Teacher Prayerfulness: Identifying Public School Teachers Who Connect Their Spiritual and Religious Lives With Their Professional Lives

Abstract

A survey of 317 randomly sampled Wisconsin public school teachers revealed half (50.8%) of the teachers reported they pray for their students at least monthly. This article compares how the teachers who were deemed professionally prayerful, praying for students at least monthly, differ from their counterparts. As a group, professionally prayerful teachers have fewer doubts about God; are more traditional in their religious beliefs; are more active in the practice of these beliefs; are more likely to have had profound spiritual experiences; rely more heavily on their faith both personally and professionally; and generally appear to be more committed to their spiritual and religious lives. Implications for teacher preparation and professional development are discussed.