Spiritual transformation in a secular context: A qualitative research study of transformative learning in a higher education setting

The offering of a graduate-level seminar at a major, public, North American university on the spiritual and moral dimensions of educational leadership provided the authors the unique opportunity to research the connections between higher education and spirituality, to determine the extent to which spiritual transformation might be possible within a secular institution. The study’s 17 student seminar members were challenged, through reframing exercises and case studies, to enter empathetically into the inner life of colleagues, their own students, supervisors and supervisees in order to experience a shift in consciousness, from the egocentric to the compassionate. Employing participant observation, interviews and term assignment analysis the researchers were able to document and account for significant incidents of personal and spiritual transformation, lying along a continuum from the epochal to the incremental (Mezirow and Associates, 2000). The data, then, lend themselves to the conclusion that spiritual transformation might not be incompatible with higher education’s traditional role of knowledge and skill transfer. University education celebrates the life of the mind. Academic specialists teach and research in an environment that honors objectivity and rationality i