Manifestation of Spirituality in Claire Joubert's Child Stories Based on the Theory of Communication Consciousness

Manifestation of Spirituality in Claire Joubert's Child Stories Based on the Theory of Communication Consciousness
 
Introduction
Spirituality is one of the dimensions of human existence. There are different tendencies in the definition of spirituality. The historical tendency is that spirituality is known as a subset of religion (Koenig , 2011: 198). In Islamic education, spirituality is also known in relation to religion, and one will be a spiritual person who is a true religious person. While the other group does not necessarily consider spirituality limited to the structure of religion. The existence of different theories in the field of hopeful spirituality is that spirituality has been one of the most important issues in human history throughout history, as far as the discourse of spirituality for children is more than ever considered. In this article, we have used the theory of "communication awareness", which is one of the most codified theories in the field of children's spirituality, as the scientific framework of our discussion. Therefore, first we will review the background of the research, then we will explain the theory of communication awareness and its outlines, and based on what He and Nye have explained, we will redefine the foundations of this theory for use in critique of children's stories.
 
Materials & Methods
Rebecca Nye first introduced the "theory of communication awareness" in 1998 in her thesis entitled "Psychological Perspectives on the Spirituality of Children". She later introduced the concept in her co-authored book with David Hay, “The Spirit of the Child” (2006) and numerous articles. According to He and Nye, there are five elements in the discussion of children's spirituality: "contexts, conditions, strategies, processes and consequences" (Nye, 1998: 236). The contexts encompass four axes of communication with which spirituality forms: God, other people, the world and own. The themes in children's spiritual stories are reflected into the main source of the story. Condition is the language chosen by the author to convey spiritual concepts to the child. Strategies is the author's strategy to bring spiritual concepts to the story and Finally, in the processes and consequences section, the part of the character changes that the author refers to directly or indirectly in the story is considered as part of the consequences and the main consequences are also interpreted based on the characters' moods, conversations and behaviors at the end of the story.
 
Results & Discussion
Following four books by Claire Joubert based on the theory of communicative consciousness:

In search of God

The background of this book is about the child's relationship with God. In terms of circumstances, Joubert used religious language. Dealing directly with the concept of God, which is essentially a religious concept, illustrates this claim. God is also described throughout the story in a way that is often described in Islamic religious literature. In the strategies section, searching and asking questions is the main strategy that the author has dealt with in writing this spiritual work, and the consequence of this story is more knowledge of God.

God's cookies

According to the theme, the main theme of this book is about the relationship between the child and others. In terms of context, the language that Claire Joubert chooses to convey spiritual concepts in this book is, on the one hand, a religious language and, on the other, a language of values and morals. In this story, Joubert's most important strategy is search and travel scenario. Finally, the most important consequence that accompanies the audience is a change in the little bear's attitude.

Goodbye old raccoon

The main theme of this book focuses on the child's relationship with the world and the axis of transmission of spiritual concepts is based on the subject of death, life before birth and continuation of life after death. In the context section, Joubert conveys spiritual concepts from the passage of religious language to children. His most important strategy in this story is to use symbolic space to express spiritual concepts. The main allegory of this story, that is, the child coming out of the mother's womb, on the basis of which the raccoon describes the process of death, is based on a word from the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Ultimately, the consequence of reading this book for children, in addition to awareness of the quality of death and the world after it, is a sense of peace and confidence in the ultimate good.

The grief of the little green lizard

The main context of this book and the spiritual concept that the author intended to convey to the child is in the context of the child's relationship with himself. The language that Keller has used in this book, according to his direct hints, is derived from the concept of God as creator, from religion. In addition to religious language, the author has also used the language of the natural world. Ultimately, the result of reading this book is a sense of calm, gratitude, and a sense of worth.
 
Conclusion
The results of our studies show; In the context section, Joubert includes all four contextual axes in the theory of communicative consciousness in his fiction books. In the context section, the most important space that the author receives and carries spiritual concepts to children is the religious literature. In each of the four books in this article, the religious attitude has a strong role in the selection of subjects and ideas and thoughts and actions of fictional characters. It seems the author's personal life and the discussion of religion change from Christianity to Islam and then his theological education (level of two areas) are one of the key factors of this tendency and concern in this area. Finally, the most important process and consequence of these four spiritual stories is primarily to change the level of spiritual awareness and attitude of children, and secondly, the ending of the stories, induces a sense of peace and confidence in the ultimate good. Also in the consequences section, we can mention the sense of worth and gratitude (in the grief of the little green lizard) and the sense of moral goodness (in the God’s cookies) that accompany the audience at the end of the story.
 
Keywords: Relational consciousness, David Hay, Rebbeca Nye, Claire Joubert, Children's spirituality.
 
