Essential Components of Miller’s Soulful Curriculum Theory

Abstract

The soulful curriculum makes the educational environment dynamic and robust. This study’s primary purpose was to identify the essential components of the soulful curriculum from Miller’s viewpoint. An inductive approach and content analysis were applied to achieve this purpose. The essentials, principles, and techniques of the soulful curriculum were extracted from Miller’s perspective, and finally, the critical components of the soulful curriculum were inferred and explained by integrating the essentials, principles and techniques of Miller’s Curriculum. Accordingly, we reviewed Millers’ two seminal works called Holistic Education and Education and the Soul: Toward a Spiritual Curriculum. The cause for selecting these two works was comprehensiveness and consistency in expressing John Miller’s ideas fundamental to orientation. By integrating the results, the essential components of the soulful curriculum were categorized into six dimensions: holism, introspection, naturalism, connectivism, balancing, and energization. Keywords: soulful curriculum, holism, naturalism, connection, John Miller