PEDAGOGY OF SPIRITUALITY

PEDAGOGY OF SPIRITUALITY

https://doi.org/10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.01

The article proposes the use of spirituality pedagogy for spiritual education and upbringing of youth. Its purpose and principles are presented. Emphasis is placed on the appropriateness of using a synergistic approach for the development of human spirituality. The image of a new noospheric personality is outlined as one that is constantly engaged in self-improvement and strives for internal harmony.
Keywords: noospheric education, pedagogy of spirituality, spiritual education and training, youth, synergistic approach.

Boychuk Y. D.
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, Rector, H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Goncharenko M. S.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Tyurina T. G.
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine

Modern civilization is gradually moving to a new stage of development – the noospheric one. Important features of this stage are the prioritization of spiritual and moral values and the growing role of education and science as engines of social progress. In accordance with the general requirements of the Bologna Declaration, special attention in the educational process should be paid to the problems of spiritual and intellectual upbringing and teaching, self-education and self-knowledge, personal development and self-development.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the potential possibilities of spirituality pedagogy in the teaching and upbringing of young people in the twenty-first century.

The problems of spiritual upbringing and teaching of the individual have been thoroughly considered and analyzed in the works of domestic scholars, such as: V. Andrushchenko, I. Bekh, M. Goncharenko, I. Ziazyun, V. Kremen, and H. Shevchenko. According to scientists, the disclosure and development of personal spirituality should become the core of the Ukrainian education system, since spirituality has a suprapersonal nature, so it is advisable to study it from the perspective of an interdisciplinary approach.

We believe that the main direction of human development is to increase its spirituality. The problems of spiritual development and human self-development should be considered as organically integral components of the new national paradigm of education and upbringing of young people. The formation of the spiritual world of modern youth and the unlocking of their spiritual potential is one of the leading areas of the humanities, including pedagogy, psychology, sociology, and valeology. A holistic approach to man as a holistic bio-socio-spiritual-cosmoplanetary phenomenon, a spiritual being that is a synthesis of spiritual, mental, and physical norms of life, makes it possible to develop a new paradigm of human evolution and, accordingly, to lay the foundations for the pedagogy of spirituality.

In the pedagogy of spirituality, the core and fundamental basis of man is his spiritual and cosmic origin, which guides his life, is a source of self-development and self-evolution. Man, as a cosmoplanetary phenomenon, is an integral component of the universe, a structural part of a single cosmoplanetary space and at the same time a component of the information and energy field of the Earth and the Universe. With such a dual nature, a person is a multidimensional cosmoplanetary being that evolves and lives simultaneously in different worlds and is presented as a triune entity, a holistic unity of spiritual, mental, and bodily aspects, in the center of which is the world of man and society [1].

The purpose of spirituality pedagogy is to form an image of a spiritualized person with a noospheric level of consciousness, a creator and a citizen with a developed spiritual and intellectual consciousness.

The pedagogy of spirituality as a structural system is based on the following principles:
– hierarchy — the higher governs the lower
– Harmony — everything is connected to everything
– Holographicity — everything is in everything.

In the pedagogy of spirituality, in our opinion, much attention should be paid to the problem of psychological and physical upbringing and self-education, support for spiritual health and information and energetic security in the context of spiritual development of the individual [2]. An organic part of the upbringing of a holistic person is the formation of the ability to self-improvement, which should become the core of the pedagogy of the twenty-first century. According to V. I. Vernadsky’s noospheric concept, man is the result of a long cosmic evolution, a planetary phenomenon of a cosmic scale associated with all processes of the evolution of the universe, which should function according to spiritual laws without disturbing the harmony of the world. The level of spiritual development of an individual is determined by his/her full and adequate information and energy interaction with the cosmoplanetary world, both with the social and natural environment and with space, which feeds spiritual energy, provides mental, psychological, social, physical health, spiritual security, and harmony of its mutual restoration [1].

The most appropriate approach to studying the nature of human spirituality and the ways of its formation is the synergistic interdisciplinary approach of modern postnonclassical science. The synergistic approach combines all sciences: exact, natural, humanitarian, as well as religion, and is integrative in its structure. Within the synergistic approach, the world and man are seen as having a dual nature, which is related to the phenomenon of man himself, who contains material and spiritual principles and belongs to two worlds – the earthly and the spiritual [3].

According to modern researchers, the synergistic approach is the most effective basis for analyzing such highly complex systems as nature, society, and humanity. With the synergistic approach, the spiritual development of the individual is ensured in the fields of science and education. According to G. Shevchenko, the spiritual and moral development of young people takes place mainly in the educational process. According to the researcher, the spiritualization of education and upbringing contributes to the formation of the ability of young people to create themselves and the images of their lives [4].

Spiritually oriented education at the present stage of society’s development should become the most effective factor in the formation of a spiritual personality. Unfortunately, modern pedagogy does not pay enough attention to the spiritual beginning of man and the ways of its disclosure and development, the problem of understanding the personality as a cosmoplanetary phenomenon, the role and place of man in the information and energy system of interaction between man-society-Earth-Universe is poorly represented [1]. We believe that in the absence of proper attention to the pedagogy of spirituality, crisis phenomena in the lives of people of the twenty-first century are becoming more and more common.

The consequences of introducing the pedagogy of spirituality should be a person’s inner understanding of his or her spiritual unity with the universe and humanity in all its civilizational dimensions. Modern society is entering a new period of its evolutionary development, which requires generalization and integration of the achievements of the spiritual experience of mankind, including religious and scientific, the principle of which is based on the functioning of the information and energy system man-society-earth-universe.

Formation of the image of a spiritualized noospheric person involves spiritual education and self-education of spirituality, soulfulness, and corporeality.

The course of pedagogy of spirituality for students of higher education institutions is based on the concept of noospheric education and will help young people to realize the cosmoplanetary role and importance of spirituality in the life of man, humanity, planet, civilization, and the universe.

Thus, raising the level of spirituality has been an active problem throughout human history. The demise of all past civilizations began with the spiritual and moral degradation of man and society. A society devoid of spirituality is not viable. The spiritual revival of our civilization or its progress and evolution depends on every member of society. A new highly spiritual society of the noospheric civilization will be possible if a new noospheric person is developed. Therefore, the education of a person with a noospheric level of consciousness, the realization of man as a cosmoplanetary phenomenon should become the main focus of world and national education, since the future fate of humanity and the preservation of earthly civilization depend on its solution.

List of references

1. Scientific basis of the modern worldview. Valeological aspect: educational and methodological manual. Kharkiv: V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 2011. 255 с.
2. Goncharenko MS, Boychuk YD Human ecology: a study guide. Sumy; Kyiv: University Book Publishing House; Publishing House “Princess Olga”, 2005. 391 с.
3. Goncharenko M. S. Theoretical and methodological aspects of training a future teacher of health basics on the basis of a synergistic approach: monograph: Brovin OV, 2019. 458 с.
4. Shevchenko H. P. Spiritual and cultural values of education: essence and main content characteristics. Spiritual and cultural values of education: a monograph / H.P. Shevchenko and others, edited by H.P. Shevchenko. Luhansk: Knowledge, 2013. С. 7-37.