Thriving and Spirituality: Making Meaning of Meaning Making for Students of Color

Abstract

Eric James McIntosh expands the discussion of the role of spirituality in the thriving of students of color and provides recommendations for both secular and religious institutions of higher education to apply the results of his research.

Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a significant change in the way that higher education has approached the role of spirituality in the academy. From Patrick Love and Donna Talbot's challenge in 1999 to fill the spiritual development gap in student affairs, to Alexander Astin, Helen Astin, and Jennifer Lindholm's comprehensive synthesis of the results of the Spirituality in Higher Education study in 2011, to Jenny Small's 2014 edited volume Making Meaning: How Student Affairs Came to Embrace Spirituality, Faith, Religion, and Life Purpose, researchers and practitioners alike are recognizing how students’ spirituality shapes the learning process and influences students’ growth and development during the college years.

I have been a member of Laurie Schreiner's research team exploring college student thriving since 2007. We had noticed that students’ level of spirituality was a significant predictor of the variation in their levels of thriving while in college. We had conceptualized thriving as a vital engagement in the college experience, intellectually, socially, and psychologically, and defined spirituality in three ways: as reliance on a higher power beyond oneself, as a foundation for one's approach to life, and as a source of strength during difficult times. Regardless of whether students were attending secular or faith–based institutions, the degree to which they agreed with these statements was moderately predictive of their thriving. As a practitioner, my own experience with students supported this finding, yet I had also noticed that those students of color who were thriving the most on my predominantly white campus seemed to have a stronger spiritual grounding than those who were struggling to survive. In this article, I will explore some aspects of my research from the Thriving Project described by my colleague Laurie Schreiner in the previous issue of About Campus. I'll also provide some recommendations for practitioners, faculty, and administrators on both faith–based and secular college campuses as they seek to more firmly pave this underused pathway to success for students of color.

Kevin's Story

Kevin was one of my advisees who epitomized the specific role that I had seen spirituality play in students’ development, and my interaction with him and other students of color led to the research question that has guided my work since then. Kevin had worked diligently to achieve a B average in his coursework during his sophomore year but, like many African American students, had struggled to feel confident in his college pursuits. As we talked about his vocational goals, it became clear that he had yet to connect a sense of meaning and purpose to his college experience—a common enough dilemma in the sophomore year. Yet in our conversations, Kevin had described his deep concern for children who had been victims of abuse, so I suggested he pursue a summer internship with a social services agency that served this population.

As he returned for his junior year, I noticed a distinct change in Kevin. He was more confident and self–assured; he seemed secure in his sense of self and appeared to have found a new purpose and enthusiasm as he talked about majoring in social work and going to graduate school to become a clinical social worker. The story he told of his summer placement helped me better understand the connection between spirituality and thriving, not only for Kevin himself, but for other students who were not part of the dominant culture at our institution.

The son of a schoolteacher and a police officer from a midwestern suburb, Kevin found himself in a totally unfamiliar environment at a social services agency in inner–city Chicago. Every day, he worked with children who were wards of the state or were otherwise in care due to abuse or neglect, many of whom experienced night terrors or struggled with extreme behavioral and emotional challenges. He often had overnight responsibilities at the care center, and it was during those long nights that he shared deep conversations with an older gentleman who ensured the security of the facility. Mr. Flynn had been a facilities manager at the care center for over 30 years. During his tenure, the Irish Catholic widower had seen all kinds of horrors involving children—terrible circumstances to which Kevin was exposed for the first time. One particularly discouraging night, Kevin asked Mr. Flynn how he kept coming back to work every day. Mr. Flynn turned to him, smiled a little sadly, and said, “Well, Kevin, the people on this Earth who are supposed to care about these kids—their parents—don't. I believe there's a God in this universe who cares about these kids, and I feel like it's up to me to bring something positive into their lives every day I come to work. Why are you here?”

This simple question caused Kevin great turmoil. He had never spent time considering why he was doing what he was doing—had never truly contemplated why he was in college and what he wanted to do with his degree. His conversation and subsequent relationship with Mr. Flynn caused him to reexamine some of his beliefs and reconnect with his own spiritual upbringing. As the summer progressed, he found himself attending a nearby African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church where many of the agency volunteers were connected.

