Spiritual Dimensions in Vocational Training of Information and Communication Technology Professionals

The main aim of the research was to explore the occurrence of spirituality, treated as biological phenomenon by David Hay, in vocational training of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the linkages between spirituality and mentioned training. The study had two research problems: · What kind of spiritual dimensions (if any) could exists in vocational training of ICT professionals? · What could be the linkage between spirituality and vocational training of ICT professionals? Hay’s model of spirituality, which was used in the study, contains awareness sensing, mystery sensing, and value sensing. For the current research, the author has chosen narrative and rhetoric epistemology as an example of constructive paradigm. The research approach was qualitative exploratory, both narration and rhetoric analysis looking for patterns of spiritual dimensions and meta- dimensions, which were based on Hay’s model, in vocational training treated as long-life phenomenon. The data was collected through in-depth interviews with eight experts, ICT professionals from Pakistan. The author have recorded more than 20 hours of narrations (which were conducted around 20 weeks), which cover 136 standardized transcription pages and 2710 sentences (50989 words). The sentence was a basic unit of analysis in this research. The following methods for analyzing the data was used by exploiting content analysis: manual narrative and rhetoric analysis, taxonomy analysis (Wroclaw taxonomy) and Nvivo qualitative research software. Most of the experts have expressed their experiences of spirituality both in their personal and professional side of life. According to the results of the study, awareness sensing, mystery sensing, and value sense found in the personal and professional life of ICT experts and appeared in such patterns as enlightenment and sense-making. The results of the study highlight the rhetorical nature of spirituality in vocational training of ICT professionals as cognitive and emotional phenomenon with the inherent axiological component. It is recommended that ICT organizations should invest in ICT professionals by introducing some professional training programs to facilitate spirituality in the ICT environment. Moreover, the awareness to spirituality can also be introduced during the professional education of ICT professionals through organizing conferences, workshops and interactive sessions. The study also provides ICT’s organizations about the rhetorical iv nature of spirituality that will be helpful in designing the curriculum of vocational training. Development of spirituality needs not only rational discussion about values but it also involves emotions. Therefore, the practical workshops should be designed in such a way, which involves both rational thinking and emotional element. Some practical exercises can also be undertaken which carry out rational discussion about the role of emotions in reference to values.