Abstract
Children’s responses to day-to-day events unveil a perception making us conscious of their complex way to understand challenging realities, and clearly emerging the child’s hopeful perspective (Larson, 2022). Their answers, sentiments grounded on hope, point to children’s spiritual capacity. Underlining the child’s distinctive ways of understanding what is experienced, continues to be the focus of interest on what has been described as the spiritual self of the child (Falicov, 2009; Adams, 2008). Affirmed and verbalized in ways that resonate and stay with us, even in the most difficult moments, children’s comments and responses many times defy their tender age, raising to a level of complexity and thoughtful optimistic perspective that intuitively reveals a profound sense of hope. This hope-centeredness also uncovers a level of transcendent understanding in what has been acknowledged as the spiritual way of the child (Rayburn, 2008; Harris, 2019). Experiences today are continuing to unveil children’s hope and spirituality. Today, in times of difficult challenges, it is through the experiential journeys of children when their voice and response to what is faced discloses the hopeful spiritual nature of the child’s way of understanding their realities. Bringing attention is the response of children experiencing and growing up amid a globally increasing migration movement, this project examines the role of hope as a spiritual force observed by child- immigrants, identifying elements defining children’s hope-centered spiritual response to challenges during migration. This project aims to raise awareness about theneed for attending to children’ spirituality as a supporting wellbeing factor.
Presenters
Wilma Robles MelendezProfessor, Early Childhood and Leadership, Fischler College of Education, Nova Southeastern University, Florida, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Fragile Meanings: Vulnerability in the Study of Religions and Spirituality
KEYWORDS
Hope, Children's Spirituality, Immigration, Wellbeing, Diversity