Kevin had grown up in a middle–class family that had gone to the local Baptist church each Sunday, and he had a strong relationship with his maternal grandmother, who was the spiritual leader of his family. In high school, however, his commitment to athletics had resulted in less involvement in church and little time for introspection about life's meaning and purpose. Yet it was obvious as our conversation unfolded that Kevin had embarked on a journey during his internship that had led him to question some of the religious beliefs he held and, at the same time, strengthen his own commitment to partnering in what he perceived to be God's work in the world.

The emotional challenges of his internship had required a strength that was beyond his own capacity, and he talked of how he had increasingly sensed a power greater than himself in helping him cope. Intellectually, he had begun to connect what he had learned about resilience in his psychology classes with what he had read about spirituality as an asset in bouncing back from adversity. As these pieces came together in his mind, I knew he was describing a critical intersection in his own meaning making that was influencing his journey through college.

Kevin began his junior year confident of his purpose for being in college, as he had learned he could make a difference in the lives of these children. His interactions with Mr. Flynn and his own internal questioning of how a benevolent higher power could allow innocent children to suffer had led him to see his own role as a positive force in children's lives. His connections with members of a nearby church had provided a source of strength and a way of processing his experiences that enabled him to come back for his junior year ready for the intellectual and psychological investment it would take to prepare for a career working with abused and neglected children. He came alive in his last two years of college as he engaged in his courses and started taking a leadership role on campus.

My reflections on Kevin's experiences are what led me to study whether spirituality played a different role for students of color than it did for students of the dominant culture on predominantly white campuses. My research found that spirituality significantly predicts the variation in students’ ability to make the most of their college experience—to thrive in college—to a far greater degree for students of color than for white students. That difference suggests that spirituality is a pathway to success among students of color that has been underutilized by campus professionals.

Thriving, Spirituality, and Religiosity

Researchers alexander and helen astin and Jennifer Lindholm ushered in the reemergence of a focus on the spiritual lives of those in academe with their 2011 book Cultivating the Spirit. These authors describe spirituality as “our sense of who we are and where we come from, our beliefs about why we are here—the meaning and purpose that we see in our work and our life—our sense of connectedness to one another and to the world around us” (p. 4). Spirituality is the aspect of our human lives that helps us make meaning of the world around us. In an article positioning spirituality as a personality factor, Ralph Piedmont notes that spirituality allows us to transcend our own finite experience and shapes our ability to see the interconnected nature of humanity, becoming “a source of intrinsic motivation that drives, directs, and selects behaviors” (p. 988).

In our research on student thriving, we have defined spirituality as reliance—especially in difficult times—on a power greater than self, an awareness of purpose, and a lens through which to perceive and interact with the world. The common thread that runs through all of these aspects of spirituality are the concepts of personal meaning making and transcendence. The perspective of spirituality I want to emphasize precedes many religious practices by first asking the question posed in much of Sharon Daloz Parks's work: Is there a power inside or outside this world that is greater than me?

Pathways to Thriving

As outlined in “Different Pathways to Thriving Among Students of Color: An Untapped Opportunity for Success” by Laurie Schreiner in the last issue of About Campus, the construct of “thriving” has emerged as a new way of exploring the success of college students—specifically the intellectual, social, and psychological engagement of students. This concept has its roots in the work of Corey Keyes and Jon Haidt, who studied “flourishing” in adults experiencing life to its fullest rather than simply existing. Flourishing individuals are resilient in the face of life's challenges, demonstrate personal growth and optimism through adversity, set and pursue goals, and connect emotionally to the world. People who flourish bring this perspective into the world around them, positively and indelibly changing their environment. Although flourishing and thriving are terms often used interchangeably, Schreiner reminds us that thriving builds on the psychological well–being implied in flourishing, but also encompasses elements critical to college students’ success: academic engagement, effort regulation, citizenship, openness to diversity, goal–setting, optimism, and self–regulated learning. Thriving students are fully engaged intellectually, socially, and emotionally. This is a view of student success that reinforces the bedrock of holistic development on which many colleges and universities were founded.

