Educating the mind: Buddhist Spiritual Practices in Schools, Policy options for Sri Lankan context

Teachers are one of the main sources of socio-cultural development who provide the power of education to today’s youth, thereby giving them the possibility of a better future. Since Sri Lanka is a country most of the cultural attributes, traditions, norms and values are embedded with Buddhist spiritualities. Thus, teachers play a crucial role in protecting spiritual practices for a sustainable future. However, considerable discussions have not been conducted to the date on the area of teachers’ spiritual practices in schools, which is remarkable. Hence, this study examines the main factors affecting to spiritual practices in today’s schools and suggests implications to elicit new insights to lead educational improvements with Buddhism in Sri Lankan schools. Although Buddhism consists of a vast literature, the study will only consider a few precepts that influence the spirituality of teachers toward students. The qualitative approach included twelve schoolteachers interested in participating in the study. In-depth interviews and observations revealed the different factors that influence spiritual practices in the learning environment of schools. The collected data were analysed using the thematic analysis method. The study identified two main areas as personal and environmental factors which are influenced to the spiritual practices within the schools. Based on the findings, teachers are still transferring spiritual concepts in the education process in Sri Lanka. As a policy option the study suggests creating a spiritual system in teaching by interacting with schools and the government. Thus, teachers could establish spirituality in their own way which will support to the achievement of a successful academic system with a proper spiritual teaching mechanism.