Higher Education Research Institute. 2006. Spirituality and the Professoriate: A National Study of Faculty Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behaviors. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute at University of California, Los Angeles.
While recent studies have focused on the religious engagements of college undergraduates, less attention has been paid to the religious engagements of their professors. What do college instructors believe and how do those beliefs impact their teaching? Researchers at the Higher Education Research Institute address this question and others in a comprehensive, multi-year study of Spirituality in Higher Education. The study’s early findings indicate that while “students are very interested in spiritual and religious matters and have high expectations for the role their institutions will play in their emotional and spiritual development,” nearly one-half are unhappy with how their college has provided “opportunities for religious/spiritual reflection.” (These findings and others are summarized in a 2004 HERI report, “The Spiritual Life of College Students: A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose.”) Surveys were administered to over 40,000 faculty members nationwide. The data reveals many complexities. The researchers find that while over 80% of faculty consider themselves spiritual persons, less than one-third believe that “colleges should be concerned with developing students’ spiritual development.” Meanwhile, more than one-half of the faculty disagree with the statement that “the spiritual dimension of professors’ lives has no place in the academy.”