In my own research that has grown out of the study of thriving college students, I have discovered that the pathways to thriving for majority students on campus are varied, with many channels for them to prosper on campus. The picture for African American, Latino, and Asian students is less encouraging. Pathways to thriving for students of color are fewer and differ in significant ways from those of white students; some experiences that benefit white students do not benefit students of color to the same degree, and other experiences are even more powerful sources of thriving for students of color than for white students. This finding underscores the importance of ensuring that opportunities exist on campus to foster thriving in ways that resonate with students who are not part of the dominant culture. Although my research indicates that a psychological sense of community on campus is the single greatest predictor of thriving among all students, spirituality is the greatest contributor to this sense of community for students of color.

Psychological sense of community, originally defined by community psychologists David McMillan and David Chavis, is inclusive of the sense of belonging that Silvia Hurtado and Deborah Carter noted as vital to success among students of color. However, a sense of community goes beyond the perception of belonging, as it also encompasses students’ feelings that they matter to the institution, are connected emotionally to others on campus, can partner with others on campus to reach their goals, and have a meaningful contribution to make to the campus community.

The connection between students’ spirituality and this important sense of community is compelling. In fact, individual models of thriving for the ethnic groups included in my study show that between one third and one half of the variation in a psychological sense of community among students of color on campus is explained by their self–reported spirituality. This finding suggests that students of color find affinity within the campus environment when they have a more rooted sense of self in relation to a higher power, along with a greater understanding of their life's meaning and purpose. Knowledge of this connection opens myriad possibilities for our work with diverse students.

Especially during times of difficulty, the power of spirituality in explaining a sense of community among students of color appears to be directly related to the reliance on a power greater than the self that is a source of strength as well as a lens through which students view the world around them; it is not surprising that such reliance on a power greater than the self is a strong contributing factor to a psychological sense of community for these students. Spirituality provides a sense of belonging to something greater than oneself, which may then encourage purposeful involvement in the campus community to which a student has committed himself or herself.

Culture and background are critical contexts for understanding the impact of spirituality on individuals, as is the acknowledgment that not all individuals recognize a spiritual aspect within their lives. As a result, the ways students experience spirituality differ, having been shaped by their culture, heritage, and personal experiences. Even among students of the same cultural background, spirituality may be expressed differently. For example, a study entitled “Toward a Meaningful Spirituality for People of Color: Lessons for the Counseling Practitioner,” by Joseph Cervantes and Thomas Parham, found that some Latino spirituality has a decidedly Catholic overtone, while the spirituality of other Latino groups in the United States may reflect a native spiritualism that sees the sacred in both animate and inanimate entities. These researchers identified a significant connection between spirituality and psychological well–being among Latinos, regardless of the manner in which the spirituality is expressed.

Just as spirituality is an integral part of the Latino experience, spirituality among African Americans is often an important part of daily life. An essential dimension of a balanced African American identity, according to Robert Jagers and Lynne Mock's study, “Culture and Social Outcomes Among Inner–City African American Children: An Afrographic Exploration,” is the development of a healthy spiritual self. Both quantitative and qualitative studies have found a significant relationship between academic success and reliance in a higher power among African American students. In one study exploring spirituality and academic performance by Katrina Walker and Vicki Dixon, the grades of African American students were found to be correlated significantly with overall spirituality, as well as religious participation.

Perhaps the most diverse expressions of spirituality are evident among Asian Americans. The faith practices among Asian Americans represent a spectrum of major world religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, as well as many forms of animism or atheism. Outside these larger religious categories, the spirituality of Asian American students is widely unexplored, however. Accordingly, little is known about the intersection of spirituality and college success for Asian students.

In my research with nearly 8,000 students from 59 institutions, one of the most significant findings was the interactive effect of spirituality with other campus experiences, such as student–faculty interaction, campus involvement, and a psychological sense of community on campus. Most notably, exploration of these interactions indicated that spirituality influenced the other variables differently across ethnic groups, meaning that the role of spirituality cannot be approached from a “one size fits all” perspective, but rather should be respectfully situated within the student's cultural context. As both researchers and practitioners realize the power of spirituality to help enable success for students of color, they must equip themselves to carve out the paths that most meaningfully navigate both the cultures and the challenges of the student groups they serve.

