anthropological turn

The possibility of speaking of so-called spiritual experiences in the course of conducting research has been prompted, at least in part, by the self-reflexive turn in anthropology (see for example, Geertz, 1973; Marcus & Fischer, 1986), which supports more explicit articulation of anthropologists' assumptions and social positioning, as well as incitement to no longer keep personal experiences in the field absent from research reports (e.g. Turner, 1993/2003; Young & Goulet, 1994).

Parallel discussions about the need to articulate their positioning within, and the messiness of, research processes are being discussed by environmental education researchers (e.g. Clark, Brody, Dillon, Hart & Heimlich, 2007). However, discussions of the role of spirit in the production of research have been limited in all fields of educational research (see Dillard, 2006b; Shahjahan, 2005).