Spirituality and Pedagogy in Tourism Higher Education: Voices of Tourism Educators

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents the findings of a qualitative inquiry into the integration of spirituality in tourism higher education from the perspectives of tourism academics. A thematic approach was employed to develop a nuanced understanding of the ways in which the spiritual worldviews of 22 tourism academics informed their pedagogy. Analysis of the academics’ narratives gained through semi-structured interviews revealed that their spiritual worldviews influenced their roles as tourism educators in significant ways, including their pedagogy, scholarship, student interactions, and agency. Their spiritually-based pedagogy was grounded on the principles of humanizing the educational experience, engaged learning, and authenticity. Their pedagogy was transformative and included stories, reflection, the arts, mindfulness, dialogic discourse, and service learning. This study advances a stronger conceptual understanding for the inclusion of spirituality in tourism higher education and provides some possibilities and challenges for the use of spirituality as an approach to enhance tourism higher education.