Spiritual formation—understood as a lifelong, biblically guided process of growth and transformation—has been associated with self‑control, prosocial behaviour, self‑esteem, and reduced risk behaviours across diverse faith backgrounds. Yet attendance at a Christian ethos school does not guarantee students’ spiritual development, and practices such as chapel or Bible classes are often insufficient to catalyse meaningful change. This submission advances a systems view integrating learning environment research with spiritual formation—positioning students’ perceptions of school and classroom climate as pivotal levers for improvement—and examines how a systems‑informed framework, such as the Supporting Spiritual Formation Framework (SSFF), can guide efforts to enhance spiritual formation.

Grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological theory and informed by the Systems View of School Climate and cultural ecological perspectives, we introduce the SSFF. The framework conceptualises spiritual formation as emerging from dynamic interactions among nested systems: macrosystem (cultural values and Christian principles), community exosystem (board and church governance), school exosystem (policies and structures), school microsystem (students’ lived experience of school climate), classroom nanosystem (pedagogy and management), and relational nanosystems (teacher–student and peer relationships). Central to the SSFF is the premise that perceived reality—as reflected in students’ reports—should guide school improvement.

A literature‑informed synthesis identified twelve malleable factors within schools’ control that influence spiritual formation (e.g., psychological safety, curriculum integration, inclusion and respect, competent teaching, mission alignment, community partnerships, service learning). These informed the design of the Christian Education Health Check (CEHC), a 68‑item instrument with 13 scales mapping onto the SSFF systems (e.g., School Connectedness, Teacher Support, Peer Connectedness, Bible Teaching, Bible Teaching Across Subjects, Inspirational Teaching, Freedom to Question, Reporting and Seeking Help, Affirming Diversity, Learning to Live as a Christian, Understanding the World and Social Problems, Encouraging Engagement with Spiritual Disciplines, Practical Service). The CEHC has been administered to 2,196 students across five Christian ethos schools and demonstrates robust psychometric properties via exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

We illustrate research‑to‑practice translation through a case study of “Roseberry Christian School” (pseudonym; ~600 students, Grades EC–10), which implemented a six‑step, co‑designed improvement process extending established learning environment cycles through collaborative codesign and leadership‑driven system planning. Data included CEHC scales plus four outcomes (Christian spiritual formation, moral identity, resilience, hope) for 188 students (Years 5–10), complemented by focus groups (n = 54; Years 7–10). Descriptive analyses revealed strengths (Peer Connectedness, Adult Support, Bible Teaching, Learning to Live as a Christian) and areas for growth (Inspirational Teaching, World and Social Problems, Practical Service), alongside concerns about Reporting and Seeking Help. Disaggregation showed less favourable experiences for students preferring not to state gender. Structural equation modelling indicated spiritual formation was positively associated with Inspirational Teaching and Peer Connectedness, not significantly linked with Bible Teaching per se, and negatively associated with Reporting and Seeking Help and learning about World and Social Problems. Interviews explained these patterns: students valued authentic, meaning‑focused pedagogy and relational sharing by teachers; they reported few opportunities to explore complex social issues or translate learning into constructive action, and feared peer backlash when reporting concerns.

Co‑design workshops produced short‑ and long‑term actions (e.g., age‑tailored chapel, speaker diversity, student‑driven topic selection, professional learning on facilitating dialogue, redesign of Christian Studies), while leadership created two new roles to embed service learning and re‑envision chapel and Christian formation. The SSFF functioned as both conceptual heuristic and practical improvement guide. We conclude by advocating for longitudinal, multilevel, and generative designs to evaluate systems‑level change, and for sustained, relationally grounded practices that make room for questioning, reflection, and agency—across subjects, not only in Christian education.

The study adopts an ecological, systems oriented approach to investigate how malleable school and classroom level factors relate to students’ spiritual formation. The SSFF integrates Bronfenbrenner’s nested systems with learning environment constructs (school and classroom climate) and emphasises students’ perceptions as the primary evidence base for improvement. Instrument Development Guided by an empirical review of school based influences on spiritual formation, we developed the Christian Education Health Check (CEHC). Thirteen scales (68 items; five point frequency from “almost never” to “almost always”) assess exosystem, microsystem, classroom nanosystem, and relational nanosystem factors, plus cross system constructs (e.g., Learning to Live as a Christian; Practical Service). Validation across five schools (N=2,196) employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, establishing strong psychometric properties suitable for school level diagnostic feedback and research. Case Study Site and Participants At Roseberry Christian School (pseudonym; ~600 enrolments; regional context; policy requiring teachers to affirm the school’s statement of faith), the CEHC was administered to students in Years 5–10 (n=188; consented participants present on the day). Background characteristics (gender, religious affiliation, English as an additional language, birth country) were collected to contextualise subgroup perceptions. Phase two comprised focus group interviews with 54 students (Years 7–10), organised by year level. Procedures Data collection proceeded in two phases. Phase one combined the CEHC with four outcomes (Christian spiritual formation, moral identity, resilience, hope). Phase two used semi structured focus group protocols informed by phase one results, concentrating on scales with lower means or strong associations with spiritual formation. Analytic Strategy Quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics (means, SDs, box and whisker plots) overall and by subgroups, followed by structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine relationships between CEHC scales and spiritual formation; non significant paths were removed stepwise. Given observed between school variability in prior work, SEM results were reported for the individual school to preserve contextual nuance. Qualitative data were transcribed and analysed using a phenomenographic methodology to identify themes and sub themes explaining quantitative patterns (e.g., limits of content heavy Bible teaching absent dialogic meaning making; perceived risks in reporting). Improvement Process Findings were first discussed with leadership, then with staff through two co design workshops, extending a five step learning environment improvement cycle to six steps by adding (a) explicit collaborative codesign and (b) leadership system level planning before implementation and reassessment. Actions targeted both proximal (classroom/relational) and distal (policy/structure) levers, with planned re administration of the CEHC for monitoring.

This study shows that a systems informed framework such as the Supporting Spiritual Formation Framework (SSFF) can guide school improvement efforts by reframing spiritual formation as a relational and perception driven ecological process rather than a program or event. By emphasising interactions among school wide structures, classroom environments, and daily relationships, the SSFF helps schools identify conditions under which students’ spiritual growth is most likely to flourish. These include psychologically safe and dialogic classrooms, caring and authentic peer and teacher relationships, coherent school practices that model Christian values, and opportunities for students to connect faith with contemporary issues and acts of service. The Roseberry case illustrates how the SSFF supports diagnostic insight and targeted action. The framework helped explain why Bible content alone did not predict spiritual formation: students also required space to wrestle with difficult questions, make meaning, and develop agency. Structural equation modelling showed strong links between spiritual formation, Inspirational Teaching, and Peer Connectedness, underscoring the centrality of pedagogy and relationships. Negative associations with Reporting and Seeking Help and with learning about World and Social Problems revealed systemic barriers, including perceptions of risk or helplessness that may inhibit growth. These insights enabled the school to prioritise actions addressing both strengths and vulnerabilities across system levels. By guiding co designed improvements—such as age tailored chapels, diverse speakers, professional learning to support dialogue, and curriculum redesign—the SSFF demonstrated its practical value as a tool for coherent, context sensitive change. Methodologically, it reinforced the importance of treating students’ perceptions as actionable evidence and highlighted the need for longitudinal, multilevel approaches to model nested influences over time. Overall, the SSFF guides improvement by helping leaders and teachers align structures, relationships, and pedagogy to cultivate conditions where questioning, reflection, agency, and service can support deep and authentic spiritual formation.

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