people construct
knowledge through image and symbol, which is always expressed through culture, can facilitate
continued development and continued healing, both individually and in the larger world. It is a
way of drawing on spirituality, and engaging the “sacred face,” without ever necessarily using