Spirituality: What We Can Teach and How We Can Teach It

Abstract

In the new millennium, spirituality has been accepted as an integral part of social work practice, enabling a holistic and strength‐based approach to individuals, groups, and communities. This acceptance has been encouraged by the current interest in both religious and spiritual issues. The rationale for such inclusion is grounded in a review of the historical relationship between spirituality and social work, in the ethical mandates that underlie both the NASW Code of Ethics and the Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work, and in the evolving definitions of social work areas of practice as biopsychosociocultural‐spiritual. Thus, it must be viewed as an essential component of social work education. Because of the nature of spirituality and spiritual experiences and the potential for wide divergence in views, definitions, experiences, and understanding, spirituality is especially challenging to teach. Research indicates that students also identify spirituality as an essential component of social work practice and that they often feel ill prepared and equipped to address spiritual issues in practice after completing their social work education. Models, resources, and literature in this field have been developed by many researchers, particularly as they relate to special populations or fields within social work; yet the challenges persist. Spirituality may be taught as a discrete course, generally as an elective, and suggestions for material to be included in such a course are offered in the areas of knowledge acquisition, skill development, and self‐awareness. However, it is recognized that material on spirituality should be infused throughout the social work curriculum, primarily in core courses such as practice, diversity, human behavior in the social environment, research, policy, and ethics, and specific suggestions are offered to encourage such inclusion. To increase students' knowledge of the varieties of spiritual experiences of potential clients, a small random sample of the general population was interviewed regarding spiritual beliefs and experiences. Interviewees were asked to define spirituality, to share their experiences, and to suggest ways in which meaningful dialogue about spirituality might be encouraged in social work practice.