Just as Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and noted psychiatrist, physician, and researcher, found that meaning in life provided motivation during the darkest of times, students in college seek a meaning to live for and ask their own existential questions along the journey. The search for meaning is powerful, as John Nash and Michele Murray contended in their 2010 volume Helping College Students Find Purpose:

Meaning therefore helps us to make cosmos out of chaos; it gives us choice in place of chance. Most of all, it gets us out of bed in the morning and off to face life's inevitable daily mixtures of pleasure and pain. (p. xxi)

Recommendations for Secular Institutions

Public higher education and secular private colleges have historically bifurcated students’ spirituality and the learning process, resulting in what Alexander and Helen Astin and Jennifer Lindholm describe as an “impersonal and fragmented” (p. 7) educational experience. For a more holistic approach that incorporates mind and spirit, leveraging spirituality among students of color to enhance their ability to thrive, I have four specific recommendations for secular colleges and universities to consider. Although these recommendations provide opportunities for exploration of meaning making for all students, they offer particularly powerful venues for thriving among students of color, as the connection between spirituality and thriving among students of color is a vastly underutilized pathway to success. 1.

Equip faculty and student affairs professionals for conversations with students about meaning and purpose, worldview, and spiritual development. Recognizing the importance of spirituality in the lives of many students of color, as well as the unique ways that spirituality is expressed and contributes to their success, is the first step. Although not all students of color report being spiritual, helping students make meaning of their college experience in light of the bigger questions of life is an effective strategy for enhancing their success. We often relegate spirituality to the campus chaplain—even on faith–based campuses. Yet the ripest opportunities for dialogue occur in the classroom, the faculty office, the residence halls, and the campus commons. Professional development opportunities that teach faculty and staff how to engage in dialogue with students in their quest for meaning and purpose enable students to have the support they need when they need it. Specifically, learn about the faith practices and spiritual expressions of a variety of cultural backgrounds so that your vocabulary surrounding meaning making can resonate with the spiritual exploration of students from diverse backgrounds. Often, our language is too focused on our own understanding and may not be inclusive enough for students to experience the safe space we wish to create.

Create sacred spaces on campus and emphasize interfaith community . Our use of space, art, and architecture sends a message to students. When there is no space for the sacred, for quiet meditation, or for focusing on one's inner life, the message we send is that this aspect of life is unimportant and is not valued on campus. Institutions are beginning to redesign their space, using interfaith symbols, cross–cultural expressions of art, and architecture that encourages reflection to convey that spirituality is an integral aspect of student identity development that is nurtured as part of the educational process. Emphasizing interfaith community and dialogue can help students see how others make meaning, which can assist them in exploring their own spiritual heritage and belief system. It is through such engagement in respectful dialogue and interaction that students can explore the belief systems of others and interact with those who hold differing perspectives in order to shape their own meaning making and reflection.

Integrate meaning making and purpose into the curriculum and encourage students to explore aspects of personal belief in classes outside the religious studies and philosophy departments. When faculty can connect classroom learning to students’ personal belief systems, students will not only be exposed to more holistic and interdisciplinary ways of thinking, but such integration will also serve to reinforce the importance of personal meaning making for students. When instructors integrate personal meaning making into the curriculum, students are exposed to new ways of thinking about their own and others’ beliefs, challenged to think critically about the assumptions of their belief systems, and experience an integrated learning environment that validates the importance of personal belief systems to the human experience. Integrating the exploration of personal belief into the curriculum means providing opportunities and space within course assignments to explore the connection between course content and personal beliefs. Reflective journaling, small group sharing, and utilizing texts that demonstrate the connection between course material, cultural contexts, and exploration of spirituality are productive ways to demonstrate the integrative nature of meaning making.

