Paying Attention to the Spiritual Flourishing of Young Children in Church Toddler Groups: A Scoping Study Evaluating the Feasibility of a Research Study in This Context

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Please see the comments in the attached file.

Assuming that the bigger research project goes ahead, good luck and the findings should be very useful. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Response to peer review

Thank you for your very insightful review of the article. The suggestions made in this review have helped strengthen this article and provided guidance for the potential research study.

All major changes in red on the revised manuscript.

Addressed general points

1. Reworked Being in the Here & Now to avoid conceptual confusion
2. clarification focus for this study is ‘very young children’; made clear where previous research was undertaken with older children
3. split paragraphs where appropriate

Introduction p.1

• Reshaped introduction to offer an explanation of article and Faith in the Nexus
• Added in reference to being and becoming & to tethered & untethered spirituality

Relational P.4

• Reworked paragraph re Hay & Nye – awareness, mystery & value sensing

Being in the Here and Now p.5

• Reworked to avoid conceptual confusion

Environment pp.5-6

• Revised paragraph to include further explanation of sacred space and engagement with nature

Church Toddler groups p.6

• Restructured intro to give further details of the nature of the groups

Belonging, Behaving, Believing

• Referenced this and included sentence re nature of believing dimension in very young children

P.8

• Insert sentence re the issues of inclusion and intentional provision in toddler groups

p. 11

• Table revised

Conclusion

• Merged into the discussion section

 

Minor in text changes made

 

• Clarified – England rather than Uk
• removed suggested deletions
• references to children or young children revised to very young children
• paragraphs split where appropriate

Reviewer 2 Report

A very interesting proposal of a framework to research young children's spirituality.  There is limited literature but the author has completed a comprehensive review of the literature for children in early childhood settings.  The research is novel as it is exploring the importance of parents in developing spirituality in young children and how they can be supported in Parish settings.

This article is important for those wanting a framework for further research into young children's spirituality.  It is very worthwhile and offers a way forward to understanding spirituality and its contribution to religiosity.

Author Response

Thank you for your very insightful review of the article. The suggestions made in this review have helped strengthen this article and provided guidance for the potential research study.

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper is clear and well-organized. The only edit that I would suggest before publication is a thorough read-through to look for over-reaching claims. For example, lines 37-38 contain the phrase "the Christian narrative of calling." This make it sound as though the author is claiming that there is only one, monolithic approach to "Christian calling." Keeping in mind the vast diversity of Christianities in the world today, to say nothing of the various instantiations of Christianity throughout history, it is indefensible to claim that any idea is monolithically Christian to ALL groups/people who have been associated with Christianity. Simply changing the wording in line 37 to "a Christian narrative" solves this problem entirely. 

 

These sorts of over-reaching claims happen a few more times throughout the text. Replacing the definite article "the" with the indefinite article "a/an" solves the problem is just about every case. 

Author Response

Thank you for your very insightful review of the article. The suggestions made in this review have helped strengthen this article and provided guidance for the potential research study.

The article has been revised to avoid any over-arching claims - emphaising a Christian approach, narrative rather than 'the'

Reviewer 4 Report

The article is well written. As a scoping study, it offers a clear literature review and potential for a full study.

Author Response

Thank you for your very insightful review of the article. The suggestions made in this review had helped strengthen this article and provided guidance for the potential research study.