| This dissertation is a qualitative inquiry into the experiences of students at a Quaker school in Meeting for Worship, the Quaker spiritual practice of gathering in silence as a community. Based on interviews with 12 students, the dissertation presents the students' understanding of the practice of Meeting for Worship in their own words. Each student was interviewed three times, and the interviews took place during the end of 7th grade and the beginning of 8th grade. The students participate in Meeting for Worship weekly for approximately 30 minutes.; The dissertation documents the students' narratives of their experiences in Meeting for Worship, including sitting, listening, and speaking when appropriate. In addition, it documents the students' narratives of the psychological experiences of thinking, reflecting, feeling, daydreaming, planning, relaxing, and waiting. In particular, the dissertation explores the multiplicity of voice represented in the narratives as a form of interior dialogue.; In addition to investigating the content or subject of the students' thinking, the dissertation also examines the kinds of thinking that the students report. In particular, it identifies the experience of Meeting for Worship as a time of authenticity, self-examination, learning from and about self, safety, self-expression, and community.; In presenting these children's understanding of their experiences, I hope to show how an experience such as Meeting for Worship can provide an opportunity for personal, social, and moral development in a school context. Meeting for Worship isolates and draws attention to processes of reflection that occur in more random and haphazard ways for all children, and therefore affords an unusual opportunity for inquiry into children's understanding of their own development, particularly their identities as learners. In the words of one student, Meeting for Worship is "a time to learn from yourself."... |