Resources:
English:

Ann M. Trousdale. (2004). “Black and white fire: the interplay of stories,imagination and children's spirituality”, International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 9:2, 177-188
(2005). “Intersections of spirituality, religion and gender” in children’s literature, International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 10:1, 61-79
Bigger, S. (2008). “Secular spiritual education?”, e-journal of the British Education Studies Association, 1(1), 60-70.
Bosacki, S. L. (2002). “Spirituality and self in preadolescents: Implications for a connected curriculum”. Journal of Beliefs and Values , 23 (1), 55 - 67.
Engel, G.L. (1977). “The need for a new medical model: A challenge for biomedicine”. Science, 196, 129–136.
(1978). “The biopsychosocial model and the education of health professionals”. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1978, 310, 169–187.
Halstead, J. M. & Waite, S. (2001). “Nurturing the spiritual in children’s sexual Development”. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 6 (2), 185 - 206.
Hay, David & Nye, Rebecca (1996) "Identifying Children's Spirituality: How Do You Start Without a Starting Point?", British Journal of Religious Education, 18:3, 144-154
(2006). The Spirit of the Child. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Hunt, Peter. (2009). "Children’s literature and childhood", in An introduction to childhood studies. P50-69. Edited by Mary Jane Kehily. New York: Open University Press
Koenig, H. G. (2011). Spirituality & health research: Methods, measurement, statistics & resources. West Conshohocken, PA, USA: Templeton Press.
Nye, Rebecca. (1998). Psychological perspectives on children's spirituality. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Schweitzer, Friedrich. (2006). "Differences Between Religion and Spirituality in Children and Adolescents" in Encyclopedia of Religious and Spiritual Development. P119-122. edited by Elizabeth M. Dowling, W. George Scarlett. London and New York: Sage Publication.
Thomas, Trudelle. (2006). "Literature, Children’s" in Encyclopedia of Religious and Spiritual Development. P262-265. Edited by Elizabeth M. Dowling, W. George Scarlett. London and New York: Sage Publication.
Wenman, T. (2001). “Reporting the spiritual in primary schools”. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 6 (3), 311 - 324.

 
Persian:

The Holy Quran
Ibn Babawiyyah, Muhammad ibn Ali. (2010) altoohid. Translated by Yaghoub Jafari, Qom: Nasim Kowsar.
Baghgoli, Hossein. (2013) A Critical Study of Spiritual Education in the Contemporary World: A Comparison of Religious and Emerging Spiritualities in the Field of Education, PhD Thesis. Faculty of Education and Psychology. Mashhad Ferdowsi University.
Bahonar, Nasser (2008) Teaching Religious Concepts Along with Developmental Psychology, Tehran, International Publishing Company.
Payende, Abolghasem (2003) Nahj al-Fasaha Collection of short words of Hazrat Rasool P. Fourth Edition, Tehran: The World of Knowledge.
Tamimi Amadi, Abdul Wahid Ibn Muhammad (1987) Tasnif Gharr al-Hakam and Dar al-Kalam. First Edition, Qom: Advertising Office.
Hamili, Parvin, A Study of Religious themes in Children's Literature, Publications of the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents, 1980s, M.Sc. Thesis, Supervised by Hamid Khanian, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah Branch, 2014.
Zolfaghari, Azam and Franak Forouzanfar. (2014). "Childish verses; "A Study of teaching the themes of theology to children in the Works of Claire Joubert with Emphasis on Four Special Stories." Journal of Children and Adolescents Book Review, No. 3, pp. 278-265.
Zare, Fatemeh, Pathological study of the theological techniques in children's literature of the eighties, master's thesis, under the guidance of Zarrin Taj Wardi, Shiraz University, 2015.
Joubert, Keller. (2005) In Search of God. Tehran: Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents.
ــــــــــــــــــ. (2006) Grief of the little green lizard. Tehran: Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents.
ــــــــــــــــــ. (2008) God's cookies. Tehran: Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents.
ــــــــــــــــــ. (2009) Goodbye old raccoon. Tehran: Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents.
Siouti, Abdul Rahman Ibn Abu Bakr (1429 AH) Al-Jame 'Al-Saghir. Volume 2, Beirut: Dar al-Fikr for printing, publishing and distribution.
Salehifar, Nasim, Analysis of Islamic Thoughts in Children and Adolescent Fiction 1921- 1978 Master thesis, led by Ali Mohammadi, Bu Ali Sina University, 2011.
Qayyumi, Samira and Zahra Jalaifar.( 2017). "The capacity to rewrite the mystical texts in order to promote the spiritual development of children according to the theory of communication awareness", the ninth national convention of language research and Persian literature, Birjand, https://civilica.com/doc/829392.
_______________________ 2017. “Spirituality in Children's Poetry Based on the Theory of Communication Awareness ", Clear Spirituality: Abstract of the National Conference on Children and Adolescent Literature and Spirituality, Mashhad.
Majlisi, Mohammad Baqher (1404 AH) Baharalanvar. J 74, Beirut: Dar al-Fikr.
Mohammadi, Mohammad Hadi (1999) Methodology of Criticism of Children's Literature. Tehran: Author.
Mughniyeh, Mohammad Javad. (2003) A new approach to Islam. Translated by Ali Reza Ismail Abadi. Mashhad: Behnsher Publications.