Partner with local places of worship to provide support and service opportunities. Particularly for historically underrepresented students on predominantly white campuses, spirituality is a source of social support and is an important coping resource. Connections to local churches, synagogues, and mosques provide access to important resources that can broaden our support for students. In addition, many students interviewed in the Thriving Project related the important role that service or “giving back” played in their thriving on campus; although universities can provide many of these opportunities, the connection to local places of worship expands the network of possible service opportunities, as well as the network of support and mentoring. Consider inviting local religious leaders to campus a few days a month in order to meet with and mentor students on campus. A “Spiritual Emphasis Week” highlighting the importance of spirituality and demonstrating the breadth of spiritual experiences and expression in partnership with local places of worship is another way to partner.

Recommendations for Faith–Based Colleges

In faith–based colleges and universities, supporting the spirituality of students of color as a pathway to thriving will require an openness to student exploration of spirituality and meaning making that may be perceived to lie outside the traditional expressions of faith embraced by the denomination, historical heritage, or theological tradition of the college. Thus, the challenges for faith–based institutions often involve expanding the landscape of exploration, holding in tension the beliefs and perspectives of diverse student populations. 1.

Create safe spaces for students to explore their spirituality, acknowledging that meaning making also occurs outside the theological, denominational, and traditional doctrines held by your college campus. Religiously affiliated colleges often have long–held traditions rooted in the denominational connections or theological heritage of the college. The “campus script” is often a set of assumptions, publicly affirmed or culturally understood, to which students must adhere. Often, the script is coupled with a prescribed community code of conduct that is intended to affirm creedal foundations and shape campus community life and student behavioral expectations. This script often poses a barrier to a sense of community and thriving for students of color. An inability to openly—and safely—question the campus script may prevent students from genuinely exploring their own spiritual assumptions and, in the process, ultimately strengthening their faith. Although it is important to maintain spiritual distinctiveness as rooted in the belief system historic to the institutional identity, faith–based colleges are encouraged to explore the extent to which their beliefs are culturally situated—in the process demonstrating to their students the ability to explore and experience “the other” without fear that such exploration will undermine the nature and purpose of the institution itself.

Embrace a variety of different worship traditions. Consider ways your campus can demonstrate a commitment to your diverse student populations. Bring in speakers who share characteristic features with your students of color; normalize the different expressions of faith. While maintaining their own theological heritage, one way for faith–based campuses to build a greater sense of community among students of color is by embracing and exploring diverse styles of worship during corporate celebrations of worship. Another is to expand faculty and staff awareness of the way in which cultural background shapes the spirituality of students of color. For example, expanding our collective vocabulary about faith practices and meaning making to more fully include students from diverse backgrounds can capitalize on the power of spirituality to enhance their ability to thrive.

Encourage students to share their spiritual stories openly, and create opportunities on campus where students can hear from peers about different journeys of discovery. The life experiences of students are validated when they hear stories of similar discovery from their peers. Students will benefit from hearing in public forums, such as chapel gatherings, the spiritual journeys of their diverse peers. Work with campus chaplains to help provide such space for students to talk about their spiritual development, encouraging reflection upon the tensions experienced along the way. Providing opportunities for students to contrast the experiences that have shaped their own sense of life purpose with the experiences described by peers from different cultural backgrounds validates both the uniqueness of the process and the common experience of exploration and search for meaning.

Back to Kevin

My encounter with kevin had launched my research into how spirituality influenced the ability of students of color to make the most of their college experiences. Observing how he came alive on campus and engaged in the learning experience in and out of the classroom has also framed the implications of this work for me. As I saw how his connection to people who were willing to engage in deep conversations about the big questions of life enabled Kevin to gain a sense of meaning and purpose in his own life, I realized the importance of faculty and staff who were willing to talk with students about these significant issues. As I heard him struggle with existential questions in a context of daily providing care to others, I recognized how our service learning programs could benefit from connections to local places of worship and conversations about meaning and transcendence. As he reconnected with his spiritual upbringing by engaging in familiar faith practices while at the same time becoming involved in a faith community different from his family's, I was reminded of how the combination of challenge and support that is integral to our work in student affairs needs to extend to our interactions with students about this area of their lives that for too long has been ignored in the academy. In watching how Kevin's spirituality became the catalyst for significant change during his college years, I became convinced that purposefully interacting with the spiritual side of students opens new pathways to success for all students, but it can be a particularly powerful path to thriving for students of color.

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