A group of experts who are members of the Uniservitate Academic Sounding Board published “Aproximaciones a la noción de espiritualidad y condiciones para su promoción en los proyectos de aprendizaje-servicio”, (‘Approaches to the notion of spirituality and conditions for its promotion in service-learning projects’), the result of research they are conducting for this global network. They assert that the spiritual dimension is a fundamental axis for promoting the integral formation of the person and that, in order to favour its real integration into the formative process, it is necessary to define the understanding of the term.
The article, available on the RIDAS journal website, is authored by Daniela Gargantini from Argentina, of the Catholic University of Córdoba and CONICET; Spaniards Arantzazu Martinez-Odría, from San Jorge University and REDAPS, and Miquel Martínez Martín, from the University of Barcelona; and Chileans Cristian Núñez Durán and Mario Inzulza, both from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
In their work, the specialists seek to provide an integrated understanding of spirituality and identify its constituent dimensions so that it can be cultivated in service-learning projects.
Methodologically, the article is based on a bibliographic record of indexed and non-indexed sources, as well as international repositories referring to the notion of spirituality. The review of the bibliography is complemented by qualitative contributions derived from saturation interviews conducted with experts linked to the study and development of the spiritual dimension in higher education. As an emerging line of research, the findings presented contribute to a broad notion of spirituality, understood as an intrinsic capacity of human beings and structured around their capacity for relationship and openness. The progress made in this conceptual clarification allows us to establish a solid basis for defining the most appropriate external conditions that favour the progressive development of spirituality in educational contexts, with special attention to Solidarity Service-Learning projects.
