RT Article
T1 Transforming ourselves/transforming curriculum: spiritual education and Tarot symbolism
JF International journal of children's spirituality
VO 14
IS 2
SP 105
OP 120
A1 Semetsky, Inna
LA English
PB Taylor & Francis
YR 2009
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1779672098
AB This paper is threefold. It is grounded in the philosophical work of two educational theorists: John Dewey and our contemporary Nel Noddings. It also brings into the conversation the ancient system of Tarot, arguing that its pictorial symbolism embodies intellectual, moral, and spiritual ‘lessons’ derived from collective human experiences across times, places, and cultures. For Dewey, to call somebody spiritual never meant to invoke some mysterious and non‐natural entity outside of the real world. As a system of communication and interpretation, Tarot is oriented toward the discovery of meanings in the real experience and performs two functions, existential and educational, focusing on the ethical and spiritual dimension of experience. The pictorial images create an adventure story of the journey through the school of life, each new life experience contributing to self‐understanding and, ultimately, spiritual rebirth. Tarot not only speaks in a different voice, therefore bringing forth the subtleties of Gilligan and Noddings’ relational ethics, but also enables a process of critical self‐reflection analogous to the ancient Socratic ‘Know thyself’ principle that makes life examined and thus meaningful. As a techne, it can and should become a valuable tool to complement an existing set of educational aids in the area of moral and spiritual education.
K1 self‐knowledge
K1 relational ethics
K1 the search for meanings
K1 Tarot
K1 Noddings
K1 learning from experience
K1 Educational Philosophy
K1 Dewey
DO 10.1080/13644360902830192