1. Spiritual, Religious, and Secular Pathways to Purpose in a Global Society Dr. Kathy Goodman Dr. Jenny L. Small Association of American Colleges and University Global Learning in College Fort Lauderdale, FL October 8-10, 2015

2. Purpose of this session To understand current trends in the support of college students’ spiritual, religious, and secular pathways to purpose To engage in conversation with one another around our experiences, questions, critiques, and ideas about college students’ meaning-making on our own campuses To lay the groundwork for tomorrow’s conversation around a model of intercultural development

3. Today’s student demographics: 2 views Religious affiliation (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2015) ◦ 56% Christian ◦ 8% non-Christian faiths ◦ 35% unaffiliated Worldview (Kosmin & Keysar, 2013) ◦ 1/3 rd religious ◦ 1/3 rd spiritual ◦ 1/3 rd secular

4. Today’s trends Meaning making’s “tipping point” in higher education Proliferation of research on religious, spiritual, and secular identities Major higher education associations and independent organizations working on identity and interfaith topics Multifaith campus spaces, humanist chaplains, advances in on-campus practice Initial development of competencies for addressing spirituality, secularism, religious pluralism, and interfaith cooperation Greater inclusion of these topics in graduate preparation programs Small, J. L. (Ed.). (2015). Making meaning: Embracing spirituality, faith, religion, and life purpose in student affairs. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

5. Today’s trends “Return” of religion to higher education through four main avenues: 1.Spirituality (versus religion) 2.Teaching about religion (versus teaching religion itself) 3.Difficult dialogues 4.Big questions (Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012) Vocation (Clydesdale, 2015) Globalization

6. Why this matters Student spirituality = campus leadership roles (Posner et al., 2006) Spirituality enhancing practices = extra-curricular activities, community service, attendance of cultural events (Kuh & Gonyea, 2005) Structural worldview diversity, provocative engagement with diversity, faculty support = student satisfaction (Bryant Rockenbach & Mayhew, 2014) Faculty support  religious engagement  spiritual identification and spiritual quest (Bowman & Small, 2013) Faculty support  improved student academic performance (Astin, Astin & Lindholm, 2011)

7. Questions and conversation General reactions and questions about the presentation or for your colleagues in the room. Your experiences with student meaning-making on campus? Any critiques of our opinions and perspectives? Any ideas you may have about furthering this type of work?