Examining posture toward the contemplative: Jill Roe, contemporary spirituality and the case of Steiner education

Purpose: This paper responds to calls within the history of Australian education and Australian politics to examine posture or positioning toward the contemplative or spiritual in historical work. The purpose of this paper is to respond to these calls through a focus on the work of Jill Roe on alternative spiritualities, most notably Theosophy, in a way that demonstrates shifts in receptivity toward alternative spiritualities within work produced between 1986 and 2004. Design/methodology/approach Microhistory, in combination with a Foucauldian genealogical history of the present approach, is used to carry out and contextualise a close reading of three historical works by Jill Roe on alternative spiritualities. Subtle shifts in positioning toward the subject are highlighted to point to larger shifts in receptivity toward the contemplative and alternative spiritualities.

Findings: Close reading of three of Jill Roe’s publications on alternative spiritualities in Australia and New Zealand are found to reveal shifts from a more cautious positioning toward the subject matter in earlier works to more open positionings in later works. These findings are rendered legible, it is argued, in the context of the contemporary acceptance of mindfulness, meditation and the emergence of a new cultural category of contemporary spirituality. Originality/value This paper responds to calls for the re-evaluation of the posture taken in the field of education history toward notions of meditation, mindfulness and alternative spiritualities. It has shown one way to respond to such calls which takes into account present framings of these subjects and applies a close, microhistory, reading of text. Creative examinations that draw together threads of connection are modelled through examining Jill Roe’s work, particularly on Theosophy, to underscore continuities between Theosophy and Steiner education in Australia and New Zealand.